Dead In Sin or Dead To Sin?

Posted on July 29, 2019 by russellmckinney

One little word can make a big difference. A Biblical example of this is found in the salvation experience. The difference is between the words “in” and “to.”

Ephesians 2:1-5 and Colossians 2:13 teach that each of us was born dead in trespasses and sins. Furthermore, each us remains in that spiritually dead state until the moment we place saving belief (faith) in Jesus Christ. At that moment, the spiritually dead sinner is made spiritually alive in Jesus (Ephesians 2:5).

What happens next is beautiful. The New Testament model is that the salvation experience is quickly followed by the newly saved believer (Christian) agreeing to be baptized — by immersion to be specific — in water. Baptism by immersion is a public object lesson that signifies to all the witnesses that the newly saved believer (Christian) is professing to now be dead to his or her old way of living and is going to walk in the newness of life found in following Jesus (Romans 6:1-4). And what does the Bible call this new walk? It calls it being dead to sin (Romans 6:2,11).

Being dead to sin means that the Christian is no longer a slave to sin (Romans 6:6), having been set free from its bondage (Romans 6:7). Because of this spiritual emancipation, the Christian should no longer allow sin to reign in his or her body (Romans 6:12) and should use the different parts of the body as instruments of righteousness rather than unrighteousness (Romans 6:13). The idea of sin continuing to have dominion over the Christian is virtually unthinkable to the New Testament mindset  (Romans 6:1-2,14).

This doesn’t mean that the Christian will ever reach a state of sinless perfection while upon this earth. No, as long as the Christian lives in a mortal body, sins will on occasion be committed. However, the point of being dead to sin is that the Christian will not engage in a lifestyle of persistent, continual, habitual sin. While slip ups and stumbles are to be expected as part of us having the Adamic nature of sin coursing through our veins, the slip ups and stumbles should never become the rule rather than the exception. Falling down into the mud is one thing. Continuing to lie there and wallow in it is something else entirely.

And so the question on the table for each of us right now is: “Am I dead in sin or am I dead to sin?” If you are a Christian, you are dead to sin, at least you are supposed to be. Admittedly, some Christians are so backslidden that it’s hard to tell that Jesus is even their Savior because they certainly aren’t walking in the newness of life that He offers. But this isn’t the norm. This isn’t the standard. This isn’t the ideal. Being dead to sin means that you are no longer dead in sin, and the proper response to such a condition is to live a life that is free from sin. That’s how it’s supposed to work, and that’s how it will work, Christian, if you will let Jesus have His way in your life.

Posted in Backsliding, Baptism, Belief, Discipleship, Disobedience, Doing Good, Personal Holiness, Rebellion, Salvation, Sin | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

When False Teeth Become a Problem

Posted on July 27, 2019 by russellmckinney

but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16, N.K.J.V.)

In his booklet How to Kill a Church Without Really Trying, Tom Malone tells the story of a female church member who didn’t live a life of personal holiness. As bad as that was for her, it caused even worse repercussions for a local dentist who knew her. I’ll let Malone tell the story in his own words. He writes:

I will never forget meeting an unsaved dentist. I tried every way in the world to get him saved but could not. Finally I got him to come to church during a revival meeting. During the invitation someone went back and spoke to him and said, “Doctor, we would like for you to be saved.” The dentist said, “There will have to be some changes made before I get saved.” The person asked, “What do you mean?” The dentist answered, “There is a woman up there in that choir with a set of false teeth in her mouth for which she has owed me for two years. She has been singing to me tonight about Jesus and a Christian life; but if that is the Christian life, I don’t want it.”

Malone closes that story by saying of the dentist, “I don’t blame him.” Speaking for myself, I’m with Malone on that one. Why would anyone want to embrace a Savior whose followers don’t pay their bills?

Christian, let this short post find a lodging place in your heart and life. When you use profane language, engage in sexual sin, gossip, lie, cheat, steal, get drunk, get high, slack off at work, don’t pay your bills, etc., you hurt more than your own reputation. You also hurt the reputation of the Savior you profess to love and serve. Remember that you are the only Bible some people ever read and they are drawing their opinion of Jesus and Christianity by watching you.

Posted in Adultery, Alcohol, Backsliding, Character, Church, Discipleship, Doing Good, Dress and Appearance, Drugs, God's Holiness, God's Work, Holiness, Homosexuality, Influence, Lying, Making Restitution, Money, Personal Holiness, Repentance, Righteousness, Salvation, Sanctification, Sex, Sin, Temptation, The Tongue | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Great War: A Winning Side and A Losing Side

Posted on July 25, 2019 by russellmckinney

Series: “The Great War” (post #5, last one)

This post will finish up the series “The Great War.” The Great War between Satan and God produces at least four results. Result #1 is soldiers are enlisted for the war. Result #2 is the war produces casualties on both sides. Result #3 is the war produces injuries on both sides. And what is the fourth result? It is this: In the end, God will be declared the victor in the war.

Bible prophecy is a big, rich, complex subject. It plays itself out over vast eons of time, and it is always working toward the grand finale of The Great War. With this in mind, here is the sequence of events that will culminate in God being declared the eternal victor:

  1. Jesus returns to earth’s sky for the Rapture and snatches away the bodies of all Christians. (1 Corinthians 15:50-58; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
  2. The earth experiences a seven-year period of tribulation which includes: the rise to world power of The Antichrist and his propaganda minister The False Prophet, numerous wars between human armies, famine, the death of multiplied millions, and great cataclysmic events. (Revelation chapters 6 through 18)
  3. Jesus formally returns to the earth to walk it again and establish His 1,000 year kingdom upon it. (Revelation 19:1-16; 20:1-6)
  4. Upon His return, Jesus wins the Battle of Armageddon (the battle that brings the tribulation period to a close). He merely speaks the word and all of the soldiers involved in the fighting are slain. These casualties become more evidence of the second result of The Great War. (Revelation 19:17-19)
  5. The Antichrist and The False Prophet become the first occupants of a place known as “the eternal lake of fire.” This hellish site is even worse than the hell that exists now. (Revelation 19:20-21)
  6. Satan and all the other fallen angels are imprisoned in a place called “the bottomless pit” for the duration of Christ’s 1,000 year reign. (Revelation 20:1-3; Isaiah 24:21-22)
  7. Jesus sends His angels out to separate the world’s inhabitants who lived to see the end of the tribulation period. The inhabitants are separated into two categories: saved (the sheep) and lost (the goats). The saved will be those who believed in Jesus as Savior during the tribulation period. The lost will be those who didn’t. The saved are welcomed into Christ’s 1,000 year reign on earth. The lost are slain and their souls banished to the hell that exists now. (Matthew 25:31-46)
  8. After Jesus has ruled over the earth for 1,000 years, Satan and the other fallen angels will be released from their imprisonment in “the bottomless pit.” (Revelation 20:7)
  9. Satan will immediately compass the world and gather a new army consisting of millions of humans. This will be his final attempt to overthrow Jesus. The humans who will follow him will be the offspring of those saved believers who entered into Christ’s 1000 year reign in their earthly bodies. These “kingdom kids” will grow up in a world that has Jesus has its King, but as soon as another alternative (Satan) is presented they will align themselves with Satan. (Revelation 20:8)
  10. Satan and his new army will march to Jerusalem, where Jesus sits upon the throne. But it is then that God the Father will cast fire down from heaven and that fire will devour Satan’s human soldiers. (Revelation 20:9)
  11. Following this final defeat, Satan and all the other fallen angels will join The Antichrist and The False Prophet eternally in “the eternal lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:10; Matthew 25:41)
  12. The souls of all of history’s lost people (beginning with Cain and running all the way through every single one of those “kingdom kids”) will be called forth from the hell that exists now. Each soul will be eternally reunited with the body it once inhabited. These bodies will all be resurrected in a mass resurrection that Jesus described as “the resurrection of condemnation.” Each lost person will stand body and soul before Jesus for a time of judgment and then be cast body and soul into “the eternal lake of fire” to join Satan, the other fallen angels, The Antichrist, and The False Prophet there eternally. (Revelation 20:11-15; John 5:25-30)
  13. At this point. The Great War will finally be 100% concluded as each angel and each human will be properly stationed once and for all in their eternal categories.
  14. The heaven and earth that exist now will pass away by fire. God will then create a new heaven and a new earth to stand in their places. There is considerable debate as to whether this new heaven and new earth will be completely new versions or merely the old heaven and the old earth purged and renewed by fire. At any rate, there will be some kind of a new heaven and a new earth. (Revelation 21:1-8; 2 Peter 3:10-13)
  15. Following the emergence of the new heaven and the new earth, the eternal city of New Jerusalem will begin accepting occupants. These occupants will be the saved from all of history. This is the city in which they will spend the rest of eternity. (Revelation 21:9-27; 22:1-5)

Now, in conclusion, let me leave you with a thought. The average Christian’s goal in life is to make life as easy and as comfortable as possible. We want the money, the possessions, the friends, the family, etc. that come with “the good life.” But what God would say to each of us is, “There is a great war going on and I need blows struck at the enemy.”

You see, Christian, God hasn’t left you here to do your own thing. He’s left you here to do your part in the fighting. You have assignments that only you can carry out and missions that only you can accomplish.

And so I ask you, “How much soldiering are you doing these days?” If it isn’t much, then I trust that this series will serve as your call to arms as you take your place in this worldwide battlefield that we call life. Am I asking you to enlist in God’s army? No, you’re already enlisted! I’m simply asking you to start acting like a soldier by striking some real blows at the enemy. Oh and by the way, when you do, be sure to duck. Remember, the enemy tends to strike back. That’s how war works.

Posted in Angels, Christ's Second Coming, Christ's Return, Demons, Eternity, God's Omnipotence, God's Wrath, God's Judgment, God's Sovereignty, Heaven, Hell, Prophecy, Restoration, Resurrection, Satan, Series: "The Great War", Spiritual Warfare, The Devil | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Great War: Injuries Inflicted

Posted on July 23, 2019 by russellmckinney

Series: “The Great War” (post #4)

The Great War that is the ongoing battle between Satan and God produces four distinct results. Thus far in this series we’ve covered two of those results. Result #1: Soldiers are enlisted for the war. Result #2: The war produces casualties on both sides. This post will identify result #3, which is: The war produces injuries on both sides.

Casualties resulting from war are obviously worse than injuries resulting from it, but the injuries shouldn’t be overlooked. As for scriptural examples of individuals who suffered injuries inflicted by Satan, I’ll mention three. They are:

  1. In Job 2:1-10, we read about how Satan attacked Job physically by inflicting him with painful boils that covered his body from head to foot.
  2. In Luke 13:10-17, we read about a Jewish woman whom Satan had bound with “a spirit of infirmity” for 18 years. This “spirit of infirmity” was a demon that produced a crippling back condition inside the woman. That condition left her stooped over, unable to raise herself erect, for 18 years. Jesus loosed her from the demon and in so doing healed her, and He was quick to point out that her condition had been the work of Satan.
  3. In Matthew 17:14-20, Mark 9:14-29, and Luke 9:37-43, we read about a father who brought his son to Jesus. The boy was possessed by a demon that caused him to foam at the mouth, gnash his teeth, experience violent seizures, become as stiff as a board, and injure himself by either throwing himself into fire or trying to drown himself in water.

These stories prove conclusively that Satan, either personally or working through his demons, can produce physical injury to an individual. But are there times when God doles out such injuries? You’d better believe it. Here are three scriptural examples of those:

  1. In 2 Kings 6:8-23, we read about an army of Syrian soldiers who were sent to bring the prophet Elisha to the king of Syria. But Elisha prayed that God would strike those soldiers with blindness, and God did just that. Even though God soon restored their sight, those soldiers were definitely injured for a while.
  2. In Acts 13:4-12, we read about a sorcerer named Elymas who caused problems for Saul (the apostle Paul) and Barnabas as the pair ministered on the island of Paphos. At one point Saul had had enough and called for the hand of the Lord to strike Elymas with blindness. Immediately a dark mist fell upon Elymas and he became so blind that he had to be led around by the hand. In this instance, the blindness was permanent.
  3. In Revelation 16:1-2, we read about a foul, loathsome sore that God inflicts upon each person who takes the mark of the beat (the Antichrist) in the coming tribulation period. In addition to being gross, this sore will also be exceedingly painful. As a matter of fact, it will be so painful that it will cause each person who has it to gnaw his or her tongue in pain (Revelation 16:10-11).

And so, make no mistake, as the fighting between Satan and God rages on, there are injuries that are inflicted upon both sides. Sometimes Satan is the cause of these injuries, but sometimes God is their cause. Sometimes the injuries are temporary, but sometimes they are permanent. But no matter what type the injuries are, and no matter who is responsible for them, the injuries are very real and very debilitating, and they are yet another result of The Great War.

Posted in Demons, God's Wrath, God's Judgment, Persecution, Satan, Series: "The Great War", Sickness, Spiritual Warfare, The Devil | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Great War: Casualties on Both Sides

Posted on July 20, 2019 by russellmckinney

Series: “The Great War” (post #3)

In the previous post, we named the first result of the ongoing war between Satan and God. That result is: Soldiers are enlisted for the war. The soldiers who fight in Satan’s army are the lost unbelievers of this world. The soldiers who fight in God’s army are the saved believers. To be enlisted into Satan’s army, all you have to do is be born into Adam’s fallen race. To be enlisted into God’s army, you must be born again by placing your belief in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.

Now let’s move on and look at the second result of The Great War. That second result is: The war (like any other) produces casualties on both sides. We’ll start by looking at the casualties inflicted by Satan and his army.

In John 8:44, Jesus says about Satan, “He was a murderer from the beginning.” What’s interesting about that statement is that we can study the Bible from Genesis to The Revelation, from the table of contents to the maps, but we will not find even one verse where Satan personally takes a sword or some other instrument and kills someone. So how could Jesus call him a murderer?

Satan uses two methods to get his killing done. Method 1: He creates circumstances that result in the loss of life. Method 2: He uses some of his soldiers (lost unbelievers) to get his killing done. I’ll provide a scriptural example from each category.

For the first category, we can look to the story of Job. In Job 1:18-19, a great wind suddenly sweeps across the wilderness and levels the house in which Job’s seven sons and three daughters are dining. Even though the text doesn’t specifically say that Satan created that wind and aimed it at that house, the implication is clear based upon the events of the previous chapter. That’s the chapter in which God agrees to allow Satan to touch all that Job has (Job 1:6-12). Therefore, it is perfectly legitimate to classify Job’s ten children as casualties of The Great War.

For the second category, we can look to the story of Herod the Great. In his attempt to kill the baby Jesus, Herod had all of the infants two years old or younger from Bethlehem and its surrounding districts put to death (Matthew 2:16). Someone might point out that Satan didn’t directly order Herod to kill those children. No he didn’t, but we have to keep in mind what Jesus said about lost unbelievers. He said their father is the devil and the devil’s desires they want to do (John 8:44). This means that those poor infants can also be classified as casualties of The Great War. They take their place alongside other martyrs such as Abel (Genesis 4:1-8) and Stephen (Acts 8:54-60).

By now you might be thinking, “Boy, Satan has certainly been responsible for a lot of casualties of war!” Well, he has, but let’s not make this particular result of the great war a one-sided deal. The truth is that God has claimed a lot of lives Himself. Consider the following list of examples:

  • It was God, working through a worldwide flood, who killed the entire human race except for Noah and his family (Genesis chapters 6 through 9).
  • It was God, working through two of His angels, who killed the inhabitants of the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by reigning fire and brimstone down upon those cities (Genesis 19:1-29).
  • It was God who killed all of the Egyptian firstborns as the tenth plague that He inflicted upon the Egyptians (Exodus 12:29-30).
  • It was God who drowned Pharaoh’s army in the waters of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:1-31).
  • It was God, specifically Jesus in the form of The Angel of the Lord, who passed through the ranks of the Assyrian army one night and killed 185,000 soldiers (2nd Kings 19:35).
  • It was God, working through one of His angels, who struck Herod Agrippa dead (Acts 12:20-23).

And then there are the stories in which God works through His soldiers (saved believers) to actually take human lives. Here are some examples of those stories:

  • God worked through the soldiers of Israel to kill thousands of the inhabitants of the land of Canaan and claim that land for Israel (Deuteronomy 20:16-18).
  • God worked through the judge Gideon to kill Oreb and Zeeb, two Midianite princes (Judges 7:24-25).
  • God worked through the judge Samson to kill thousands of the Philistines (Judges chapters 14 through 16).
  • God worked through the prophet Samuel to get Agag, the king of the Amalekites, hacked into pieces (1 Samuel 15:32-33).
  • God worked through David to get the giant Goliath killed (1 Samuel 17:1-58).
  • God worked through the prophet Elijah to get 450 of the prophets of Baal executed (1st Kings 18:20-40).

All these stories, as well as others that could be listed, show us that God hasn’t exactly been passive in The Great War. Let the record show that He isn’t anything like the mush-and-gush, grandfatherly deity that so many people envision in their minds. Even though He loves each member of the human race, that doesn’t mean that He doesn’t understand fully that He’s in a war with an enemy who doesn’t play nice. God’s original plan for the human race was the idyllic conditions of the Garden of Eden, but once war was declared He got up to speed quickly on what it takes to fight it.

And what is the greatest piece of evidence that proves that God understands that His war with Satan produces casualties? It’s the fact that He Himself, in the form of God the Son (Jesus Christ), became a casualty of the war. You see, it was the betrayal of Judas Iscariot that kick-started the chain of events that led to Jesus being arrested, tried, and crucified. But what most people don’t understand about Judas is that he was literally demon-possessed by Satan just before he betrayed Jesus (John 13:27). Therefore, because of that Satanic possession, we are right to say that Satan worked through Judas to get Jesus killed. Think about that. The Great War is so bad that it actually claimed the life of Jesus. That’s why we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that it has claimed the lives of many others as well.

Posted in Angels, Christ's Death, Demons, God's Wrath, Human Life, Satan, Series: "The Great War", Spiritual Warfare, The Devil, War | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Great War: Soldiers Enlisted

Posted on July 18, 2019 by russellmckinney

Series: “The Great War” (post #2)

Satan and God are at war. They have been since at least Genesis chapter 3. Despite the fact that this greatest of all wars is supernatural, the results it produces are the same as those produced by human wars. There are four of these results and with this post we’ll identify the first of them. That result is: Soldiers are enlisted for this war.

First, who are the soldiers who get enlisted to fight for God? They are the saved believers. To be clear, these people aren’t saved because they fight for God; they fight for God because they are saved. We refer to the saved believers from the Old Testament era as “Old Testament believers.” We refer to the saved believers from the New Testament era as “Christians.”

You see, Christian, you really need to get your mind wrapped around the fact that the moment you placed saving belief in Jesus, you got drafted into God’s army. You might as well have gone down to God’s local recruiting office and signed your name on an official document. Of course if your salvation experience was anything like mine, nobody told you that placing your belief in Jesus automatically enlisted you in God’s army. But trust me, it happened.

This metaphor of the Christian as a soldier was one of the apostle Paul’s favorite ways of describing the Christian life. He most prominently featured it in his writings to his protege, Timothy. In 2 Timothy 2:3-4, he tells Timothy:

Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. (N.I.V.)

In 1 Timothy 1:18, he says:

This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare (N.K.J.V.).

Finally, in 2 Timothy 4:7, he says of himself:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (N.I.V.)

Another passage where Paul evokes the imagery of the Christian as a soldier is 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. There he says to the church of Corinth:

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (N.I.V.)

And so, Christian, when you stop thinking of your time in this world as a picnic, a vacation, or a trip to the mall, and starting thinking of it as a war, then you’ll start to understand this life a lot more clearly and accurately. No matter where you find yourself, you are on a battlefield. Even if everything around you is tranquil and peaceful, the fighting continues unceasingly in your own mind as you strive to take each of your thoughts captive and make it obedient to Jesus.

Second, who are the soldiers who get enlisted to fight for Satan? They are the lost unbelievers. No matter what the era is — Old Testament or New Testament — these people do Satan’s bidding. In 2 Timothy 2:24-26, Paul describes them as being “in opposition” to God’s people and says they need to “escape from the snare of the devil” because they have “been taken captive by him to do his will.”

Likewise, Jesus once told a group of lost Jews:

“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do…” (John 8:44, N.K.J.V.)

The apostle John hits this same vein in 1 John 3:10 when he describes two categories of people: “the children of God” and “the children of the devil.” He writes:

So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God. (N.L.T.)

At this point, a good question to ask is, “How does a person get enlisted into Satan’s army?” The unfortunate answer is that all a person has to do to get enlisted into Satan’s army is be born into Adam’s sin-fallen race (Ephesians 2:1-3). That, by default, makes the person a child (a soldier) of the devil, and the person remains that way until he or she switches armies by making the decision to believe in Jesus as Savior.

So tell me, have you made that decision? You say, “But I don’t want to be a soldier in any army. I want to be neutral.” Friend, that’s not an option that is available to you. There is no Switzerland in the great war. You have to be in one army or the other. The only question is, which army will it be?

Posted in Belief, Change, God's Work, Righteousness, Salvation, Satan, Series: "The Great War", Service, Spiritual Warfare, The Devil | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Great War

Posted on July 15, 2019 by russellmckinney

Series: “The Great War” (post #1)

It is difficult to count the number of wars that have been fought throughout mankind’s history. The difficulty lies in the question of what gets classified as an actual war. There are skirmishes. There are clashes. There are battles. There are campaigns. And then there are actual wars.

In a New York Times article entitled What Every Person Should Know About War, a war was defined as “an active conflict that has claimed more than 1,000 lives.” The article also stated that over the past 3,400 years humans have been entirely at peace for only 268 of those years. That’s just 8% of the time. As for how many people have been killed in all the wars throughout human history, the article estimated that the death toll ranges from 150 million to 1 billion.

And just how big does warfare continue to be today? Right now there are well over 20 million soldiers serving in armies around the world. The largest current army is China’s, which has over 2 million soldiers. The United States army is second in size, with over 1 million soldiers. India, North Korea, and Russia also have armies consisting of over 1 million soldiers each. Needless to say, war continues to be a trademark of the human race. It reminds us of what Jesus said in His time some 2,000 years ago: “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars” (Matthew 24:6).

There is, however, one war that is the longest running one on record, and it still rages today. No official records have ever been kept for this war, but it has covered more earthly territory than any other war and cost more lives than any other war. So what war is this? It is the great war between Satan and God.

This war began at some unspecified time way, way back when the angel Lucifer, who was one of God’s mightiest and most beautiful angels (Ezekiel 28:11-19), not only himself rebelled against God (Isaiah 14:12-14) but led one-third (Revelation 12:7-9) of all the other angels to join him in that rebellion. The rebellion ended in God casting Lucifer and all those other rebel angels out of His presence (Luke 10:18). And so Lucifer — who is better known as Satan or “the devil” — now walks the earth seeking whom he may devour (Job 1:7; 2:2; 1 Peter 5:8). That is how he showed up inside the serpent in the earth’s Garden of Eden to tempt Eve (Genesis 3:1-6). As for Satan’s fellow fallen angels — who are now better known as demons or “unclean spirits” — they too have free run of the earth (Ephesians 6:10-12).

So make no mistake, the ancient war between Satan and God is still raging today and we are all part of it. This brings me to the purpose of this short series, a series I’m calling “The Great War.” Over the course of the next few posts, we’re going to learn that the war between Satan and God produces the same results that human wars produce. There are four of these results, and we’ll devote one post to each result. This is a series that you should find interesting, and it’s one that I know will cause you to think in new ways about not only Satan but also God. So tune in next time as we look at the first result. And until then start thinking of our planet Earth as being the battlefield where The Great War rages every day and every night.

Posted in Adversity, Angels, Death, Demons, God's Work, Heaven, Persecution, Problems, Rebellion, Satan, Series: "The Great War", Spiritual Warfare, Suffering, The Devil, War | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Church Attendance Decline

Posted on July 12, 2019 by russellmckinney

A school teacher told her students to bring an item that represented their religious faith. The little Jewish boy brought a menorah. The little Catholic boy brought a crucifix. The little Baptist boy brought a casserole.

Speaking as a Baptist pastor, I have to admit that this joke hits way too close to home. Actually, it could be a true story! We Baptists do like our fellowship meals. As another joke says, “What do you call a Baptist preacher’s belt? A fence around a chicken graveyard.”

I don’t mean to imply that there is anything wrong with fellowship meals. The early churches held them each Sunday in conjunction with their observance of The Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:17-34; Jude v.12). Likewise, the Old Testament provides the record of many different times of feasting, and in the New Testament we read about Christ’s last supper, not to mention the prodigal son’s father killing the fatted calf.

But what we must guard against is making fellowship meals our main reason for attending church. We mustn’t let our churches become community clubs or social clubs that have little more than a religious undercurrent running through them. Our primary feasting at church should always be on the living Word (Jesus) and the written word (the Bible), not the fried chicken.

What each church-goer should ask himself or herself is, “What is my motivation for going to church?” If the answer is something that can be just as easily gotten at a ball game, a concert, the local school, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the Kiwanis club, the Ruritan club, the Optimist club, the Lions club, or the Rotary club, then something is very wrong with the motivation. And unfortunately this seems to be the case with far too many church-goers.

Studies are now consistently showing that church attendance is declining here in the United States. The theorized reasons for the decline are numerous: the country as a whole is shifting away from its Christian roots, today’s young people are a different breed who have little interest in attending church, the local church is no longer the focal point of community life, etc. While I certainly wouldn’t dismiss any of these reasons (or some others we could name), I would like to suggest one that I’ve never seen cited on a list. Maybe the reason why church attendance numbers are dwindling is the fact that we have gotten so far away from what church is supposed to be.

Imagine an oven that a housewife has begun using as a clothes dryer. As soon as she gets a load of clothes out of the washing machine, she opens the oven door, puts the clothes in the oven, sets the temperature for 350 degrees, and dries the clothes. She does this day after day, load after load. Then one day her husband buys a dryer and tells her to start using it to dry the clothes. The housewife does so and after just a few loads exclaims, “This dryer is so much better for drying clothes. I’ll never use that oven again. I don’t even need it anymore.” Would you say that housewife was being fair to her oven? Of course not. She wasn’t using it for what it was actually made to do.

The same can be said of our churches. If we don’t use them for what they are made to do, we shouldn’t be surprised when attendance declines. The hard, cold truth is that the world can do everything better than the church except those things for which the church is the specialist. This means that the church is never going to be able to outperform the world when it comes to meals, entertainment, community service, sports leagues, Christmas productions, Easter dramas, Independence Day celebrations, and a vast assortment of other activities, No matter how hard we try and how much time, effort, and money we spend, the world’s versions will always be more appealing (at least to average person).

That’s why we are crazy to try to stop the decline in church attendance by making our churches more like the world. What we need to do instead is make our churches less like the world and more like the church ideal that is described in the New Testament. Of course this isn’t something the so-called “church growth” movement cares to hear, but the numbers are beginning to prove that what that movement has pushed for decades as the way to grow a church doesn’t actually work in the long run. How could it when it is so shallow and superficial? And besides, even if it does draw a crowd, just having a crowd doesn’t automatically mean that you are having church, right?

Posted in Bible Study, Church, Church Attendance, Current Events, God's Word, God's Work, Ministry, Worship | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A Night in the Barn

Posted on July 11, 2019 by russellmckinney

One day a young boy committed a very serious offense. When the boy’s strict father heard about it, he said to the boy, “Son, no one can commit such an act and still sleep under my roof. You must spend the night in the barn.” The boy knew that arguing with his father was no use, and so he gathered up a few things to make a crude bed in the hayloft and went to the barn.

His crude bed proved to be plenty soft enough for the boy to get a good night’s rest, but he just couldn’t sleep. Over and over again he tossed and turned. His problem was the guilt he was feeling over not only committing the offense but also grieving his father so badly.

It was sometime along about midnight when the boy heard the sound of someone climbing up the ladder to the hayloft. He was frightened by the dark outline of the shadowy figure until he realized that the intruder was none other than his father. The father asked him, “Are you sleeping?” The boy answered, “No.” “Well, I can’t sleep either,” said the father, “so I thought I’d come out here and join you.” Then he added, “Now, don’t think I’m changing my mind about your punishment. As I said, anyone who does what you did can’t sleep under my roof. But I didn’t say that I couldn’t sleep with you. So, move over, son. Put your head on my arm, and let’s get some sleep.”

This story beautifully illustrates what God did for us. The human race had fallen into sin, and God couldn’t just ignore that fact. Punishment had to follow, and follow it did as Adam and Eve were banished from their home in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:22-24) and left to produce a race of descendants who would each be born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). But God, in the form of Jesus Christ, left heaven, joined the human race by actually becoming human Himself, lived among humans in the “barn” of this world, and ultimately died on the cross as the potential payment for all the sins the human race had ever and would ever commit. So now anyone who places saving belief in Jesus does not have to suffer the eternal punishment that comes as the result of his or her sins (John 3:16-18).

Oh, and by the way, that story about the father who joined his boy in the barn is true. It was one of the stories that F.B. Meyer used to tell about his childhood. And who was F.B. Meyer? He was only one of the most legendary preachers who ever lived. He was an English Baptist pastor and evangelist in the late 1800s and early 1900s who pastored several churches in England, made successful ministry trips to the United States and Canada, wrote dozens of books and commentaries, and fought so hard against drunkenness and prostitution that he is purported to have been responsible for the closing of hundreds of saloons and brothels.

All that causes me to ask, “If we had more fathers who were strict enough to inflict punishment when it was deserved, but loving enough to join their children in the punishment, would we be producing more F.B. Meyers today?” Maybe. One thing is for sure: it definitely couldn’t hurt.

Posted in Belief, Children, Christ's Birth, Christ's Death, Discipline, Fatherhood, God's Holiness, God's Love, Guilt, Parenting, Salvation, Sin, Youth | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Ministering to Lost People

Posted on July 8, 2019 by russellmckinney

And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. (Matthew 5:41, N.K.J.V.)

In its specific scriptural context, this verse has nothing to do with putting in the extra hours required to become a success in the business world. Neither does it have anything to do with outworking the competition in the realm of athletics or even fanatically devoting yourself to church work. No, “going the second mile” is all about one thing: the Christian rendering service to lost people.

In the empire of ancient Rome, a Roman official or soldier had the right to press a common citizen into compulsory service to carry a load or run an errand. This explains why the Roman soldiers who were in charge of Christ’s crucifixion were able to force a Cyrenian named Simon to carry Christ’s cross (Matthew 27:32). But the rule had a limit. The citizen could only be made to perform the task for one mile. Christ’s command to His followers, however, was that they should volunteer to perform the task for an extra mile.

We can just imagine the first time a rough, rugged Roman soldier brutally drafted a follower of Christ into action. “You there, get over here and carry this load for your required mile.” Then, at the end of the mile, the follower of Christ kept going. Perhaps the soldier said, “That’s enough, you’ve done your duty” only to have the follower of Christ say, “I know, but my Lord says that I should go with you a second mile.”

What kind of influence do you think such an encounter would have had on a spiritually lost Roman soldier? I suppose that some of the soldiers mocked Christ’s followers and took even greater advantage of them. Others, however, must have been touched by the encounters and their hearts softened toward Jesus and His people.

Of course, going the extra mile was just one of the ways in which Jesus commanded His followers to act differently than the rest of the world. He also said, “Rather than seek the revenge of an eye for an eye, if an evil person slaps you on your right cheek, take the brunt of the blow and present your left cheek for the person to strike as well” (Matthew 5:38-39). “And if someone threatens to file a lawsuit to take away your tunic, go ahead and let the person have not only your tunic but also your outer cloak” (Matthew 5:40).

To get the full depth of these commands, we mustn’t miss the fact that each of them deals with a cruel injustice that is perpetrated by an evil person. As Jesus put it, “But I tell you not to resist an evil person” (Matthew 5:39, N.K.J.V.). This means that the follower of Christ should perform these difficult tasks as nothing less than acts of service to lost people.

You might be asking, “Russell, are you saying that the only people who do evil acts are lost people?” No, I’m not saying that. I know full well that professing Christians sometimes commit evil acts. As we study the Bible, though, we understand the assumption that the follower of Christ is expected to live in a manner that is holy rather than evil. Therefore, the “evil person” of whom Jesus speaks must be a lost person. You see, when the Christian serves a lost person in this way, the Christian evidences the difference that being a follower of Jesus has made in his or her life and (ideally) creates a thirst for Jesus within that lost person.

Because of this, it is unfortunate that most Christians take an adversarial approach to lost people rather than a service approach to them. I know that I myself tend to say of lost people who do me wrong turns, “How can I get even with them?” rather than, “How can I serve them?” I mean, let’s admit it, these commands from Jesus are pretty hard to swallow and even harder to live out.

And yet here they stand, right where they have stood for 2,000 years. So tell me, Christian, are you obedient enough to put the commands into action? The next time a lost person treats you badly, will you force yourself to think, “What good thing can I do for this person in return?” Again, that’s a difficult assignment. No doubt about that. But if you complete the assignment, you might be amazed at how Jesus uses your actions. Who knows? You might even play a major role in winning that lost person to Christ.

Posted in Adversity, Anger, Attitude, Complaining, Discipleship, Doing Good, Evangelism, God's Work, Good Works, Humility, Influence, Ministry, Persecution, Revenge, Service, Suffering, The Sermon On The Mount, Witnessing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment