Be Careful About Signs

Posted on January 5, 2019 by russellmckinney

Dr. Lehman Strauss was one of the best preachers America has ever produced. Over the course of his sixty-year ministry, he successfully served in the various roles of pastor, evangelist, teacher, and commentator. He truly was a great man of God, a man with much wisdom and discernment.

Strauss used to tell the story of a church member he once had who owned a farm in Pennsylvania. One day the farmer said to Strauss, “Lehman, I believe God is calling me to preach.” Even though Strauss and the man were good friends, and Strauss had no doubts about the man’s sincerity, he did have serious doubts about the man’s call to preach. So, Strauss asked the farmer, “What gave you the idea God is calling you to preach?” The farmer answered, “Yesterday I was in the fields plowing, and I saw in a cloud formation the two letters PC. I knew at once it was a vision from God telling me to PREACH CHRIST.” To that Strauss wryly replied, “Is is possible God was telling you to PLANT CORN?”

I use this story as an illustration to warn you about attempting to discern God’s will by way of “signs.” I’m reminded of the old joke about the woman who was attempting to diet. She loved the doughnuts from a particular doughnut shop in her hometown and stopped there for breakfast every morning on her way to work. But when she began her diet, she knew those doughnuts were off limits. So, on her way to work one morning she prayed, “Lord, if it is your will for me to stop and get a doughnut for breakfast this morning, help there to be a parking space right in front of the shop as I drive by.” And low and behold, as she drove by, she did find a perfect parking spot right in front of the shop. Of course, that spot didn’t open up until her fifth time circling the store!

How do you determine God’s will for any given situation? First, you find out what the Bible has to say about the situation because God’s will can’t contradict God’s word. Second, you pay attention to that burden you feel, that burden to either do something or stop doing something, that burden you just can’t shake, that burden that gnaws at you. When God wants you to either do something or stop doing something, He gives you a burden that aligns with His will. Third, you take circumstances into account. Is there a pathway that will allow you to act upon your burden? Is there an open door for you? If there isn’t, either that burden you feel isn’t from God or the timing isn’t right yet for you to act upon it. Lastly, once you have acted upon your burden, do you have a deep-settled inner peace about your course of action? If you do, that is a tell-tale indicator that you’ve done God’s will.

But what about “signs”? Well, the fact is, the Bible uses the word “sign” to refer to nothing less than a bona fide miracle? You see, we water down, even trivialize, the whole idea of “signs” when we attempt to put our modern-day spin on it. Here are a few examples of such spin:

  • “I’m trying to decide which college God wants me to attend, and I just happened to see a person wearing a t-shirt with the logo of one of my options. Is that God speaking to me about my choice?”
  • “I’m planning to break up with my boyfriend, but I heard our song on the radio today. Is that God’s way of telling me not to break up with him?”
  • “I had a dream last night that I quit my job. Does that mean that God wants me to turn in my resignation?”

Cloud formations? Parking spots? T-shirt messages? Songs on the radio? Dreams? Oh, dear friend, be careful about using such things to try to determine God’s will for your life. I’m not saying that God can’t use anything and everything to reveal His will to you if He so chooses, but I am saying that only a true miracle qualifies as a Biblical “sign.” As for anything less, my simple advice to you is: Don’t believe the hype.

Posted in Bible Study, Choices, Desires, Discernment, Dreams, God's Will, Inner Peace, Preaching, Scripture, The Bible | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Questions & Answers

Posted on January 4, 2019 by russellmckinney

I had one of my regular readers contact me on Facebook and ask if I would consider doing a Question & Answer post. So, this is that post. If any of you out there has a question that you’d like to ask me, I promise to give you the best answer I can. You can send your question to me in one of two ways. One, you can leave the question as a reply to this post. Two, you can go to the Disciples Road blog Facebook page and leave the question there as a private message. Either way, I’ll read the question and at some point devote a blog post to the answer.

This won’t be my first rodeo in regards to doing questions and answers. I served as the pastor of Disciples Road Church for over eight years, and every Sunday morning I incorporated a Question & Answer time into the worship service. I used to tell those folks, “Preachers sometimes get accused of answering questions that no one is asking, so now I’m giving you a chance to ask any questions that I haven’t been answering.” At first there was no shortage of questions, and most of them had basic Bible answers. After a few years, though, the questions stopped flowing so easily and the ones that did get asked were deeper and harder to answer.

I’m even open to answering questions of a personal nature, but on those I’ll reserve the right to take a pass if I so choose. I guess the old saying applies here: “The only dumb question is the one that you don’t ask.” Please understand that this isn’t some sneaky ploy to get new material for the blog. I already have some new posts in mind to write, which means that if I don’t receive any questions it won’t be the end of the world. It’s just that I’ve been praying about that reader’s request and feel like God wants me to pursue it. And that’s what I’m doing.

Lastly, there isn’t a statute of limitations on this offer. If you don’t have a question right now, but one crops up in your life at any time, feel free to either respond to this post or leave me a message on Facebook. I will read the question. Even when this specific post gets several months or several years old, I’ll still receive immediate notification when any new comment comes in under it. That means that your question won’t get lost in the blog’s backwater. It will get read, and I will get you an answer. So, in closing, let me say that I look forward to hearing from you. Remember, you’ll never know if you don’t ask, and this is your golden opportunity to ask.

Posted in Personal | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Year-End Report (2018)

Posted on January 2, 2019 by russellmckinney

When I study over this past year’s statistics for this blog site, I am truly humbled and filled with gratitude. Putting it simply, 2018 was far and away the best year ever for the Disciples Road blog. And it was you, the readers, that made it so. For that I say a heartfelt, “THANK YOU” to each and every one of you. You have no idea how much it means to me that anyone would take the time to read anything I’ve written.

This year’s number of views came in at 36,832. That easily beat the previous best number — 25,924 in 2014 — by more than 10,000 views. Perhaps even more importantly, the site’s number of visitors also reached a new high. The previous record for visitors was 2013’s 10,785. (2017’s 10,557 got close but fell just short.) But this past year’s number of visitors was 23,260. As was the case with the views, the number of visitors more than doubled the previous high.

You might be asking, “What’s the difference between a visitor and a view?” A visitor is a person who clicks on the site. A view is a post read. If one person comes to the site and reads three posts, that gets recorded as one visitor and three views. That’s why the number of views is always higher than the number of visitors. So, the upshot of it all is that over 12,000 more people visited the site in 2018 than visited it in either the record year of 2013 or last year.

Okay, so what was everybody reading? Well, the top 10 most-viewed posts for 2018 looks like this:

  1. Does God Want Everyone to Get Married?  (4,205 views)
  2. How Does a Worm Get Inside an Apple?  (2,134 views)
  3. What a Bird’s Nest Can Teach Us About God’s Will  (1,877 views)
  4. The 10 Times Israel Tested God  (1,151 views)
  5. How Would You Describe Your Walk With the Lord These Days?  (745 views)
  6. What Will Life Be Like in Christ’s Millennial Reign  (476 views)
  7. Should We Pray Silently to Keep Satan From Hearing?  (388 views)
  8. Why God Hates Gambling  (358 views)
  9. The Old Testament’s General Teaching on Prayer  (360 views)
  10. The Mayonnaise Jar  (331 views)

What was especially encouraging about those numbers was the fact that #4 on the list, The 10 Times Israel Tested God, was a new post from April of 2018. It usually takes a few years for any post to start showing up on the top 10 most-viewed lists for the year or all-time, but that post hit the ground running and hasn’t looked back since. As is so often the case with these things, that’s one that I never dreamed would do much. I wrote it simply because I myself thought it was an interesting topic. Who knew that so many other people would find it search worthy? Anyway, here’s the rest of the top 10 list of  the most-viewed new posts for 2018:

  1. The 10 Times Israel Tested God  (1,151 views)
  2. What Satan Did to Joshua: Accusation  (272 views)
  3. What Satan Did to Paul: Hindrance  (189 views)
  4. What Satan Did to Judas: Possession (135 views)
  5. An Interesting Question  (112 views)
  6. Divorced Pastors & Deacons, post #1 of 3  (103 views)
  7. What Satan Did to Peter: Sifting  (87 views)
  8. The Wiles of the Devil  (72 views)
  9. What Satan Did to Ananias & Sapphira: Motivation  (64 views)
  10. (tie) What Satan Did to Paul: A Thorn in the Flesh  (57 views), What Satan Will Do to the Antichrist: Empowerment  (57 views)

As you can see, the series “The Wiles of the Devil” was my most popular new one this year. By the way, you might not have noticed that this year I updated the site’s “Categories” section to include the compilations of all the series that I’ve ever done. This means that if you’d like to read all the posts in any series, all you have to do is click on the “Categories” section at the right of the site, scroll down to the list of series, and click on the series you want to read. There you will find all the posts for the series. So far I’ve done 24 series.

Now let me get to the site’s all-time top 10 most-viewed posts. The same familiar titles that usually show up on this list are there, but there was some change in the order. The top 10 posts in terms of all-time views currently stands as follows:

  1. Does God Want Everyone to Get Married?  (16,143 views) (ended 2017 as #1)
  2. How Does a Worm Get Inside an Apple?  (6,082 views) (ended 2017 as #2)
  3. What a Bird’s Nest Can Teach Us About God’s Will  (2,741 views) (ended 2017 as #8)
  4. Oral Roberts & “Seed Faith” Giving  (1,899 views) (ended 2017 as #4)
  5. What Does the Bible Teach About Divorce & Remarriage  (1,807 views) (ended 2017 as #3)
  6. The Importance of Individuality in a Child  (1,294 views) (ended 2017 as #5)
  7. Should We Pray Silently to Keep Satan from Hearing?  (1,280 views) (ended 2017 as #7)
  8. Tim Tebow & Jesus  (1,163 views) (ended 2017 as #6)
  9. The 10 Times Israel Tested God (1,151 views) (no position last year)
  10. The Importance of Spanking a Child  (1,150 views) (ended 2017 as #9)

Lastly, I’ll offer a year-end list of the views from around the world. If you want to talk about information that blows my mind, this is it. Would you believe that the site recorded views from 174 different countries this past year? Here’s the list of countries that recorded the most views for 2018, and I’ll throw in each country’s number of all-time views as well:

  1. United States  (25,503 views in 2018) (102,500 all-time views, #1)
  2. United Kingdom  (1,494 views in 2018) (3,919 all-time views, #2)
  3. South Africa  (1,295 views in 2018) (2,434 all-time views, #4)
  4. Canada (1,161 views in 2018) (3,511 all-time views, #3)
  5. Philippines  (785 views in 2018) (2,051 all-time views, #6)
  6. Nigeria  (760 views in 2018) (1,384 all-time views, #8)
  7. India  (724 views in 2018) (1,883 all-time views, #7)
  8. Australia  (656 views in 2018) (2,351 all-time views, #5)
  9. Kenya  (360 views in 2018) (605 all-time views, #12)
  10. Hong Kong Sar China  (284 views) (381 all-time views, #16)

In closing, let me again say, “THANK YOU” to all of you who have visited this site. Some of you either receive email notification when I publish a new post or you check in every day to see if I’ve posted anything new, while others of you have only read a post or two here and there. But trust me, every single one of you is important. I constantly stand amazed at how God uses this blog in His service.

All I know is that I sit down at my cluttered desk and start typing on my dusty old keyboard and, low and behold, the finished post ends up being read by all kinds of people, many of whom I’ll never meet this side of heaven. For that I am beyond grateful, and I’ll try to keep writing whatever God burdens me to write. Hopefully, you’ll keep reading and the visitors and views will remain high, but even if the bottom falls out of this whole endeavor tomorrow and it comes to nothing, it’s already done infinitely more than I ever expected it to do. Who knew that something with the bizarre name “blog” would play such a major role in my life and ministry? I sure didn’t, but I guess God did.

Posted in Personal, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

A New Year’s Resolution Solomon Could Appreciate

Posted on December 31, 2018 by russellmckinney

When Solomon’s father, King David, died and Solomon became the King of Israel, the transition wasn’t without bloodshed. First, just before David died he instructed Solomon to kill two of David’s enemies — Joab (1 Kings 2:1-6) and Shimei (1 Kings 2:8-9) — once he became king. Not only had both of those men committed ungodly deeds (2 Samuel 3:1-39; 2 Samuel 16:5-14), David also knew that both would transfer their disloyalty toward him to Solomon and in so doing become enemies of Solomon. (Ultimately, Solomon did have both men executed: 1 Kings 2:28-46.) Second, it didn’t take Solomon long to feel compelled to order the execution of his older half-brother, Adonijah, who had tried to claim the throne even before David had appointed Solomon heir (1 Kings chapters 1 and 2).

As evidenced by these events, Solomon felt the enormity of the role of King very early in his reign. The welfare of an entire nation rested upon his shoulders, and decisions had to be made. What should be done with David’s old adversaries? Which ones should be put to death and which ones should be left alone? Which men should be installed to positions of authority in the new government? What buildings should be erected to expand the capital city of Jerusalem? What enemies should be engaged in war? What alliances should be struck? It was all pretty overwhelming stuff to a guy who had spent his entire life under the kingship of his great father.

In those days, Israel did not have a centralized location of worship. Even though David had brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem years earlier, the Ark remained housed in a lesser tabernacle (tent) that David had built for it there (2 Samuel 6:1-17; 1 Chronicles 16:1). Even David himself hadn’t considered the site a truly proper setting for the Ark (2 Samuel 7:1-2). The “official” Tabernacle, the one the Israelites had built under Moses’ leadership, had fallen into disuse decades earlier when the Philistines had temporarily captured the Ark and taken it to Philistia (1 Samuel 4:1-22). As for the Jewish Temple which would serve as the permanent place of dwelling for the Ark, well, Solomon hadn’t had that built yet.

All this explains what Solomon was doing in Gibeon, which was located about seven miles northwest of Jerusalem, offering 1,000 burnt offerings on an altar at the “high place” there (1 Kings 3:1-4). These “high places” were open-air, hilltop sites where the Canaanites had worshiped their false gods before Israel’s conquest of Canaan. By the time of David and Solomon these sites had been converted for use in the worship of the true and living God.

And how did God respond to Solomon’s extravagant act of worship? He came to Solomon in a dream that night and said to him, “Ask! What shall I give you?” (1 Kings 3:5). And how did Solomon respond to that? To his eternal credit, he asked for wisdom and understanding to lead his nation (1 Kings 3:5-9).

God was so pleased with Solomon’s request that He promised that because Solomon hadn’t asked for long life, riches, or the lives of his enemies, He would grant him riches and honor in addition to granting him the requested wisdom and understanding (1 Kings 3:10-13). Furthermore, if Solomon would walk in God’s ways, God would grant him a long life (1 Kings 3:14). Solomon then awoke from his dream, returned to Jerusalem, went and stood before the Ark of the Covenant, offered offerings there, and threw a feast for all his servants.

The 1 Kings account of these events is immediately followed by a prime example of Solomon’s God-given wisdom. Two harlots come to him, each one claiming to be the mother of a certain baby. Solomon decides the case by offering to cut the child in half and give each woman a half. When the true mother objects and tells Solomon to give the baby to the other woman because the child mustn’t be killed, Solomon gives the child to the true mother (1 Kings 3:16-28). That’s the kind of wisdom that God gave Solomon, and such wisdom helped him build the Temple and make Israel the greatest nation on earth at the time.

Today, as you and I stand upon the precipice of a new year, we would do well to revisit Solomon’s simple request and ask God to impart to us an appropriate measure of it. Let’s stop asking for more health, more money, more opportunity, more blessing, or more revenge upon our enemies, and let’s start asking for more wisdom, more discernment, and more understanding. The fact is that we all have our “cases” to decide, our “temples” to build, and our “empires” to govern, and if we don’t exercise a God-given wisdom in doing these things, we will no doubt fail at them miserably. In James 1:5, we read the New Testament’s promise: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (N.K.J.V.). That is a promise worth claiming, a New Year’s resolution that Solomon could appreciate, and dare I say that we are the only people who can stop us from claiming it.

Posted in Choices, Desires, Discernment, Dreams, Money, New Year, Prayer Requests, Problems, Revenge, Seeking Advice, The Ark of the Covenant, Wisdom | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Problem With Chasing “It”

Posted on December 28, 2018 by russellmckinney

There once was a man who was constantly searching for “it.” When he was a child, “it” was the cookie jar on the shelf. When he became a teenager, “it” was a nice car. When he got a little older, “it” was a beautiful girlfriend. When he graduated from high school, “it” was admittance into a prestigious college. When he graduated from the college, “it” was a well-paying job. When he got the job, “it” was  a comfortable home. When he moved into the home, “it” was a wife. When he got married, “it” was a child. When the child was born, “it” was giving the child the best of everything. Etc., etc., etc.

I trust that you can see the problem with chasing “it.” “It” is a shape-shifter that just can’t be caught. Even when you think you have “it” captured, “it” morphs into a new form and becomes something different. Because of this, there is no end game. The chase goes on and on and on.

Like that man in the story, many of us are so busy chasing earthly goals — one goal right after another — that we miss the simple blessings of each day’s humdrum status quo. For us, coming to the end of a year doesn’t mean a time of introspection, reflection, and thankfulness for all the truly wonderful things the closing year has brought us. Instead, it means a time of making a mental list of everything we’d like to get accomplished in the upcoming year.

Please understand that there is nothing wrong with setting goals or wanting to get things done. Noah built an ark. That took a great deal of planning and achieving. Solomon built a temple. That entailed the gathering of materials and the enlisting of the men who would do the building. Jesus began His public ministry at the age of 30 with His mind fixed squarely upon getting Himself crucified during Passover week in Jerusalem three-and-a-half years later. Even as He got up each day and did what God the Father wanted Him to do for that day, He never forgot that ultimate goal. You see, there’s nothing wrong with working toward some God-approved accomplishment. The problem arises when the pursuit of the accomplishment becomes God.

As is the case with so many things in life, what we need is balance. With God’s help we’ve got to learn how to appreciate and enjoy the blessings of each day even as we sneak a peak ahead to future days. We’ve got to dream about where God is taking us without overlooking where He has us. We’ve got to feast on our current harvests, which are the products of good seed we have sown in days past, without forgetting to sow the new seeds that will become our future harvests. Admittedly, this balance isn’t always easy to strike. But if we can strike it, we’ll be able to appreciate not only the blessings of the future but also the blessings of the present. And that is surely an accomplishment worth achieving.

Posted in Balance, Christ's Death, Contentment, Desires, Impatience, Sowing and Reaping, Thankfulness, Waiting | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

There

Posted on December 26, 2018 by russellmckinney

Some anonymous Christian writer has penned the following words:

There is no place just as good as “THERE,” the place of God’s purpose. We try to strike bargains with the Lord, offer to do something else, seek a compromise or substitute. We work terribly hard at something that may be fine and lovely, but it is not His choice, and inwardly we are rebellious.

Let’s say that Tonya and I load up in her car one morning and head out to spend the day shopping. Let’s also say that before we leave I tell one of our sons to mow the yard while we’re gone. But the problem is that he doesn’t want to mow the yard. So, instead, he spends the day washing and waxing my car.

When I get back home, I say, “Son, I thought I told you to mow the yard.” He answers, “You did, but I just didn’t feel like mowing the yard. But didn’t I do a great job on your car?” I say, “Yes, it looks fine, you obviously worked hard. Unfortunately, we are forecast to receive heavy rain for the next five days, after which you won’t even be able to tell that my car got cleaned. The yard, on the other hand, will be a jungle by then.”

Abraham would have been content to spend his entire life in Ur. But God wanted him in Canaan (Genesis 12:1-3). Even after he started out for Canaan, he faced the temptation to settle down in Haran, which was more or less the halfway point of the journey (Genesis 11:27-32). But God wanted him in Canaan. After he arrived in Canaan, a famine struck and logic dictated that he relocate to Egypt (Genesis 12:10). But God wanted him in Canaan. You see, Canaan was Abraham’s “THERE,” and anything other than that particular land simply wasn’t God’s will for the man’s life.

Let it not be said, however, that God wants everyone to load up and relocate. Sometimes a person’s ‘THERE” is their current place of residence. For example, after Jesus had cast multiple demons out of a man from Gadara, the man literally begged Jesus to let him go with Him and His disciples wherever they were going. But Jesus said to Him, “Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you” (Luke 8:39, N.K.J.V.).

To further complicate matters, sometimes God changes a person’s “THERE.” Jacob was born and raised in Canaan. His father was Isaac, and his grandfather was Abraham. Abraham had once mistakenly left Canaan, headed south to Egypt, and gotten into serious trouble with Pharaoh (Genesis 12:10-30). That incident had taught Abraham a lesson: stay in Canaan and out of Egypt. He’d surely passed that lesson down to his son Isaac, who had heard it reaffirmed by no less an authority than God Himself (Genesis 26:1-5). Isaac, in turn, had surely passed the lesson down to his sons Jacob and Esau.

All this meant that Jacob’s “THERE” for the first 130 years of his life was Canaan (Genesis 47:9). He spent those years thinking of Egypt as being a forbidden place, a place where his grandfather had gotten into trouble, a place that God had warned his father to avoid. Imagine Jacob’s shock, then, when circumstances regarding not only a famine but also his son Joseph began to line up to funnel him into leaving Canaan and relocating his entire family to Egypt.

As Jacob made the journey, he even stopped at a site called Beersheba, which was commonly thought of as Canaan’s southern border. Really, Beersheba was the jumping off point from Canaan to Egypt. Jacob (who was also called Israel) stopped there and offered sacrifices to God (Genesis 46:1). That was his way of saying, “God, I want to make certain that I’m understanding Your will correctly. You seem to be moving me to Egypt, a place You’ve always warned my family to avoid. But right now I’m still in Canaan, and it isn’t too late for me to turn this caravan back north. And that’s exactly what I’ll do if You tell me.”

And how did God respond to Jacob’s act of worship? He appeared to Him in visions in the night and made him wonderful promises concerning the blessings that He would pour out upon him in Egypt (Genesis 46:2-4). This story is Biblical proof that God sometimes changes a person’s “THERE,” and the change can even occur very late in the person’s life. For the record, Jacob spent the last seventeen years of his life in Egypt, and they were some of the best years of his life, if not the best years of it (Genesis 47:28).

As this year comes to a close and a new one begins, it would be a very good idea for you to engage in some “Beersheba” worship. What I mean is, deliberately make some time to pray to God, specifically asking Him to show you anything about your life that doesn’t line up with what He has in mind for you. Are you living in the right place? Are you working at the right job? Are you enjoying the right hobbies and pastimes? Are you in the right relationships? Are you attending the right church? Are you right with your family? Are you right with your friends? Are you right with your neighbors? Summing it all up, are you “THERE” in every little nook and cranny or your life? And if God shows you that you are missing the mark somewhere, set yourself to the task of fixing the problem so that you don’t spend all of next year continuing to miss that mark.

Posted in Change, Commitment, Desires, Discipleship, Disobedience, Doing Good, Dreams, Dying To Self, Faithfulness, Family, Friendship, God's Timing, God's Will, God's Work, Influence, Leadership, Ministry, New Year, Obedience, Parenting, Prayer, Priorities, Rebellion, Repentance, Service, Submission, Temptation, Trusting In God, Work | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Watch

Posted on December 24, 2018 by russellmckinney

Back in the days before every boy and girl had a Smartphone, kids used to wear watches. Watches with the logos of NFL teams were especially popular with young boys. One Christmas, a boy who was a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan became obsessed with getting a certain Steelers watch as a present. He’d seen the watch in a sports store at the local mall.

Day after day leading up to Christmas, the young fellow wore his parents out with his request. A day didn’t pass without him at some point reminding them, “I want that Steelers watch at the mall for Christmas.” He even talked them into making a special trip to the mall just so he could show them exactly which watch he wanted. The parents, in true parent mode, never tipped their hand that they were actually going to buy the watch, and their silence caused the boy no end of worry.

Finally, the morning of Christmas Eve arrived and the boy could find no watch-sized package under the tree. (He didn’t know that his mother had wrapped the watch in an oversized box to fool him.) So, at breakfast that morning the boy decided that he had to pull out all the stops if he was going get his watch. As the family was enjoying their meal, the little fellow said, “Since Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus, I thought it would be nice this morning if I quoted something from Him.”

After almost passing out from shock, the father and mother finally stammered out the words, “Sure, son, go right ahead.” The boy then stood up from the table and said, “These words come from Mark 13:37. Jesus says to His disciples, ‘And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!‘”

This cute little story reminds us that the same Jesus who was laid in a manger on that night so long ago has promised to return to walk this earth again. You see, Mark 13:37 serves as the closing verse to a prophetic chapter in which Jesus talks about His eventual Second Coming. For example, in Mark 13:26, He says, “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory.” A few verses later, though, in Mark 13:32, He is quick to point out, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” So, since no one knows the day and hour when Jesus will return to the earth, His people should always be on “watch duty” for that return.

Okay, got it. But how do we remain on “watch duty” during the Christmas holiday? We do it by understanding that the babe in the manger grew into adulthood, began His public ministry at the age of 30, performed miracles to prove His divinity, gave profound teachings to enlighten mankind’s way, never committed one sin, died on a cross as the sinless sacrifice for the sins of the human race, arose from the dead, ascended back to heaven, currently offers salvation to anyone who will place saving belief in Him, and has promised to one day return. We don’t hear much about that Jesus at Christmastime, do we? And yet the babe in the manger and the returning King are one and the same. So tell me, are you watching?

Posted in Christ's Second Coming, Christ's Birth, Christ's Death, Christ's Miracles, Christ's Resurrection, Christ's Return, Christmas, Prophecy | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

My Son Royce Turned 18 Today

Posted on December 21, 2018 by russellmckinney

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like sharp arrows in a warrior’s hands. How happy is the man whose quiver is full of them! He will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers at the city gates. (Psalm 127:3-5, New Living Translation)

Today is my son Royce’s 18th birthday. He now has the legal right to vote, marry without parental permission, join the military, become an organ donor, work full time, play the lottery, get a tattoo, purchase tobacco, file a lawsuit, apply for a credit card, create a will, and adopt a child. Decisions, decisions. Of course, right now his main goal is to finish high school. He might be 18 but he still needs to line up a date for the prom.

As I watched Royce blow out his candles today, I thought back to the first time I ever saw him. I was standing in the delivery room of Asheville’s Memorial Mission hospital, camcorder in hand (we used those things back then), watching Tonya deliver him. We’ve still got the video footage somewhere. A little later, after the nurses had cleaned him off and wrapped him in a blanket, I got my first good look at him. I remember thinking to myself, “I just doubled my responsibility as a father.” Ryan, our firstborn, had been born three-and-a-half years earlier.

As I learned over the next few months, much of the fatherly experience I had gained by raising Ryan was of little or no use to me in regards to raising Royce. Both were males, and both seemed to have my nose, but that’s pretty much where the similarities ended. Neither one is “better” than the other. They’re just different. Very different. And all those differences have brought me and Tonya not one, but two, crash courses in parenting.

As for the current status quo, I’m happy to report that both boys are coming along nicely in life. It hasn’t always been easy, and mistakes have surely been made by not only them but their parents, but all in all Tonya and I couldn’t ask for finer young men. To use the imagery of Psalm 127:4, they are straight, sharp arrows. Hopefully (and prayerfully), they will stay that way.

But today Royce isn’t worrying about his future. Priority #1 for the day is getting the new video game he got for his birthday uploaded onto his PlayStation IV. Isn’t that just like an 18-year-old? They are mature enough to do all the things I listed in the first paragraph but still childish enough to want to sit and play a video game all day. Actually, though, that’s fine with me. I want Royce to savor being a kid as long as he can. After all, as all of us “adults” know far too well, once those days are gone, they are gone forever. And at 18 you’ve got a lot more of them behind you than ahead of you.

Posted in Aging, Children, Fatherhood, Parenting, Personal | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Unstoppable Christmas

Posted on December 19, 2018 by russellmckinney

Since 1950, Bridgeport, Connecticut, has erected a “Christmas Village” in its Beardsley Park every year at Christmastime. The Village features all kinds of beautiful holiday scenes (elves, reindeer, etc.) in addition to a fellow dressed up as Santa Claus who hands out presents. The presents are donated by the Police Athletic League, who sponsor the event each year. The Village is especially important to the area’s impoverished children, some of whom would receive no gift without it.

On December 7, 1982, the Village was all prepared for its opening on December 12 when tragedy struck by way of an early morning fire that consumed the large building in which the Village was housed. The entire building, except for one wall, burned to the ground. Not only were all the holiday scenes and decorations destroyed, $14,000 worth of toys were as well. People wept openly. Many children wondered aloud if Santa had died in the fire. To make matters worse, it was quickly determined that the fire had been deliberately set. The arsonist was never caught.

Even though it seemed obvious that the city would have to cancel the Village altogether that year, Leonard Paoletta, the city’s mayor at the time, wouldn’t hear of it. By 11:00 a.m. the morning of the fire, he was already putting plans into motion to get the entire Village rebuilt and in proper working order by December 12. He put out an area-wide call for volunteers to show up at the site ready to work and was beyond pleased when hundreds showed up each day.

Some were expert builders and craftsmen. Others could only carry lumber and other supplies. But everybody worked. The work went on 24 hours a day, each and every day, oftentimes in temperatures that were below freezing.

In addition to all the manpower, many individuals made monetary contributions. Several companies, institutions, and trade unions did as well. The whole project became a perfect example of what people can do when they diligently work together toward the achieving of one goal. And through their efforts a new building was built, new scenes were built, and new toys were purchased and donated. The fire took place on Tuesday, the 7th, and the rebuilt Village was completed and opened on Sunday, the 12th.

The story of the Village’s rebuild was carried by word of mouth, newspaper articles, and television broadcasts until it reached the ears of President Ronald Reagan. On December 12, he placed a personal phone call to the city to compliment them on what they had accomplished. He also mentioned the story on national television on three separate occasions. Today, the Christmas Village is annually erected at a new site in Beardsley Park, but a granite monument stands at the original site to commemorate the amazing rebuild of 1982.

Now, despite the fact that a nativity scene is not a part of Bridgeport’s Christmas Village (at least as best I can tell), there is still a spiritual application that we can draw from the story of the 1982 fire and rebuild. That application is quite simple: No matter how hard Satan tries to destroy Christmas, he can’t do it. And so every year, for at least one month out of the year, the story of Christ’s birth comes front and center. Even more than that, if the story is told properly, mention is also made of Christ’s vicarious death and His glorious resurrection. How Satan must hate that. That’s why we Christians are right to make a big deal of Christmas and right to keep Christ at the center of it.

Posted in Christ's Birth, Christmas, Satan, The Devil, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

God’s Gold Star

Posted on December 17, 2018 by russellmckinney

People familiar with American military custom know that a star has long been used as a symbol to represent a loved one. During World War I it became common practice for any family who had a family member in service to display a service flag that featured a blue star. Multiple members in service called for multiple blue stars.

Furthermore, if the family member was killed in action, the flag’s blue star was replaced by a gold star. Over time, two types of service flags came to be used. One type had a white background, a red border, and a blue star. The other type had a white background, a blue border, and a gold star.

In 1918, the Women’s Committee of National Defenses made a recommendation to President Woodrow Wilson that any mother who had lost a child in service should wear an armband that featured a gold star. Wilson officially approved the recommendation, and this created the idea of a “Gold Star Mother.” Ten years later, in 1928, the national organization called American Gold Star Mothers Inc. was created, an organization that still exists today.

During World War II star flags (either the blue-star version or the gold-star one) were prominently displayed in windows throughout America, and everyone knew what the flags meant. Unfortunately, however, that meaning was substantially lost during the Vietnam War because the unpopularity of that war caused many families to forego displaying service flags. Thus, the practice faded out of the public eye until it began making a bit of a comeback during America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite the comeback, though, the majority of American people today still don’t know the history and meaning behind service flags placed in windows.

Some 2,000 years ago God placed a star in the sky. Why did He do that? He did it so that the star could point the wise men to Jesus Christ. But if we use a little sanctified imagination can’t we also take that star to be God the Father’s way of showing the world that He now had a son in active military service? Jesus had left heaven and come down to the earth to go to war against Satan. One battle would require Jesus to face off against Satan in the Judean wilderness as Satan would tempt Him. Another battle would require Him to face off against Satan’s demons in every case of demon possession He would encounter. And then there were the theological and political battles that would require Him to face off against the Jewish scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees who would compel the Romans to render the verdict of crucifixion.

It is because of Christ’s crucifixion that we are right to say the war between Jesus and Satan cost Jesus His life. In terms of our illustration, God the Father’s blue star became a gold one. Thankfully, though, that wasn’t the end of the story as in an ultimate display of the fact that in actuality Jesus had won the war, He arose from the dead. Then, a little over a month later, He ascended back to heaven and took His seat at the right hand of God the Father. That is where He currently resides this Christmas season. You see, God the Father’s Son has returned home from the war. He has been reclaimed from death. And He now offers salvation to one and all who will believe in Him as Savior.

Posted in Belief, Christ's Birth, Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Christmas, Crucifixion, Demons, Heaven, Resurrection, Salvation, Temptation, Virgin Birth | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments