The Clinched Fist of Joseph Stalin

Posted on December 15, 2011 by russellmckinney

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

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

It would be easy to assume that Stalin lived his entire life in steadfast opposition to the concept of God, but that would be a wrong assumption. The fact is that when he was sixteen he received a scholarship to a Georgian Orthodox seminary. He even did well in his classes there until he missed his final exams and was expelled. Not long afterward he began reading the writings of Vladimir Lenin and became a Marxist revolutionary.

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

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

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

He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. (N.K.J.V.)

Posted in Attitude, Backsliding, Choices, Conviction, Decisions, Disobedience, Dying To Self, God's Will, Obedience, Rebellion, Repentance, Salvation, Submission | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Shipwrecked Christian

Posted on December 13, 2011 by russellmckinney

Maybe you’ve heard the old line, “The world has become so churchy and the church has become so worldly that you can’t tell the difference between the two.” Well, unfortunately, that line rings far too close to the truth. Backslidden Christians really do create a major hindrance to what God wants to accomplish in the world. Even more than that, they do untold harm to their own lives.

One of the best descriptions I’ve ever read concerning the worldly, carnal, backslidden Christian comes from Charles Spurgeon in the October 14 evening devotion from his book Morning & Evening. Here are a few excerpts from that devotion:

Do you wish to leave this world in the darkness of a bed of affliction and enter heaven as a shipwrecked mariner climbs the rocks of his native country? Then be worldly; be mixed up with the kingdom of darkness…”

Does your soul long to obtain the full assurance of faith? You cannot gain it while you commune with sinners.

It is dangerous for an heir of heaven to be a great friend with the heirs of hell. Even small inconsistencies are dangerous. Little thorns make great blisters, little moths destroy fine garments, and a little frivolity and mischief will rob faith of a thousand joys. O believer, you do not realize what you lose by your conformity to the world. It cuts the tendons of your strength and makes you crawl where you ought to run.

I especially like the way Spurgeon compared the backslidden Christian’s entrance into heaven to a shipwrecked sailor having to climb up the steep rocks of his homeland just to get home. Spurgeon’s point was that, for the backslidden Christian, there is no peaceful sail into the safe harbor of heaven. There is no confident expectation of praise for a job well done. There is no triumphant entrance. Instead, there is only the exhausted, worn out, frazzled Christian scratching and clawing his way to a place of safety.

My guess is that Spurgeon had 1 Timothy 1:18-20 in mind when he used that illustration. In those verses, the apostle Paul explains to the young preacher Timothy that some Christians have rejected faith and a good conscience and “concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck.” Paul then gives the specific names (Hymenaeus and Alexander) of two such Christians and says that he delivered them to Satan so they would learn not to blaspheme. According to 1 Corinthians 5:1-7, the term “delivered them to Satan” means what we call “church discipline” (excommunication, “churching” someone). This should show us just how serious backsliding is.

I once heard a preacher say, “Some Christians don’t do enough for the Lord to attract a used demon!” Tell me, Christian, does that describe you? Are you, as not only Spurgeon but also Paul described, living a shipwrecked walk with Christ? If you are, my prayer is that you will do the necessary confessing and repenting today. Remember that 1 John 1:9 is still in the Bible and it still works:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (N.K.J.V.)

Posted in Backsliding, Change, Church Discipline, Confession, Demons, Heaven, Personal Holiness, Repentance, Salvation, Sin | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Genuine Pearls

Posted on December 8, 2011 by russellmckinney

Pearls have historically commanded high prices. Their expensiveness is the result of their rarity. Thousands upon thousands of oysters are examined each year, but only a small percentage of them contain genuine pearls. I’ve read that out of every three tons of pearl-producing oysters, on average only three of the oysters have pearls inside them.

At one point, however, the market began to be atypically flooded with large quantities of pearls. As a matter of fact, there were so many pearls available that merchants began to seriously question the pearls’ authenticity. Were these new pearls merely well done imitations produced by man? No. Upon examination, the pearls were found to have actually been made by oysters.

Finally, after further investigation, the mystery was solved. As it turned out, the Japanese merchants had figured out a way to cause almost every pearl oyster to produce a pearl. You see, the merchants knew that a pearl is formed when some kind of foreign substance (a parasite, a grain of sand, etc.) gets lodged in a certain part of the oyster. To ease the irritation caused by the substance, the oyster begins to secrete a protective fluid called nacre that covers over the substance. This process continues and the nacre eventually hardens into a glorious pearl. Of course, all this takes a few years to happen. So, what the merchants were doing was harvesting oysters, purposely inserting artificial substances in them (substances such as beads or tiny bits of shell or buckshot), placing the oysters back into the ocean by means of nets, and then harvesting them again a few years later to retrieve the pearls. The larger the artificial substance, the larger the pearl.

When the market became glutted with pearls, wealthy buyers began to demand that each pearl be put to a special test to see whether or not it had been artificially created. This test involved the use of X-ray. Under X-ray, the false “hearts” created by the artificial substances could be seen. In this way, the genuine pearls could be identified and priced accordingly.

This illustration reminds me that, sadly, our churches are home to some fake Christians. On the outside, these people look saved. They carry Bibles, know the lingo, pray, sing the hymns, put money in the offering plates, etc. But on the inside their hearts are false. They don’t truly know Christ as Savior. They aren’t born again (John 3:3). God the Holy Spirit does not dwell inside them (Romans 8:9). They aren’t in the family of God (John 1:9-13).

I have no delusions that we will ever get it all sorted out this side of eternity. For one thing, lost people don’t always act lost. For another, saved people don’t always act saved. We can rest assured, though, that Jesus knows how to X-ray each person’s heart and there simply is no fooling Him. I can honestly say that being placed under His X-ray doesn’t frighten me. But can you say the same thing? If you can’t, you really need to ask yourself why that is.

Posted in Church, Salvation, The Heart | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Ministering to Difficult People

Posted on December 6, 2011 by russellmckinney

New Yorker Stephen Merritt was an interesting guy. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, he served Christ as both a minister and an undertaker. (He was the undertaker for the funeral of Ulysses S. Grant.) In addition to these two roles, he also worked tirelessly with overseas missions as well as ministering to New York’s impoverished destitute. His ministry to the destitute was especially notable because he himself was a wealthy man who lived in a fashionable section of the city.

Merritt once extended an open invitation for all the homeless and outcast to attend a supper in his mission. Afterward, when he went to leave the supper, he found that some of the invitees had cruelly filled his hat with bacon rinds and other unsavory items. The act infuriated him, and he climbed atop a chair and passionately scolded the crowd for their ingratitude. He even threatened to call the police.

However, as Merritt was in the midst of his rebuke, the Holy Spirit brought the words of 1 Corinthians chapter 13 to his mind:

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, K.J.V.)

Convicted by the Spirit in this way, Merritt quickly stopped his tirade and right then and there apologized to the crowd, admitting that He had grieved His Lord. Then he invited the same crowd to attend another dinner the following night. When he was finished, the practical jokers confessed their prank. And that next night forty men accepted Christ as Savior.

Posted in Adversity, Attitude, Character, Complaining, Confession, Conscience, Conviction, Discipleship, Doing Good, Extending Forgiveness, God's Work, Influence, Ministry, Missions, Persecution, Revenge, Service, Suffering, Trials | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

What a Bird’s Nest Can Teach Us About God’s Will

Posted on December 5, 2011 by russellmckinney

Snugly tucked away in the Old Testament book of Proverbs is one of the Bible’s most beautiful verses on the subject of God’s will. Proverbs 27:8 says:

Like a bird that wanders from its nest is a man who wanders from his place. (N.K.J.V.)

Tell me, are you right now in your place? Are you living where God wants you to be living? Are you working where He wants you to be working? Are you going to church where He wants you to be going to church? Are you engaged in those activities in which He wants you to be engaged?

A nest is the best place in all the world for a bird to be. It is nothing less than home. A bird in its nest is safe because predators can’t harm it there. A bird in its nest is at rest because no bird can fly incessantly. A bird in its nest is perfectly natural because a bird standing in the middle of an interstate just seems wrong.

Of course, the primary reason why a bird builds a nest is to raise a family. Different species handle this assignment in different ways, but oftentimes the father bird and mother bird work together to build the nest. Then the mother bird lays her eggs and incubates them, while the father bird keeps her provided with food. Next, once the eggs hatch, the father bird continues to provide food for the family. Finally, when the offspring are mature enough, they are pushed out of the nest so they can fly off and build their own nests.

By the way, the fact that the baby birds ultimately leave the nest shows us that there is nothing wrong with a person moving away from his or her home “nest.” Remember that it was God Himself who told Abraham to leave his hometown of Ur and move to a land that He would show him (Genesis 12:1). For that matter, most species of birds build new nests each year. So, obviously, Proverbs 27:8 isn’t the Bible’s way of forbidding us from ever leaving home or embarking on some new adventure in life.

Instead, the teaching is simply that each individual should strive to live every day in the center of God’s will for his or her life. If God’s will means staying in the same spot where you’ve been for the last ten years, so be it. If it means making a change and building some type of new nest, that’s okay, too. The key is to always be at your post in life, the post where God has you stationed for the time being.

We get ourselves into trouble anytime we prematurely wander away from a nest where God wants us to remain. And most of us have faced this temptation, haven’t we? “I’m tired of this job; I’m going to quit.” “This town is driving me crazy; I need to try someplace new.” “I’ve been playing this role long enough; it’s time for somebody else to do it.” “This marriage isn’t working; I know I could be happier with someone else.” Watch out, little bird, are you sure that leaving that nest is really God’s will?

Perhaps today you are contemplating making a major change in your life. If you are, please know that I didn’t write this post to scare you out of going through with what you are planning. Like I said, there are definitely times when God’s will calls for us to change nests. But I am trying to warn you about the dangers of wandering away from a place where God wants you to remain (at least for a little while longer). Just as a bird in its nest is safe and at peace, a bird that has foolishly abandoned its nest isn’t. That’s why we should always make sure that we are moving at God’s bidding and not our own. Keep this in mind as you consider whether or not to leave your current nest, and ask the Lord to help you always be in your proper place, wherever that might keep you or take you.

Posted in Choices, Contentment, Decisions, Discernment, Discipleship, Faithfulness, God's Will, Temptation, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , , , , | 26 Comments

A Good Word of Prophecy About Environmentalism

Posted on December 2, 2011 by russellmckinney

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. (Romans 8:18-22, N.K.J.V., emphasis mine)

I purposely placed each use of the word “creation” in boldface type because I want to draw your attention to that topic. You see, these verses teach us something very important about creation. They teach that all of creation got swiped hard by Adam’s sin in the garden of Eden. Putting it another way, sin didn’t just do a number on the human race; it did a number on creation itself.

We must be careful not to read into Genesis chapter 3 that God actually cursed Adam. You won’t find that in the chapter. But what you will find is that God cursed the serpent (v.14) and the ground (v.17). Concerning the ground, He said to Adam “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field” (v.17-18). For the record, the fact of the ground being cursed by the Lord is repeated in Genesis 5:29.

No doubt Adam came to understand all too well that the earth’s soil was now cursed. But did he understand the full scope of the effects of his sin? Did he understand that it wasn’t just the dirt underneath him that would now be made to “groan” but all of creation itself?

It is interesting that the earth’s creatures were not originally designed to eat each other. Genesis 1:30 clearly states that the creatures all ate herbs, as did Adam and Eve (1:29), before sin entered the picture. The Bible doesn’t come right out and say exactly when the creatures started killing one another, but many believe that it wasn’t until after the flood of Noah. If this understanding is correct, it would explain why the creatures aboard the ark didn’t kill each other.

What we do know is that it was God’s post-flood instructions to Noah that made it “legal” for humans to kill and eat animals. God said, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs” (Genesis 9:3). Not coincidentally, that’s also when a fear of humans settled upon all creatures (Genesis 9:2).

And so, the creatures of the earth got caught in the avalanche of the effects of Adam’s sin upon all creation. Not only did the human race become an unholy mess, so did the animal kingdom. As one writer has put it: “Look out the window. When you see the bird after the worm, the cat after the bird, and the dog after the cat, that gives you a little better understanding of the morning news.”

Nevertheless, you’ll notice that our text passage from Romans speaks of a glorious time when the “futility” to which creation has been subjected will be lifted and creation will be delivered from its “bondage of corruption.” When will this time be? The passage describes it as the time of “the revealing of the sons of God.” Okay, so when will that occur? It will take place at Christ’s Second Coming, at the end of the prophesied seven-year Tribulation period that is scheduled for this world’s future. At that Second Coming, Christ will establish His 1,000 year reign upon this earth.

Jesus will rule from the city of Jerusalem, and at the start of His reign, He will miraculously restore the earth and its creatures to something akin to their pre-sin state. Isaiah 35:1 talks about the desert blossoming as a rose and the wilderness and wasteland being made glad. Furthermore, Isaiah 11:6-8 talks about the wolf dwelling with the lamb, the leopard lying down with the young goat, the young lion lying down with the calf, the bear and the cow grazing together, the lion eating straw like an ox, and a child being able to play near the hole of a poisonous snake without fear of being harmed. What an incredible age it will be!

William MacDonald has given us with some excellent words on all this. In his commentary thoughts on Romans chapter 8, he writes:

When Adam sinned, his transgression affected not only mankind, but all creation, both animate and inanimate. The ground is cursed. Many wild animals die violent deaths. Disease afflicts birds and animals as well as fish and serpents. The results of man’s sin have rippled like shockwaves throughout all creation…We live in a sighing, sobbing, suffering world. The whole creation groans and suffers pain like that of childbirth. Nature’s music is in the minor key. The earth is racked by cataclysm. The blight of death is on every living thing…Creation looks back to the ideal conditions that existed in Eden. Then it surveys the havoc that was caused by the entrance of sin. Always there has been the hope of a return to an idyllic state, when creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption to enjoy the freedom of the golden era when we as God’s children will be revealed in glory.

I don’t know about you, but I’m like creation in that I long for this coming age. I wouldn’t call myself an environmentalist in the way the word gets used politically, but I am certainly full on board with Jesus restoring all of creation, including the creatures of the earth, to a pristine, peaceful state. The old saying, “It’s a jungle out there” will no longer apply then, and the term “animal kingdom” will be trumped by the term “Christ’s kingdom.” And, as a Christian (one of “the children of God”), I’ll be there to see it all and enjoy it.

Posted in Christ's Second Coming, Christ's Return, Creation, Prophecy, Restoration, Suffering | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Be a UCLA Basketball Player

Posted on December 1, 2011 by russellmckinney

Dr. Paul Chappell is the founding pastor of Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, California. He tells the following story:

Last week we took our singles on a retreat up to beautiful Yosemite National Park. As we got back in for the evening service where I was to preach, one of our men said, “Pastor, I met a doctor who had brought a group of multiple-handicapped children to Yosemite. For many months they had studied about Yosemite. They began dreaming that somehow they might be able to go up the Bridal Veil Trail and see some of the park. So the doctor brought them.

As they came to this particular trail, it was very, very difficult for them. In fact, they were really just inching their way along. But they had this dream and wanted somehow to make their way up.

The doctor said as they were just inching their way up this trail, down from the mountaintop came a tremendous group of young men – tall men. As it turned out, the basketball team from UCLA had run up and down the trail, getting ready for their season. As those basketball players went by those young children with their multiple handicaps, the doctor said it was as if hope just fell out of their hearts and the actuality of their handicaps seemed to settle in, in a very significant way.

But the doctor said something wonderful happened about an hour later. That same team came running back up the trail, but this time each player picked up one of the handicapped children, put him on his back and ran him all the way up to the top of that mountain, then all the way back down to the bottom of the mountain.

Today it might just be in your power to give someone a much needed lift. Even if the lift isn’t a literal one (as in the story), it can be an emotional or spiritual one. If such an opportunity presents itself, don’t hesitate to embrace it. It could just be that somebody out there right now really needs you. Don’t let them face their mountain alone.

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:9-10, N.K.J.V.)

Posted in Doing Good, Encouragement, God's Work, Ministry, Sowing and Reaping, Sports | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

A Little Bit of Rambling From a Tired Parent

Posted on November 29, 2011 by russellmckinney

It’s been a week since I last posted anything. The delay hasn’t been because I’ve run out of anything to say, but rather because I just haven’t had the time to sit down and write. Last week, of course, featured Thanksgiving day and Black Friday. That put the boys home from school, which doesn’t exactly help the writing process. We also had the big family meal at our house Thursday. Wednesday saw a lot of preparation for that and Friday saw a lot of recovering from it. I spent much of Saturday finishing up my Sunday morning sermon, and then yesterday featured a lot of errands topped off with Ryan’s j.v. basketball game.

I could say that it’s a busy time of year, but that would imply that there is one that isn’t busy. When you have two boys who each play three sports, you don’t get an off season. I sometimes find myself looking forward to the time when they’ll be out on their own. Then I have to remind myself that I should be savoring these days when we are all under one roof.

When I take a bird’s eye view of my life, the days of having the boys at home are a relatively small percentage of it. Since Ryan is three-and-a-half years older than Royce, let’s approximate those days at 25 years. Even that is giving both boys credit for checking in at home occasionally while they attend college. (And, yes, I do expect them to go to college.) So if I live to be 75 years old, 25 years would be one-third of my life.

But isn’t it funny how that one-third is intense enough to dwarf the remaining two-thirds? It kind of reminds me of what I said about our big family meal last Thursday. It takes you a while to prepare for it and it takes you a while to recover from it.

Please understand that the last thing I’m doing here is complaining about having kids. Truly, I’m in full agreement with Psalm 127:3-5, which says:

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The Fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate. (N.K.J.V.)

I’m merely pointing out the obvious fact that the daily grind of raising kids can wear you down. For example, for Christmas to be a magical season for them, moms and dads have to make it happen. And there’s certainly nothing magical about shopping malls, traffic jams, and spending money, is there?

It’s interesting that those verses from Psalm 127 describe grown children as being both weapons and protectors for their father. The passage refers to them as arrows, which makes them weapons. But what does it mean that they “shall speak with their enemies in the gate”? Well, in Bible times they didn’t have courthouses, law offices, or register of deeds offices. A city’s legal transactions were conducted at its gates by the elders. Disputes were settled there as well. So, speaking with an enemy in the gate would have amounted to representing your father in a legal dispute between your father and his enemy. That, you see, covers the idea of children playing the role of protectors.

I have to say that I like the sounds of all that. When I’m older I’ll no doubt need not only some weaponry but also some protection, and these will be two of my rewards for doing a good job at childrearing. Until then, though, I’m still looking at a lot of work and expense.

Are there joys and blessings along the way? Sure, far more than I could name. I mean, it’s not like everything about the task falls under the category of “grind.” And, furthermore, I fully understand that my responsibilities as a parent won’t end when the boys leave home. Trust me, I have no plans to abandon them when they get to be adults. I guess today I’m just feeling a little run down. I probably need a vacation. It would do me and Tonya some good to get away for a while. Then again, the last vacation we took we had Ryan and Royce right there with us in the van. Oh well, forget that.

Posted in Aging, Children, Christmas, Fatherhood, Parenting, Personal, Reward, Thanksgiving, Work | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

Posted on November 22, 2011 by russellmckinney

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

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

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

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

Posted in Attitude, Backsliding, Change, God's Love, God's Provision, Prayer, Preaching, Thanksgiving | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

So Far, So Good

Posted on November 18, 2011 by russellmckinney

A man jumped off the Empire State building. As he went plunging down past the 50th floor, an onlooker spoke to him from an open window and said, “Well, how does it feel?” The jumper answered, “So far, so good.”

Just as that jumper didn’t grasp that the end of the story hadn’t been written yet, many people don’t understand that we shouldn’t judge God’s opinion of a situation based solely upon the current outlook. Take the great flood for instance. Genesis 6:3 tells us that God instituted nothing less than a 120-year countdown for that judgment:

And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” (N.K.J.V.)

(By the way, some have wrongly taught that this statement was God limiting the individual lifespan to 120 years. However, long after the flood, the likes of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Ishmael, and Jacob each lived more than 120 years. So, clearly, the 120 years refers to how long it would be before the flood struck.)

Now imagine that you were a citizen of earth during those 120 years. Couldn’t you have said, “So far, so good”? Jesus spoke of the footloose and carefree attitude that people had during those years. He said:

“For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them all away…” (Matthew 24:38-39, N.K.J.V.)

It’s here that I could really run with the fact that Bible prophecy teaches that this world has some dark days slated for its future. I mean, it’s hard to read Revelation chapters 6 through 19 and miss that. But I feel led to present the application in a different way.

Rather than focus upon the coming judgment laid out in Bible prophecy, I want to ask you to examine your own life. Have you been engaging in some sin for which you haven’t paid the price yet? If the answer is yes, consider this post to be your wake-up call. God is longsuffering, but He isn’t foreversuffering, and just because you have gotten by with your sin so far, you shouldn’t take that to mean that you are untouchable. The truth is, you’re already on God’s countdown and a flood is headed your way. So, why don’t you repent of your sin today, confess it to Jesus, and lay hold of the forgiveness that comes with believing in Him as your personal Savior? If you don’t, all I can say is enjoy the freefall while it lasts because you won’t like how it ends.

Posted in Addiction, Adultery, Backsliding, Coming Judgment, Confession, Conscience, Conviction, Forgiveness, Gambling, Gluttony, God's Wrath, God's Judgment, Guilt, Homosexuality, Lust, Lying, Making Restitution, Personal Holiness, Racism, Rebellion, Repentance, Sex, Sin, Sowing and Reaping, Temptation, The Tongue | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments