When a Strength Becomes a Weakness

Posted on December 26, 2011 by russellmckinney

It is paradoxical, as well as sad, that God’s servant will often fail in the very area in which he or she is normally strong. The Bible offers us several case studies of this strange fact. Let me share three of those examples with you.

I’ll start with Abraham. He was a man who exhibited enough faith to pack up his belongings, leave his hometown of Ur, and begin an epic journey to an unknown land God promised to show him (Genesis 12:1-5). But what happened when Abraham arrived in that promised land of Canaan? He was greeted there by a famine. So what did he do? He lost faith that God would provide for him during that famine and went down to Egypt. There in Egypt, he showed his lack of faith in God’s protection by instructing his beautiful wife, Sarai, to lie by saying that she was his sister (Genesis 12:10-20). And would you believe that he even repeated this exact same sin many years later when he was in Gerar and dealing with Abimelech, the king of Gerar (Genesis 20:1-18)? What happened to your great faith, Abraham?

Next, I’ll mention Moses. He was a very mild-mannered man who certainly didn’t have a problem with ego or bravado. As a matter of fact, we can read Exodus chapters 3 and 4 and see that it was all that God could do to get him to return to Egypt and lead Israel. Moses was quick to say, “Lord, who am I to be such a leader? I am not an eloquent man. Please, send whomever else you will.” Numbers 12:3 even says that Moses was more humble (meek, gentle, kind) than all men who were on the face of the earth. That’s an amazing statement! But how did Moses ultimately get himself into trouble and miss out on entering into the promised land of Canaan himself? In a fit of anger and rage, he rebuked the people and struck the rock twice when God had commanded him to merely speak to it. He also spoke as if he and Aaron, rather than God, caused the water to gush from the rock (Numbers 20:1-13). What happened to your great humility, Moses?

Lastly, I’ll mention Elijah. He showed astounding courage in going to Ahab, the king of Israel, and proclaiming, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1). He showed just as much courage, if not more, in taking on and defeating Ahab’s prophets of Baal in a great showdown atop Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:20-40). But what did he do right on the heels of that landmark victory? He heard that Ahab’s queen, Jezebel, had put a death sentence on his head and he fled. Then, when he reached a certain place out there in the wilderness, he prayed and asked God to take his life (1 Kings 19:1-4). What happened to your great courage, Elijah?

If it sounds like I’m picking on Abraham, Moses, and Elijah, I’m not. The fact is, these are just three of a lengthy list of Bible characters who failed in the very areas in which they were normally strong. This should teach us that we ourselves aren’t immune to this particular problem. So, do you have an area in which you are especially strong in your walk with the Lord? If you do, be sure to keep yourself vigilant in that area. Don’t let yourself become overconfident to the point where you drop your guard. Remember, if it happened to the likes of Abraham, Moses, and Elijah, it can happen to you.

Posted in Adversity, Backsliding, Courage, Faith, Fear, Humility, Individuality, Personal Holiness, Pride, Sin | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Little Fun At Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2011 by russellmckinney

A little boy decided that it was time that he started wearing a watch, so that he could look grown up like his dad. Several weeks before Christmas he started telling his parents, “I want a watch for Christmas.” Day after day he would find some way to work that request into a conversation. It finally got to the point where his dad was tired of hearing about that watch. He said, “Son, knock it off. We know that you want a watch for Christmas. We’ve heard.” So the boy hushed about it.

Three days before Christmas the family sat down to a typical evening meal. The boy said, “Daddy, may I say the prayer over this food?” The father was stunned because the boy had never offered to pray before, but he proudly consented. Once everyone had bowed their heads, the boy began: “Oh Lord, we thank You for this food. We thank you for all Your other blessings too, blessings such as Your word. And we know that in Mark 13:37 Jesus says something very important. He says, ‘And what I say to you, I say to you all: WATCH!'”

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Posted in Christmas, Humor | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Peace That Jesus Brings

Posted on December 23, 2011 by russellmckinney

In my last post I explained that even though Christ’s birth didn’t actually usher in a time of “peace on earth,” prophecy teaches that one day He will bring in such a time, one thousand years worth of it to be exact. Now, with this post, I want to explain that Christ’s birth did usher in a time when the individual who believes in Him as Savior can come to know a personal peace.

First, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with God, his Maker. The classic verse on this is Romans 5:1:

Therefore, having been justified by faith (referring to faith in Christ), we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (N.K.J.V.)

I’m reminded of that story about the preacher who asked the man, “Have you made peace with God?” The man answered, “I didn’t know that we were fighting.” Well, the fact is that every member of the human race is born fighting with God. Romans 3:10-12 says:

There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one. (N.K.J.V.)

Yes, the sinner is at war with holy God. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that Jesus, through His shed blood (Colossians 1:19-20), has laid a peace treaty on the table for any individual who will sign it. Isaiah 53:5 describes it so beautifully:

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for out iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. (N.K.J.V.)

Second, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with himself. Christ’s words from John 14:27 refer to this kind of inner peace. He says to His disciples:

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

In a recent series of devotions, my friend Malcolm Woody has been dissecting Philippians chapter 4, specifically as the verses relate to the inner peace of the believer. The devotions have driven home to me afresh and anew the fact that inner peace is there for the taking if the believer desires it. But even as I read those devotions each day it didn’t dawn on me that there was one particular area of my life concerning which I didn’t have an inner peace. It wasn’t until my brother Richie pointedly said to me the other day, “You just don’t a peace about you right now,” that I came to grips with the truth of that statement. I feel like the Lord worked through Malcolm’s devotions to set me on a tee and then He worked through Richie to whack me out of the park. Since my conversation with Richie, I’ve really been working hard at accessing the inner peace that I am afforded in Jesus as it relates to that one troublesome area of my life.

Christian, I gave you that bit of personal testimony to let you know that I speak from personal experience when I ask you if your heart is troubled about something right now. Is there some circumstance, some situation, some problem in your life for which you have no inner peace? If there is, you are, as I was, living beneath your privilege because you aren’t abiding in the peace that Jesus has given you. You need to repent of your worrying. You need to give up on trying to control things you can’t control. Most of all, you need to put your complete trust in your sovereign Savior and let His peace well up from inside you and begin to dominate your life as it should. A troubled heart and the peace that Jesus has given you just can’t coexist. We, as Christians, should obey the command of Colossians 3:15 and “let the peace of God rule in our hearts.”

Third, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with others. Ephesians 2:14 plays off the fact that in the Jewish temple there was a wall that separated the Court of the Gentiles from the areas that were exclusively for the Jews. The verse says of Jesus:

For He Himself is our peace, who made both (the Jew and the Gentile) one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation. (N.K.J.V.)

In Bible times, it would have been impossible to imagine two more different people than the Jew and the Gentile. They were completely different races. They came from radically different backgrounds. They had strikingly different customs. And yet, through Jesus, the Jew and the Gentile could now be at peace with each other. This proves that, through Jesus, the Christian can peaceably get along with others. Jesus Himself says in Mark 9:50, “…have peace with one another.” Hebrews 12:14 chimes right in with that by saying, “…Pursue peace with all people.” And in 1 Thessalonians 5:13, Paul says to the Christians of Thessalonica, “Be at peace among yourselves.”

On the heels of such verses, you know what I’m going to ask you: “Are you fighting with someone right now? Is there a person with which you currently are not at peace?” If there is, let me encourage you to do all that you can to make peace with them, whoever they are. Remember that in His Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught that His followers (whom He called sons of God) should be “peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). That means you, Christian. I’ll also quote Paul again here too. In Romans 12:18, he says:

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. (N.K.J.V.)

These words certainly ring true for any time of the year, but surely they ring all the more true for this season of Christmas. How can a Christian properly celebrate the birth of his Savior, the Peace-Giver, if he is at war with a fellow human being? I know, I know, Paul said “If it is possible…”, and maybe you are saying, “It’s just not possible with that person.” Well, maybe it isn’t, and maybe you and that person will never want to climb into a car and take a road-trip together, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t at least do your part to make peace. At the very least, you can stop throwing gasoline onto the fire and making the relationship worse. Ask Jesus to help you to know exactly what to do and what not to do, and trust that He will. Take heart in the fact that peace between yourself and others is one of the kinds of peace that He died to bring you.

Posted in Adversity, Attitude, Christ's Birth, Christmas, Doing Good, Extending Forgiveness, Inner Peace, Personal, Personal Holiness, Salvation, The Sermon On The Mount, Trusting In God, Worry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Peace On Earth?

Posted on December 22, 2011 by russellmckinney

What was it those angels said on the night of Christ’s birth? The New King James Version of Luke 2:14 renders it: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” That translation simply follows the classic King James Version. Other translations, however, do a better job of conveying the meaning of the original Greek. Consider the following:

-The New America Standard: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

-The New International Version: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

-The Revised Standard Version: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

-The Holman Christian Standard: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!”

In case you are wondering why it’s important to nail down the translation so precisely, it’s because there are those who try to make something of the fact that Christ’s birth really didn’t bring peace on earth. Obviously, there have been untold numbers of wars since His birth, just as there were untold numbers of them before His birth. But as we see in these various other translations of the angels’ quote, this argument reads something into the quote that actually isn’t there.

You see, the angels weren’t saying that there would be peace on earth. That wrong idea sprang from the inferior translation of the cherished King James Version. If the angels really were saying that Christ’s birth would bring peace on earth, why did Jesus Himself prophesy that the future would bring “wars and rumors of wars” and that “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom”? (Matthew 24:6-7) Even more than that, why did He flatly say, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword”? (Matthew 10:34)

Still, what we need to understand is that there will come a time when there will be peace on earth, and Jesus will be the cause of it. That time will be His 1,000-year reign upon this earth. Isaiah 2:4 describes it this way:

He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (N.K.J.V.)

Of course, Christ’s 1,000 year reign isn’t here yet, is it? And according to Bible prophecy, a lot has to happen before it gets here. A detailed list of events and proof texts would go on for pages, but here at least are the major highlights:

-There has to be Christ’s snatching away of His people in what is called the Rapture. (1 Corinthians 15:50-58, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

-There has to be the rise of the Antichrist and his right hand man the False Prophet. (Revelation 13:1-18)

-There has to be a seven-year Tribulation period. (Daniel 9:20-27, Revelation chapters 6 through 18)

-There has to be a Battle of Armageddon that climaxes the Tribulation period. (Revelation 16:12-16, 19:19)

-There has to be Christ’s Second Coming to literally walk this earth again and win the battle of Armageddon. (Revelation 19:11-21)

-There has to be the capturing of the Antichrist and the False Prophet and their banishing to the eternal lake of fire. (Revelation 19:20)

-There has to be the binding of Satan and the imprisoning of Him in the bottomless pit for the 1,000 years of Christ’s earthly reign. (Revelation 20:1-3)

-There has to be the great dividing between the living “lost” (those who took the so-called “mark of the beast” during the tribulation period and lived to see the end of the period) from the living “saved” (those who accepted Christ as Savior during the Tribulation period and lived to see the end of the period). (Matthew 25:31-46, Revelation 13:11-18)

-There has to be Christ’s formal establishing of His Kingdom throne in Jerusalem. (Psalm 2:6-12, Zephaniah 3:14-15, Isaiah 9:6-7, Jeremiah 23:5-6, Daniel 2:44)

And so, as we can see, this world isn’t anywhere near ready for Jesus to reign over it in peace. As a matter of fact, the death tolls that will come from the battles and wars during the Tribulation period will be almost beyond belief (Revelation 6:3-8, 7:9-17, 9:13-19). But world peace truly is coming one day. And who will bring it in? Not surprisingly, it will be the One who was born on that starry night so long ago. He is, after all, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

Posted in Angels, Christ's Second Coming, Christ's Birth, Christ's Return, Christmas, Coming Judgment, God's Timing, King James Only, Prophecy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

An Underappreciated Part of the Gift

Posted on December 20, 2011 by russellmckinney

In Africa, a missionary teacher did her best to explain the meaning of the Christmas holiday to her children. As a part of her explanation, she told them that Christians give presents to each other at Christmas as a way of symbolizing that God the Father gave mankind the greatest gift of all in Jesus Christ. One boy in particular seemed fascinated by her words.

When Christmas day came, that boy brought the teacher a gift – an extraordinarily beautiful sea shell. She asked him, “Where did you find such a beautiful shell?” In reply, he told her that shells of that kind could only be found in one place, in a bay several miles away. She said, “But you shouldn’t have gone that far just to get a gift for me.” He answered in his broken English, “Long walk part of gift.”

I can’t read that illustration and not think of how Jesus left the glorious splendor of heaven and His throne at the right hand of God the Father to descend down into time, history, and the human race and have an animal’s feeding trough as his first crib. As 2 Corinthians 8:9 puts it:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

You see, Jesus was the “gift” in those famous words: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). I suppose then we might loosely say of Him, “Long walk part of gift.”

Posted in Christ's Birth, Christmas | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

What Two Boys Can Teach Us About Christmas

Posted on December 19, 2011 by russellmckinney

One of my favorite Christmas illustrations is a true story that took place many years ago in Paines Hollow, New York. There was a thirteen-year-old boy who attended Mohawk Central School in that city. One year, at Christmastime, he heard an appeal for contributions to Santa Claus Anonymous, a group that provided gifts for poor children who would otherwise not receive any Christmas presents. The boy truly felt for the underprivileged children and desperately wanted to contribute some money to the cause. So, he scrimped and saved wherever he could and managed to come up with fifteen cents to contribute. He figured that it wasn’t much but at least it was something.

Unfortunately for the boy, a blizzard buried the area in snow on the last day before school dismissed for Christmas vacation. The buses couldn’t run, which meant that he couldn’t get to school to put in his fifteen cents. Undeterred, he made the long walk through the deep snow to personally deliver the money to the school principal. As the principal graciously accepted the meager offering, he could barely hold back the tears in his eyes. You see, that boy was one of the impoverished children on the list to receive a Christmas present from Santa Claus Anonymous.

Several years ago, on a Thursday night, our oldest son, Ryan, had a j.v. basketball game. Tonya and I went to the game, but we left our then ten-year-old, Royce, with Tonya’s parents. When the game was over, I went and got Royce, and once I had him in the car it wasn’t long before I learned that he had surprises for me, Tonya, and Ryan. He had the surprises hidden in a bag, and I would have to wait until we got home for the big revealing.

After we got home, Royce excitedly gathered us into the bedroom and began handing out the surprises. As it turned out, they were Christmas ornaments he had gotten Tonya’s parents to buy when they had taken him to a store that night. Ryan got the ornament that looked like a fish because he loves fishing. Tonya got the one that said “World’s Greatest Mom.” I got the one that had the Bible on it because I am a preacher.

Were these ornaments expensive? No way. We’re not talking Hallmark collectibles here. Had Royce used his own money to pay for them? Not a chance. Grandpa and Grandma wouldn’t have heard of him paying for anything! But were those ornaments wonderful? Absolutely. The fact that they came from our little boy’s giving heart made them priceless. I was so proud of him for somehow instinctively understanding something that most of us forget: It is better to give than to receive. By the way, if that sounds familiar, it’s a quote from Jesus. Go read Acts 20:35 for your Christmas homework right now and let those words from the Savior keep you in the right spirit this holiday season.

Posted in Children, Christmas, Giving, Personal, Youth | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

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.

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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