What Love for Jesus Looks Like

Posted on July 25, 2009 by russellmckinney

Harry Winston, the famous New York diamond dealer, once heard about a wealthy Dutch merchant who was looking for a certain kind of diamond to add to his collection. Winston called the merchant, told him he thought he had just the stone, and invited the man to come to New York to examine it.

The collector flew to New York, where Winston assigned a salesman to show him the diamond. As the salesman presented the diamond, he pointed out all of its exquisite features. The merchant listened attentively but finally turned away and said, “It’s a wonderful stone but not exactly what I wanted.”

Winston, who had been watching the presentation from a distance, stopped the merchant and asked, “Do you mind if I show you the diamond again?” The merchant agreed, and Winston presented the same stone. However, instead of talking about the stone’s fine technical features, Winston spoke of his genuine admiration of the diamond and what a rare thing of beauty it was. When he was finished, the merchant changed his mind and bought the stone.

While he was waiting for the diamond to be packaged and brought to him, the merchant asked Winston, “Why did I buy it from you when I had no difficulty turning down your salesman?” Winston answered, “That salesman is one of the best in the business. He knows more about diamonds than I do, and I pay him a good salary for what he knows. But I would gladly pay him twice as much if I could put something into him, something I have and he lacks. You see, he knows diamonds, but I love them.”

Our churches are home to all kinds of people who know Jesus. They know about His deity, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His teachings, His death on the cross, His resurrection, and His ascension. But so many of these people don’t really love Jesus, at least not in the way He wants them to love Him. What I mean is, He isn’t the all-consuming passion of their lives. He isn’t the singular, driving force that serves as their engine. They don’t seek His will above their own in every decision and circumstance.

The story of how Jesus restored Peter after Peter had denied Him three times is recorded in John 21:15-19. I won’t go into the details of the story, but the fundamental question Jesus asks Peter three times is a simple one: “Do you love Me?” Isn’t it amazing how the answer to that question can change everything about a situation?

A professing Christian is addicted to pornography. Jesus comes and asks, “Do you love Me?” Another is addicted to drugs or alcohol. The question is the same: “Do you love Me?” Another is having an affair. Jesus’ question to that professing Christian is not, “Do you love your spouse?” It is, “Do you love Me?” You see, if the answer to Jesus’ question is an honest “Yes,” the sinful conduct must stop. If it doesn’t, that proves that the person’s love of the addiction, sin, etc. is more than their love for Jesus.

A father asked his wayward daughter, “Do you love Jesus?” The daughter answered, “Yes, I do.” The father said, “Well, suppose you come to me and say, ‘Dad, I love you,’ but then you go out and directly disobey me. Could I honestly believe that you love me?” The daughter, already sensing where the father was headed with his logic, sheepishly answered, “No.” “How then,” asked the father, “can I believe that you love Jesus when I see you do things every day that He forbids?” Then the father put an exclamation point on his line of reasoning by quoting Christ’s words from John 14:15: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

I dare say that no text in all the Bible needs to be preached to today’s professing Christians any more than those simple words: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” You can be a lover of Jesus or a murderer, but you can’t be both. You can be a lover of Jesus or an adulterer, but you can’t be both. You can be a lover of Jesus or a thief, but you can’t be both. You can be a lover of Jesus or a liar, but you can’t be both. You can be a lover of Jesus or a coveter, but you can’t be both.  Let us never forget that Jesus isn’t impressed with lip-service. When He looks for your love, He looks for conduct. To Him, they are pretty much one and the same.

Posted in Addiction, Alcohol, Backsliding, Choices, Commitment, Confession, Discipleship, Disobedience, Doing Good, Dress and Appearance, Drugs, Dying To Self, Faithfulness, Gambling, Gluttony, God's Holiness, God's Will, Holiness, Love, Obedience, Personal Holiness, Priorities, Rebellion, Repentance, Sanctification, Separation, Sin, Temptation | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Beer and Boycotts

Posted on July 21, 2009 by russellmckinney

Our little town of Spruce Pine recently voted to turn “wet” by allowing the sale of beer and wine inside the city limits. Needless to say, this was major news. Many of the churches of the area banded together and put up a real fight. In the end, though, the vote passed by a slim margin.

One of the primary reasons why it passed was the fact that the entire county hadn’t been truly “dry” for a long time. For decades, bootleggers prospered in these parts. Then came a couple of restaurants that were located close enough to the Blue Ridge Parkway to get special exemptions to sell spirits. Finally, our local golf course erected a pitiful looking little tennis court that allowed it to claim the coveted title “sports club,” a title that carries with it the legal permission to sell beer and wine on the premises. Consequently, it didn’t take long for a package store to be built in the course’s parking lot and become one of the region’s top money-makers. Of course, we’re still waiting for someone to actually play a tennis match on that court.

And so, Spruce Pine now has beer and wine running out its nose. The Walmart Supercenter stocks the stuff, as does the Ingles grocery store. A vacant building has been chosen as the site for an ABC store, and some of our restaurants have begun offering beer and wine on their menus. This is where our local pastors’ conference comes into the story.

I attend the conference most every Monday morning. We meet at 10:00 a.m., shoot the bull for a few minutes, take some praise reports and prayer requests, have a time of prayer, and then listen as one of us preaches a sermon. We dismiss after the sermon, choose a place to eat, and meet at that restaurant. We vary where we eat because no one wants to eat the same food over and over again.

A few Mondays back, I couldn’t attend the conference, but I found out later that the guys had eaten at the Mexican restaurant in downtown Spruce Pine. We’d gone there plenty of times before, but this time was different. This time the restaurant offered beer and wine on the menu. The fellows didn’t think too much about it, but somehow the word got out that the local pastors didn’t mind patronizing joints that served booze. This is where our local paper comes into the story.

Our paper features a controversial section called “Rants and Raves.” The idea is that any anonymous person can use that section to register a complaint or a compliment. Of course, the complaints seem to outnumber the compliments about four to one. I guess if you want to compliment someone you don’t mind leaving your name.

Well, one specific “Rants and Raves” piece was a rant about the local pastors frequenting a restaurant that offered beer and wine. I don’t know how the person spotted the guys. Did he or she see them going in or out of the restaurant? Did someone else pass along the information? I certainly hope the person wasn’t in the restaurant himself or herself when the pastors were in there. That would be hypocrisy.

Anyway, this is where one of the pastors comes into the story. An elderly gentleman, one we all genuinely like and respect, was scheduled to preach the following Monday morning. Before he began his sermon, he commented on the rant and, from everything we could tell, agreed with it. I figured he could do so because he hadn’t eaten at the restaurant. (All the pastors don’t always come along for the after-conference meal).

The man quoted from 2nd Corinthians 6:14-18, parts of which say: “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?…’Come out from among them and be separate’, says the Lord. ‘Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.'” He also quoted from 1st John 2:15: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

To really drive home his point, he told us he no longer shopped at the local Ingles because of the beer and wine on the shelves. He didn’t mention the Walmart Supercenter, but some of us were dying to ask if he still shopped there. No one dared broach that subject, though.

After the conference, we got together to decide where to eat. Even though the elderly pastor didn’t plan to go with us, you can imagine that it didn’t take long for someone to say, “I guess the Mexican place is out!” We ended up eating at a little “mom and pop” spot where the burgers are great and there is no beer and wine. Over the course of the meal, the conversation naturally turned to the question of whether or not a Christian should frequent a business that sells alcohol.

None of us at the table that day took the position that a Christian should totally boycott such establishments. To us, that was being too extreme. Consider these facts:

#1: While it’s true that we Christians are not to be “of the world,” we are still very much “in the world” (John 17:14-18). Paul said the only way to get totally away from sinful people would be to go “out of the world” (1st Corinthians 5:9-10).

#2: Since Jesus frequently ate with and associated with those whom the legalists considered “sinners,” Biblical separation obviously doesn’t mean monk-like isolationism.

#3: The truth is that many good students of the Bible (including this writer) do not believe it totally forbids all alcoholic consumption. Drunkenness? Certainly. All partaking of alcohol? No. I could cite several examples here, but I’ll limit myself to one. In 1st Timothy 5:23, Paul says to Timothy, “Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine for your stomach’s sake because of your frequent illnesses.” You see, if the wine was just grape juice, Paul wouldn’t have advised drinking just a “little.” (By the way, please don’t read into this that I’m glad our town now has legal beer and wine. I’m simply trying to interpret the Bible as accurately as I can.)

Here’s something else to consider: the incredibly complex and interwoven nature of America’s companies and corporations. Many years ago, when I was the pastor of a Southern Baptist Convention church, the denomination formally called upon its churches to boycott the Walt Disney company because of Disney’s homosexual CEO and its increasingly troubling products. However, since Disney also owned ABC, ESPN, and movie production companies such as Touchstone, Hollywood, and Miramax, boycotting it meant boycotting a fairly large slice of life.

For example, our local news is broadcast on channel 13, which is an ABC station. The biggest basketball game in our state is Duke-North Carolina, and ESPN always carries that game. Touchstone Pictures produced the wildly popular kids’ movies “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “The Santa Claus.” Hollywood Pictures produced one of my all-time favorite movies, “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” Miramax, under its Dimension Films subdivision, produced the “Spy Kids” movies. Obviously, if you are truly going to boycott Disney, you’re going to have to work at it.

The same applies to a thorough boycotting of alcohol. My two boys love to watch Albert Pujols hit, but I guess they would have to stop watching. Why? It’s because Pujols plays for the St. Louis Cardinals, who for years were owned by Anheuser Busch. As a matter of fact, the home stadium Pujols plays in still bears the name Busch Stadium. (Along the same lines, the Colorado Rockies play on Coors Field.) Likewise, do you enjoy watching NFL games, NBA games, college football games, and NASCAR races? Well, they are all built around money from beer companies. Any ideal boycott must take all of this into consideration.

And what about that “mom and pop” burger place where we ate? Do they buy their hamburger buns, soft drinks, napkins, or ketchup from Ingles or Walmart? Even if they buy their buns directly from a bread company such as Sunbeam, Sunbeam sells its bread at Ingles and Walmart. Doesn’t that require what some preachers call “secondary separation”?

My point is that we get into a real quagmire when we start boycotting every business we categorize as “bad.” If I want to go to a movie theater and see a Christian movie such as “Flywheel,” “Facing The Giants,” or “Fireproof,” I can’t. Remember, that same theater shows some movies of which I disapprove. If I want to take my son’s baseball team to a minor league game as a reward for a good season, I can’t because that minor league park sells beer at the concession stand. Do you understand what I’m getting at? To use an Ernest T. Bass word from the Andy Griffith show, you just can’t hermatize yourself.

Now let me tell you how this story ends. After the pastors’ conference yesterday, we decided to go to the local Japanese restaurant and enjoy their lunch buffet. I thought, “That’s a good choice. I’ve never seen any beer or wine in there.” As soon as we got in the door, though, I read a sign that offered an inexpensive glass of wine as a part of the lunch special. Then, when the waitress took us to our seats, I noticed a hallway where several empty beer boxes were stacked up next to a wall. Clearly, beer and wine had come to the Japanese restaurant. I guess we’ll just have to wait for the next edition of the paper to find out if we got busted.

Maybe, from now on, my fellow pastors and I just need to eat at McDonalds. I do love Big Macs. Oh, wait, Busch Stadium has a special section of seats called “Big Mac Land.” If a homerun lands there, everyone in the section gets a free Big Mac. To make matters worse, that section got its name from Mark McGwire, the former Cardinals slugger who hit so many balls up there. McGwire, as you may have heard, is highly suspected of using dangerous steroids to increase his homerun power.

So, if McDonalds associates itself with an alleged cheater and a stadium named for a beer company, I suppose we shouldn’t let them have one dime of our money. Besides, some of those toys they put in their happy-meal boxes are promotional products for kids movies, and many of those movies are made by Disney. Boy, it all sure does get confusing, doesn’t it? It makes me want to say, “Hey, Ernest, how exactly does one go about hermatizing one’s self?

Posted in Alcohol, Balance, Christian Liberty, Holiness, Personal, Personal Holiness, Separation | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Blessing of Changing a Sermon

Posted on July 15, 2009 by russellmckinney

On Sunday, July 1st, 2009, I had in mind to preach a sermon on prayer. Specifically, I planned to preach on the so-called “Lord’s Prayer.” But as I began to ease into my studying and preparing for that sermon, the Lord made it clear that He wanted me to preach something else. He wanted a sermon on salvation.

The text He told me to use was Matthew 7:21-23, where Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Since preachers are always being told how important it is to grab the listener’s attention with the sermon’s introduction, I opened up with these words: “You can die and go to hell from a seat in church just as much as you can from living in a box in some rat-infested alley, taking your meals out of a garbage can.” Pretty attention-grabbing, huh?

From there, I proceeded to explain that the person who has experienced genuine salvation will evidence that salvation in his or her conduct. In other words, the person’s salvation will show up in the way the person lives. As James 2:20 so succinctly puts it: “faith without works is dead.” While good works can never produce salvation, salvation will inevitably produce good works. While good works can never flow into salvation, they must flow out of it.

This doesn’t mean the person who gets saved will never sin again. Romans chapter 7 is the Bible’s best passage on why saved people (Christians) still sin. In that chapter, Paul explains that the Christian has two inner natures that are constantly at war. On the one hand, at the moment of salvation, God the Holy Spirit comes to live inside the Christian’s body, and the Spirit brings the nature of God to the person. Consequently, that new nature seeks control over the person, a control that will lead to deeds of righteousness. But on the other hand, even when the Spirit comes to indwell the individual, the Spirit’s presence doesn’t eliminate the individual’s old nature (the nature with which everyone is born, the nature of Adam). That nature also seeks control over the Christian, a control that will lead to deeds of sin.

Still, though, despite continuing to have to contend with the old nature, the truly saved person will evidence salvation (to some degree) in his or her life. Some Christians evidence it more than others because they handle the Romans chapter 7 set-up better, but every Christian will evidence it somewhat. That was the core message of my sermon.

As part of the sermon, I walked the listeners through the plan of salvation. I told them that salvation requires a head knowledge of certain facts:

Fact #1: There is a God. (Psalm 14:1: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.'”)

Fact #2: God is thoroughly holy. (Psalm 47:8: “God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne.”)

Fact #3: You are a sinner. (Romans 3:10,23: “There is none that is righteous, no, not one…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”)

Fact #4: Your sin separates you from God. (Psalm 5:4: “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with You.”)

Fact #5: Jesus (God the Son) left heaven, came to the earth, took human form upon Himself, and ultimately died on a Roman cross for all the sins of the world (and that included all your sins). 1st Timothy 2:5-6: (“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all…”)

Fact #6: On the third day after His burial, Jesus arose from the dead and eventually ascended back up to heaven. (Matthew 28:5: “…the angel answered and said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen…'”)

Once you have these six facts settled in your mind — i.e., you believe them — then it’s time to get your heart involved. It is with your heart that you must voluntarily, willfully, purposefully place your belief in Jesus as your personal Savior. As scriptural evidence of this, in Acts 16:30-31 a jailor in the city of Philippi asks Paul and Silas a straight question: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And the answer they give him is: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Likewise, Romans 10:10 proves that this belief must be from the heart. That verse says: “…for with the heart one believes unto righteousness.”

Interestingly, the Bible uses different terminology to describe this saving belief. It speaks of coming to Jesus, opening the door to Jesus, putting your faith in Jesus, trusting in Jesus, and calling upon Jesus. But these aren’t separate experiences. They are just different ways of describing what it is to believe in Jesus in a saving way. Salvation is not a process; it is a moment-in-time experience.

So now let me get back to my story. What were the results of my sermon on salvation that day? Well, at the close of that Sunday-morning service, I got no response. Naturally, that was a little disappointing, but I thought, “Lord, I obeyed and preached what You told me to preach. That’s all I can do. I’m sure You had Your reasons for having me preach that today.” Then I put the sermon out of my mind and went on about my business.

The next day, Monday, was an especially busy day as I hardly stopped all day. Even at 7:00 that night, I had to have my oldest son, Ryan, at a baseball practice for his all-star team. That practice lasted for over two hours, and by the time that Ryan and I got back home around 9:30, I was whipped.

No sooner had I gotten in the door than Tonya said to me, “We need to talk.” As she spoke, Royce, our eight-year old, was sitting in her lap. I replied, “Oh no, what do we need to talk about?” She said, “It’s nothing bad.” Then we took Royce into his bedroom, where Tonya explained to me that he wanted to get saved. He had listened to my sermon the previous day, understood that going to heaven was far better than going to hell, and wanted Jesus to forgive him of all his sins and be his personal Savior.

And what did I do? Right then and there in his bedroom, I took him by his hand and said, “I’m going to pray and I want you to repeat what I say.” Then I led him through a version of what you might call “a sinner’s prayer” by keeping the focus on the basics: sin, Christ’s death, belief, and forgiveness. (By the way, don’t ever force a child to become a Bible scholar to get saved. Since that child has the rest of his or life to learn all the finer points of Christian doctrine, just keep things simple and anchored to the basics. That will do just fine.)

In the days that followed, I didn’t rush Royce into the waters of baptism. Instead, I talked with him some more and made sure that he really did know Jesus as his Savior before I baptized him. Truth be told, though, I had full confidence all along that the little fellow had experienced authentic salvation that Monday night. What a glorious thing it is for a father to know that both his sons are born-again Christians!

And now, as I finish up this post, let me leave you with a word of application. That word is simply: obey God. Just as I obeyed Him by changing my plans and preaching that sermon on salvation, you must obey Him and do whatever it is He is telling you to do. Even if you don’t fully understand it or agree with it, you must obey. Just know that if God is giving you a specific command, He has His reasons for doing so and they are good ones. I’m not saying that your obedience will lead to someone getting saved, but I am saying that it will surely lead to some type of good harvest somewhere down the line for not only you but for others as well.

Posted in Baptism, Belief, Change, Children, Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Disobedience, Forgiveness, Obedience, Parenting, Personal, Preaching, Reward, Salvation, Seeking Forgiveness, Sin, The Holy Spirit | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Maybe So, Maybe Not

Posted on July 12, 2009 by russellmckinney

In my previous post, “Let’s Get Real,” I pointed out that God allows Satan to win a lot of battles, even though God has already won the eternal war. That post was all about being honest with God when we talk to Him. Putting it simply, if we don’t understand what God is doing, or agree with it, we shouldn’t shy away from expressing that to Him in prayer. After all, how can prayer be real if it isn’t honest?

But now let’s come at this topic from a a different direction. To help us do this, I want to share an illustration that I once heard James Merritt, the pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Georgia, use. Consider this the other side of the “Let’s Get Real” coin.

There was an old man who was known as the wisest man in a certain village. Whenever someone wanted council they would go see this man. One day a farmer went to him and said, “A horrible thing has happened to me: my ox died. I’m a farmer and I depended upon that ox to get my fields plowed and my crops planted. Now I can’t plant my crops and I’m going to starve. Do you agree that this is the worst possible thing that could have happened to me?” The wise man said, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

The very next day the farmer looked out his window and saw a strong, sturdy horse come galloping up to his farm. The farmer wouldn’t have tried to catch the horse if he had still had the ox, but the ox’s death led him to go out and catch the horse. It turned out that the horse was much younger and stronger than the ox and could plow ground much faster. Because of this, over the next couple of weeks, the man was able to plant twice as much as he would have been able to plant with the ox.

The man went back to the wise man and said, “I owe you an apology.” Then he told him the story about the horse. He finished the story by saying, “You were right. My ox dying wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened. Actually, it was a blessing in disguise. The best thing that could have happened to me was getting this horse.” The wise man said, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

Three days later the farmer’s son took the horse out for a ride. But the horse threw him and the fall broke both of the son’s legs. Since the young man was the only worker the farmer had to help him get in his crops, the farmer was devastated. He went back to the wise man and said, “How did you know that me catching that horse was not going to be a good thing? My son getting both his legs broken has to be the worst thing that ever happened to me.” The wise man said, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

The very next day troops came to the village to take every young man away to fight a war that had just broken out. The only young man who wasn’t taken was the farmer’s son who was laid up with those two broken legs. Tragically, the village got word a few days later that every one of those young men had been killed in that war.

Vance Havner, that great preacher, left us with two good quotes about God’s sometimes downright confusing ways of dealing with us. First, he said, “God marks across some of our days, ‘Will explain later.'” Second, he said, “…all question marks will be straightened into exclamation points.” That first quote describes what we might call “the difficult here and now” while the second one describes “the sweet by and by.”

So, how does this “Maybe So, Maybe Not” post walk hand in hand with the “Let’s Get Real” post? The answer is: Even as we are honest enough with God to question Him or disagree with Him when we don’t understand what He is doing (or not doing), we should be humble enough to admit that His wisdom is infinitely superior to ours. As another old quote puts it, “Even when we can’t track Him, we can trust Him.”

That’s something that we all need to be reminded of, isn’t it? Our knowledge and understanding are so limited that we don’t know what the next second holds, to say nothing of the next day, week, month, or year. But God does, and He can be trusted to always do right. Therefore, anytime we “get real” with Him, let’s not forget to also “get real” about all the things that we don’t know about our situation. The truth is that we simply don’t have His infinite knowledge, and if we did, we’d no doubt see the wisdom of handling things exactly the way He is handling them.

Posted in Adversity, Complaining, Contentment, Disappointment, Faith, God's Omnipotence, God's Foreknowledge, God's Omniscience, God's Sovereignty, God's Will, God's Work, Patience, Perseverance, Problems, Suffering, Trials, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Let’s Get Real

Posted on July 7, 2009 by russellmckinney

I’m fascinated by the story found in Luke 13:10-17. It’s the story of a woman who was stricken with a “spirit of infirmity” for eighteen years. The result of the infirmity was that she was constantly stooped over, unable to stand fully erect.

What’s so fascinating is the stated source of the woman’s pitiful condition. When verse 11 uses the term “spirit of infirmity,” that means that a demon (fallen angel) kept this woman in her bent-over condition. In verse 16, Jesus even calls the woman, “a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound….for eighteen years.”

We might say that the woman spent eighteen long years as a prisoner of war in Satan’s hands. Yes, Jesus healed her, but that healing didn’t take away the painful memories of all those years. This raises the question: “Why would an all-powerful God who despises the works of Satan sit up in heaven and watch as one of Satan’s fallen angels afflicted a decent woman for almost two decades?” Somebody might answer, “It was because He knew that she would meet up with Jesus one day and He would cure her.” Well, that’s a nice little answer, but it doesn’t give that woman those eighteen years back.

Let’s admit that even though Satan is surely destined to lose his war against God, God lets him win a lot of battles. Think about Job. God did win that war in the end, but Satan sure left a lot of scars on Job before the end came. Even if God completely healed those sore, running boils with which Satan struck Job from head to toe, He didn’t resurrect those seven sons and three daughters that Satan more or less killed by way of orchestrating an accident. I know, I know, God gave Job seven more sons and three more daughters. But do you think that Job ever forgot the names and faces of all those kids he buried?

I realize that we don’t usually speak this bluntly when we talk about God. I guess we are too scared to sound even remotely critical of Him. But God isn’t afraid of a sincerely offered comment that seems to call His actions (or lack of them) into question. I offer Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, as proof. Each of them, on different occasions, pointedly said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21,32). Despite the not-so-subtle accusation in that comment, Jesus didn’t rebuke either of those sisters for making it. Instead, He simply continued along in His timing and plan to raise Lazarus from the dead.

Of course, we know the story of Lazarus has a happy ending. Furthermore, the delay until that happy ending was only four days. But what do we do with a delay of eighteen years? Remember, that’s how long the woman from Luke 13:10-17 had to wait for her healing. I myself have heard plenty of preaching in praise of Christ’s miracle-working power, but I’ve never heard even one sermon on why Satan got to have his way with that woman for all those years.

You say, “Then why don’t you preach it?” I would if I had the answer myself. You see, I’m not writing this blog post to share some profound insight with you, an insight that nobody else has ever shared; I’m writing it to get you to be more real with God.

The prophet Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh and preach. That’s what got him enrolled in “whale seminary.” Finally, after he had preached to Nineveh and Nineveh had repented to the point where God stayed their destruction, Jonah “got real” with God. With anger he prayed, “Lord, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my country? I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm” (Jonah 4:1-2).

Basically, Jonah was saying, “God, I knew that You would let these people off the hook. I even said it back in Israel. Why, then, did You make me come all this way and go through the motions of prophesying destruction upon them when You and I both knew that You wouldn’t carry through with it?” Say what you will, but that kind of prayer inspires me. It inspires me to talk to God like I’m talking to a real person. It inspires me to dare question Him if I don’t agree with the way He is running the universe. It inspires me to show my anger and disillusionment over what He has done or hasn’t done.

My favorite story from the book of Genesis might well be the one that is found in Genesis chapter 15. God comes to Abraham (Abram) and says, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Well, that sounds good, doesn’t it? But Abraham, at that point in his life and walk with God, was tired of hearing such talk. The way he saw it, God had reneged on a promise because Abraham’s wife Sarah (Sarai) was still barren even though Abraham had been waiting for over a decade for God to grant him a promised son through her.

Abraham’s frustration explains why his response to God was so coldly blunt. He said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” Allow me to put that into a Russell paraphrase. Abraham said, “Yes, Lord, that’s all well and good, but can we talk about the pink elephant in the room? You have given me no offspring.”

And how did God respond to that criticism? Did He get hysterical or mad? Did He launch into a fifty-point defense of Himself? No, He just calmly reiterated the promise one more time: “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.”

So, in closing, let me leave you with two thoughts. First, we simply have to deal with the fact that there are some things about God’s actions that we won’t understand until we get to heaven. Why did He let Satan hold sway over that woman for eighteen years? Why did He let Satan claim the lives of Job’s first ten children? Why did He let Lazarus die and put that family through all that grief? Why did He make Jonah go pronounce doom on a nation of people He was going to spare in the end? Why did He make Abraham and Sarah wait twenty-five years for their promised son? My only answer is, we can all ask Him when we get to heaven. Until then we’ll just have to be content with Isaiah 55:8: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

But, second, let’s not shy away from being “real” with God when we talk to Him. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). If that statement means nothing else it must mean that God takes no pleasure in a dialogue that showcases half-truths and outright lies. Putting it another way, He doesn’t want fake niceness or fake contentment from you. He doesn’t want to listen to your prayers and think, “Why don’t you tell Me how you are really feeling?” Instead, what He wants is the “real” you (warts and all), and it is only when you speak to Him with such honesty that you can enter into the deepest kind of prayer to Him.

Posted in Adversity, Anger, Complaining, Demons, Depression, Disappointment, Doubt, Grace, Honesty, Perseverance, Personal, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Problems, Satan, Suffering, The Devil, Trials, Trusting In God, Waiting | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Play Your Piccolo

Posted on July 2, 2009 by russellmckinney

Acts 6:1-7 gives the account of an election that was held by the early church. Not only did the apostles instruct the church members to choose seven men, the seven had to be much more than just “casual Christians.” They had to be of a good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit, and full of wisdom. Why was the standard for selection so high? It was because the seven would be responsible for overseeing the daily distribution of food to the church’s widows.

Many students of the Bible consider this to be the first election of deacons. I’ll admit that this interpretation is debated, but I have always agreed with it more or less. However, what’s sad is the fact that in the debate over the interpretation, and in the adjoining debate over the qualifications for deaconship, a major point is missed altogether. That point is the apostles quote, “It is not right that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.”

The Bible is a very complex book that takes tons of study to teach correctly (2 Timothy 2:15). Such study requires time, lots of it. It also requires prayer and focus. But all of that is hard to achieve when a man is expected to fill his days with visiting the sick, evangelizing the lost, counseling the troubled, attending meetings, etc., etc., etc. Therefore, is it any wonder that the New Testament so plainly teaches that every Christian is supposed to help out with the work of the church?

Passages such as Romans 12:1-13, 1 Corinthians 12:1-31, Ephesians 4:11-16, and 1 Corinthians 14:26 show us that God doesn’t expect all His work to be done by a precious few “spiritual elites.” Instead, He imparts at least one spiritual gift to each Christian and says, “Go wear it out through use.” By way of definition, a spiritual gift is a skill or talent the Christian did not have before the moment of salvation. At that moment, however, the Holy Spirit imparted the gift to the Christian when He came to indwell that Christian. Every Christian receives at least one spiritual gift, and many Christians even receive more than one.

Here again, though, the church has made the mistake of getting all bogged down in how to interpret the spiritual gift passages. The major point of contention centers around the question of whether God still imparts all the different kinds of gifts or whether the so-called “sign” gifts were exclusively for the days of the early church. I do have an opinion on all that, but the point I’m making right now is this: In all our debating and arguing, we have overlooked the basic teaching that every Christian is supposed to do his or her part in the work of the church.

Ephesians 4:11-12 refers to apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers as gifts that Jesus gave to the church. Apostles had the spiritual gift of apostleship, prophets had the spiritual gift of prophecy, evangelists had the spiritual gift of evangelism, and pastor-teachers had the spiritual gift of pastor-teaching. And why did Jesus give these people to the church? He did it “for the equipping of the saints.” Okay, so why did the saints (Christians) need to be equipped? They needed to be equipped in order to do “the work of the ministry.” The set-up isn’t hard to understand. The spiritually gifted leaders in the church are supposed to equip the so-called “lay members” so that the “lay members” can do the work of the ministry. That’s a far cry from the spiritual leaders doing all the work!

In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, the apostle Paul compares the functioning of the church to the functioning of the human body. He says that if a foot doesn’t do its job because it wants to be a hand, that hurts the whole body. If an ear doesn’t do its job because it wants to be an eye, that hurts the whole body. If the whole body is one big eye, the work of hearing doesn’t get done. If it is one big ear, the work of smelling doesn’t get done. What a marvelous illustration that is!

Sir Michael Costa, the noted composer and conductor of another day, was once conducting a rehearsal that featured a large number of performers and singers. The mighty chorus was singing out in perfect unison, the organ was thundering, the drums were rolling, the horns were blasting, and the cymbals were clashing. But in the midst of that din of noise, one piccolo player began to feel very small and insignificant. He thought to himself, “In all this sound it doesn’t really matter whether I play or not. Nobody will notice if I just stop.” And so he stopped. Immediately, however, the great conductor brought the entire rehearsal to a screeching halt, threw up his hands, and cried out, “Where is the piccolo?”

That story makes me think of God. I can just picture Him leaning over heaven’s balcony, listening to the volume of noise that rises up as the church goes about its work, and noticing every spiritual gift that isn’t being put to use. Unlike Michael Costa, though, He doesn’t miss the sound of just one player. No, He misses the sound of many thousands, even millions, of spiritually-gifted people who simply aren’t doing the jobs they are supposed to be doing.

So tell me, Christian, how is your piccolo playing these days? Are you using your spiritual gift (gifts) in service to Christ? Are you carrying your weight in regards to the work of the church? Or does the Lord only hear silence coming from your chair? Speaking as a hard-working part of the orchestra, let me say that we need your piccolo. If you won’t play it, somebody like me will have to pick up the slack, and the truth is that I’ve got plenty of my own work to do.

Posted in Bible Study, Church, Doing Good, Faithfulness, God's Work, Individuality, Pastors, Preaching, Service, Spiritual Gifts | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Lord, I Believe; Help My Unbelief!”

Posted on June 30, 2009 by russellmckinney

The story of a certain father bringing his demon-possessed son to Jesus is recorded in Matthew 17:14-21, Mark 9:14-29, and Luke 9:37-42. While each of those accounts provides different details about the story, the account that typically gets used as a preaching text is Mark’s. The reason for that has to do with the dialogue that Mark says took place between the father and Jesus.

According to Mark, the father brings the son to Jesus and says, “If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” The word “If” gives us a glimpse into that father’s heart. He is open-minded about Jesus but not fully convinced. He is willing to give Jesus a try, but he can’t make himself unreservedly believe that Jesus can cure the boy. But let’s not be too harsh on this man. He isn’t a bad sort of fellow; he is just a parent at his wit’s end over his child’s deplorable condition.

Jesus knows this, and so He doesn’t lambaste the guy for using the word “If.” Instead of getting all defensive about His miracle-working power, Jesus goes on the offensive by saying to the father, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” You have to love that comeback. Now the pressure is back on the father. Does the man have enough belief to see his son delivered?

This brings us to everybody’s favorite part of the story as the father responds to Jesus by saying, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” How’s that for blunt honesty? “Lord, I’m not totally faithless. There is a very real part of me that does believe You can heal my son. But I won’t lie and say that my faith is perfect. I want to be the believer You want me to be, but You are going to have to help me get there.”

Of all the Bible stories in which I could be cast, this one is perhaps the most natural for me. I believe the Lord can and will do wonderful things in my life, but my belief frequently needs help. It’s during such times that I need a fresh measure of the Lord’s strengthening grace. Putting it another way, I need Him to look at me through eyes of mercy and not let my bad cancel out my good.

Those of us who know something about weightlifting know the term “spotter.” A spotter is a person who stands behind the bench while the weightlifter lies on the bench and bench presses as much weight as he can. When the weightlifter reaches the limit of what he can lift, and the weight starts coming back down toward his chest, the spotter reaches down with both hands, grabs the bar that is holding the weight, pulls it back up, and places it onto the holding bars.

I see myself as a weightlifter who can bench press a limited amount of weight. I know where the spiritual gym is, and I know how to handle myself in the midst of a spiritual bench press, but when the weight becomes too heavy for me, when I can no longer lift it, when I feel it is just about to crash down hard onto my chest, I’m glad I have Jesus as my spotter. His strength makes up for weakness. His ability covers my inability. He can pick up where I leave off.

I write this as a way of encouraging those of you out there who are too hard on yourself concerning your level of faith. If you are a Christian, and if you have a legitimate amount of faith, don’t think that your lack of “ideal” faith keeps the Lord from doing what He wants to do in your life. After all, if Jesus had waited until the father of that demon-possessed boy had “perfected” his belief, who knows when that boy would have been delivered and healed? Would he ever have been?

You see, it’s not that your somewhat deficient faith is a good thing. We know it isn’t. But the Lord always stands ready to give credit where credit is due, and He understands that some faith is certainly better than no faith. Think about a loving earthly father. If that father sees that his child is obviously making an attempt to live up to his wishes, he will not give up on his child. Instead, he will work with that child, show patience, and give the child time to do even better. And my point is, if an earthly father will operate like that, how much more will our heavenly Father?

Posted in Adversity, Belief, Comfort, Faith, Fear, God's Love, Grace, Needs, Personal, Prayer Requests, Trusting In God, Worry | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Our Anniversary

Posted on June 25, 2009 by russellmckinney

Fifteen years ago today, Tonya and I stood in her home church and got married. If I have never done anything else right in my life, I married well. She is my best friend, my life-partner, and the mother of my children. She is a pastor’s wife, a school teacher, a good daughter, and a concerned sister. Proverbs 18:22 says: “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord.” I live out the truth of that verse every day.

Here is a small sampling of the things I’ve seen Tonya do over the past fifteen years:

play the roles of interior designer, decorator, and painter

prepare annual Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for my entire family

from her position in the passenger’s seat of the car, reach around to the back seat and change a diaper while I was driving us down the interstate at about 65 m.p.h. (still one of my fondest memories of her)

teach me the fine art of how to navigate your way around a computer

doggedly work in Vacation Bible Schools until she was ready to drop

organize vacations for us and her entire family

spell me from getting out in the snow and taking the boys sledding, even though she hates sledding

spend untold hours sitting in church nurseries while all of us other adults enjoyed ourselves in sanctuaries

get under a lawnmower and clean out the grass while I held the thing up on its back wheels

scan over the Sunday paper, carefully looking for coupons that might save us a grand total of $1.75 on our next trip to the grocery store

work the chains on the sideline of middle school football games

run a wet-Vac to get the water out of our basement after a heavy rain

go with me on visits to hospitals and homes

do the continual summer maintenance on one of those above-ground, Walmart pools

coach the youth league basketball team for our oldest while I coached the one for our youngest

play the role of listener and adviser to more people than I can begin to remember

do without so the boys and I could do with

Tonya and I have become one of those couples who always get talked about in tandem. It’s not “Russell” or “Tonya” anymore. It’s “Russell and Tonya.” We have become one flesh (Matthew 19:5) not only in the eyes of God but in the eyes of the world.

What’s fascinating about that is the fact that we are opposites in so many ways. I am a night owl; she goes to bed early. I sleep late; she gets up early even when she doesn’t have to. When I get mad, I get loud; when she gets mad, she gets quiet. I hate coffee; she loves it. I sleep on my back; she sleeps on her chest. My strong subject is English; hers is math. I like a small breakfast, a bigger lunch, and an even bigger supper; she likes a big breakfast, a lesser lunch, and a light supper.

And yet, despite all these differences, we are “one.” Anyone who knows us will tell you that we function as a team. I play my role in the marriage and she plays hers. After fifteen years, we pretty much have the roles down pat. She knows me better than anybody, and I know her better than anybody.

Tonya loves tv shows I can’t stand. I’m talking about shows such as: What Not To Wear; Top Chef; She’s Got The Look; House Hunters; Project Runway; America’s Next Top Model; Divine Design; and Decorating Cents. She doesn’t listen to a lot of music, but when she does, it’s 80’s stuff. Her favorite vacation is lying by a pool for hours in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. As near as I can tell, her favorite movie is anything with Kevin Bacon in it.

She’s an obsessive planner and organizer who really can’t fathom why anyone wouldn’t plan and organize. When she laughs, it’s a big, loud laugh. She doesn’t like to get up on the first alarm; she’s a snooze-button kind of person. Whenever she starts off a sentence with the words, “Well, darling…” I know I’m about to get hit with pure, unfiltered sarcasm. I long ago gave up on taking her shopping for clothes. She’ll spend hours looking and trying on and not buy anything.

Marriage counselors talk about something called “the empty nest syndrome.” After a couple’s kids have all grown up and left the house, the couple can have trouble reconnecting as man and wife. Their lives have been dominated by child-rearing for so long they’ve forgotten how to be sweethearts. I assure you, Tonya and I won’t have this problem. As much as we love our two boys and want the best for them, we understand the great benefits that are going to come with being “empty nesters.” Think of the extra money that won’t have to be spent on groceries. Think of getting to eat out and not have to ask, “Do you have a children’s menu?” Think of the intimate vacations for two. Think of getting a house clean and being able to keep it clean. Think of the closet space!

And so, honey, on this 25th day of June, 2009, I wish you the happiest of anniversaries. I’d like to be boarding a flight for Hawaii this afternoon, with brand new wardrobes in tow and an unlimited supply of cash in our pockets. But you know as well as I do where we’ll be: Ryan has a scrimmage game at 6:00 and Royce has practice at 6:30.

That means I’ll be at one field and you’ll be at the other one. We’ll all eat supper at home before we leave, and we’ll all be wiped out when we get back home. Even if you and I tried to plan something for tomorrow night, Royce has a game at 6:45. Somehow, I really can’t see us having much of a problem with “empty nest syndrome.” I think we’ll be much more susceptible to pushing them out of the nest prematurely. I wonder if that’s a syndrome.

Anyway, never doubt that I love you. When we got married, I loved you with the kind of love that comes out of several years of on-again-off-again dating. It was real, but it was immature. Now I love you with the kind of love that comes out of fifteen years of walking through life together, experiencing its highs and lows, ups and downs, and good and bad (much more highs, ups, and good).

I can truthfully say I love you more today than I ever have, and that’s as good as can be done so many years into a marriage. I don’t know what God has in store for us in the future, but I can believe nothing else but that our next fifteen years will be even better than our first fifteen. I do know that I don’t want to spend them with anyone but you.

Posted in Children, Marriage, Parenting, Personal | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Easy Eddie’s Example to Fathers

Posted on June 20, 2009 by russellmckinney

Back in the days when Al Capone ran the city of Chicago, his lawyer was a man nicknamed “Easy Eddie.” Despite the fact that Capone’s empire was built around bootleg booze, prostitution, and murder, Easy Eddie’s legal skill always kept his boss out of jail. To show his appreciation, Capone made sure that Easy Eddie was well compensated. Eddie had plenty of money, a fenced-in mansion, house servants, and all the conveniences of the day. His estate was so large that it filled an entire city block of Chicago. Eddie had it made, and he didn’t worry himself about the incredible damage he was doing by keeping Capone out of jail.

But Eddie had one soft spot: his son. How he loved that boy! He saw to it that the kid had the best of everything. To his credit, he even tried to teach him the difference between right and wrong. He wanted the boy to rise above the sordid life of the Chicago mob and be a better man than he was.

After a while, though, Eddie began to see how hypocritical his actions were. How could a son stay away from gangsters when his father was so thick with them? How could a son not be enamored with the mob’s wealth when the “good life” his father lived came from that wealth? Eddie realized that the “do as I say and not as I do” line wouldn’t work. So, he decided to change his ways and do something that would allow him to pass a good example and a good name down to his son. That something was going to the authorities and volunteering to testify against “Big Al” and the mob. Eddie knew the danger involved with such a move, but he testified anyway.

And what happened to Easy Eddie? Within a year, his life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago street. This determined father paid the ultimate price just so he could leave his son with two things all the money in the world couldn’t buy: a good example and a good name.

But wait, the story doesn’t end there. Eddie’s son, Butch, grew up to be a fighter pilot in World War II. He was assigned to an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific. One day his entire squadron was sent out on a mission. Butch hadn’t been in the air too long when he realized that the fuel tank on his airplane hadn’t been refueled. So, he radioed to his squadron leader and was told to return to the carrier.

On his way back to the ship, Butch saw something that turned his blood cold. A squadron of Japanese Zero planes were speeding their way toward the American fleet. With the American fighters being on mission, the fleet was all but defenseless. Butch knew that he had to do something, but the situation was desperate. He couldn’t reach his squadron and bring them back to defend the fleet, and his radio was such that he couldn’t even use it to warn the fleet about the approaching Zeros.

Finally, Butch decided upon a radical course of action. He would try to divert the squadron of Zeros from the fleet by laying aside all thoughts of personal safety and diving straight into the formation. He went in with guns firing and managed to get the Japanese squadron to break formation. Then he wove in and out of the broken formation, firing at as many planes as he could.

When all his ammunition was gone, he began diving at the Zeros, hoping to at least clip off a plane’s wing or tail and render it unable to fly. He wanted to do whatever he could to keep those planes from reaching the American fleet. His efforts proved successful, too, when the disjointed Japanese squadron finally took off in another direction.

Butch then flew his tattered fighter back to the carrier and reported what had happened. If anyone doubted the truth of his story, that changed when they saw the film from the camera that had been mounted on his plane. In the end, Butch was given one of the nation’s highest military honors. Oh, and by the way, maybe you’ve heard of the airport that was ultimately named after him. That would be Chicago’s famed O’Hare airport. Yes, that airport is named after Butch O’Hare, the son of Easy Eddie O’Hare.

Now tell me, father, do you really believe that the way you live your life won’t have any bearing upon how your child turns out? You aren’t that delusional, are you? Of course it will! That old saying is an old saying for a reason: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Easy Eddie O’Hare had the good sense to examine his rotten tree and realize that it would produce a rotten apple. Then he did that which was necessary to fix his tree. It wasn’t easy, but he did it. May the same be said of all us fathers this Father’s Day. As the Bible says, “A good name is better than precious ointment (Ecclesiastes 7:1) and “is to be chosen rather than great riches” (Proverbs 22:1).

Posted in Children, Doing Good, Fatherhood, Influence, Parenting, Personal Holiness, Priorities | Tagged | Leave a comment

My Body, A Temple

Posted on June 17, 2009 by russellmckinney

I’m well aware that 1 Timothy 4:8 says: “For bodily exercise profits little, but godliness is profitable for all things” (N.K.J.V.). I’m also well aware that overweight Christians love that verse because it seems to dismiss the need for exercise. Nevertheless, a thorough study of the totality of scripture will show that God is all for Christians keeping themselves in good physical shape.

First, there are the multiple passages that vividly paint gluttony in a bad light. Proverbs 23:21 says: “For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty.” Likewise, 1 Samuel 4:18 makes a point of saying that Eli, Israel’s high priest, was “old and heavy.” Judges 3:17 does the same with Eglon, king of Moab, saying that he was “a very fat man.” As proof of how fat Eglon was, Judges 3:22 says that when Ehud stabbed him with a dagger, “the fat closed over the blade.” We don’t have to think too hard to get the visual imagery of that line, do we?

Second, there is the Bible’s great teaching that the Christian’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. According to multiple passages, the moment an individual believes in Christ as Savior, God the Holy Spirit takes up residence inside that person’s body. This experience is known as “Spirit baptism,” being “born again,” or “regeneration” (1 Corinthians 12:13; John 3:1-8; Titus 3:5). The experience is so necessary to authentic Christianity that Romans 8:9 flatly says: “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”

The presence of God the Holy Spirit inside a Christian’s body automatically makes that body the temple of God. That’s why 1 Corinthians 6:19 asks the profound question: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” You see, it isn’t the bodybuilder, the yoga expert, or the aerobics instructor whose body is a temple. Only the Christian can rightly say, “My body is a temple” because only the Christian has the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Years ago, I heard Charles Stanley preach on this subject, and the outline he used stuck with me. He said the Christian’s body being the temple of the Holy Spirit should affect three things:

#1: what the Christian puts in his or her body

#2: what the Christian puts on his or her body

#3: what the Christian does with his or her body

Point #1 covers sins such as gluttony, drunkenness, and drug addiction. Each of these sins involves the Christian putting something (or at least too much of it) literally inside the body. As for me, I agree with those who would add smoking cigarettes, chewing tobacco, and dipping snuff to this list of sins. You might get mad at me for saying that, but I think the medical evidence now clearly indicates that all of these activities are bad for one’s health. Putting it simply, they do harm to the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Point #2 covers the sins of immodest or unholy appearance. The Christian female’s wardrobe shouldn’t be a showcase for short skirts, skimpy bathing suits, spray-on jeans, low-cut tops, skintight shirts, shirts that expose the midriff, crude tee-shirts, etc. Likewise, a Christian male’s wardrobe shouldn’t be a showcase for low-riding pants, immodest shorts, spray-on jeans, skintight shirts, shirts that expose the midriff, crude tee-shirts, etc. I’m not trying to be the fashion Gestapo here, but some looks are just out of bounds for the Christian.

Furthermore, I don’t think tattoos, even Christian ones, are becoming to the temple of the Holy Spirit. The fact that God forbade them among the people of Israel (Leviticus 19:28) shouldn’t be completely dismissed as Old Testament, antiquated stuff that only pertained to the worship of idols. (For a much more thorough treatment of this topic please read my post “Should a Christian Get a Tattoo?”) Also, any “look” that gives the impression of gaudiness (Isaiah 3:16-23) or worldliness (Romans 12:2; Titus 2:11-12; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17) should be avoided. This gets into the realm of excessive jewelry, body-piercing, and hairdos that are designed to induce a reaction.

Before you accuse me of legalism or label me a fanatical Puritan, ask yourself this question: “Should the Christian’s appearance bring attention to the Christian or honor to Christ?” You know the answer. Furthermore, we as Christians should be trying to please God with our appearance rather than impress members of the opposite sex. 1 Timothy 2:9-10 talks about women adorning themselves in modest apparel and taking a low-key, toned-down approach to hairdos, jewelry, and clothing. Similarly, 1 Peter 3:1-6 says a woman’s outward holiness should spring up from her inward holiness. I like that. The Christian (man or woman) who is wrong in some way in outward appearance isn’t where he or she needs to be in inner holiness. As the old saying goes, the heart of the problem is usually the problem of the heart.

Point #3 covers the incredibly broad area of sinful acts done with the body. Certainly, sins such as murder, adultery, and theft are on this list, but so are sins such as flying into an ungodly rage, lying, gambling, using profane language, and looking at pornography. Basically, whenever the Christian takes the indwelling Holy Spirit along for a ride He doesn’t want to take, that Christian defiles the temple that is his or her body.

What we, as Christians, must realize is that Jesus wants lordship over every area of our lives. That includes how we eat, how we look, and how we act. Sadly, far too many Christians simply don’t do their part to keep their temples unspotted and acceptable to the Lord. To help with this problem, let me offer a tried-and-true piece of advice: Christian, before you put anything in your body, on your body, or do anything with your body, ask yourself, “If I do this, will it upset the Holy Spirit who dwells inside me?”

Read James 4:5 sometime. That verse says that the Spirit who dwells within us yearns jealously. Yes, Christian, you can make the indwelling Holy Spirit jealous. When you overeat, you make Him jealous because He gets the idea that you love food more than Him. When you let your body get out of shape, He gets jealous because He gets the idea that you don’t care about His temple. When you put something sinful in your body, He gets jealous because He gets the idea that you’d rather have that something than Him. When you put something sinful on your body, He gets jealous because He gets the idea that you are more concerned about impressing others than impressing Him. When you do something sinful with your body, He gets jealous because He gets the idea that His opinion of what you should and shouldn’t do means nothing to you.

And so, in closing, I’ll ask you, the Christian, “How’s your temple looking these days?” Is it a place the Holy Spirit is proud to call home? If it’s not, you need to make the necessary repairs. For some of us, that might mean starting something (for example, an exercise program). For others, it might mean giving up something (for example, cigarettes). But whatever action the repairs call for, do it without delay. After all, nobody, even God, likes to live in a house that causes them shame.

Posted in Alcohol, Dieting, Dress and Appearance, Drugs, Gambling, Gluttony, Homosexuality, Idolatry, Personal Holiness, Repentance, Sanctification, Sex, Sin, Temptation, The Heart, The Holy Spirit, The Tongue | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments