“You Almost Missed Me”

Posted on March 8, 2023 by russellmckinney

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. (Proverbs 11:30, K.J.V.)

Dr. Louis Evans was the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, California. He used to tell a story about his father, Dr. William Evans, who was also a prominent pastor. As the story went, one day a man came knocking on William Evans’ door and presented himself as a typewriter salesman. The man said, “Dr. Evans, I know that you write a lot, and I would like to show you this new machine that we have.” Evans said, “I’m sorry, but I’m working on a manuscript for a new book and I’ve got a deadline to meet. I just don’t have the time.” So, the man went away.

A couple of days later the same man knocked on Dr. Evans’ door again. He said, “Dr. Evans, I thought you might have some time for me today to show you this machine.” This time Dr. Evans wasn’t as cordial as he had been the first time. He said, “I thought I made it clear to you that I don’t have the time. I’m pressed with this deadline that I’ve got to meet.” So, the man went away.

But a few days later the man again knocked on Dr. Evans’ door and asked to be allowed to show the new machine. Dr. Evans again declined the offer, but this time, just as he was about to close the door, the Lord spoke to him in that still, small, inner voice and said, “Why don’t you tell him about Me?” So, in obedience to the Lord’s nudging, Dr. Evans invited the man into his home and told him about Jesus.

And how did the man respond to the conversation? He broke down somewhat and said, “Dr. Evans, I’m so glad that you spoke to me today. I’ve come here three times now, but I’m not really in this kind of business. I’ve been coming here because I knew that you were a preacher of the word and I hoped that you would share with me. And Dr. Evans, you almost missed me.”

Tell me, Christian, have you recently found yourself in the somewhat unusual situation of consistently ending up in the company of a particular person? Well, have you gotten around to telling that person about Jesus? If you haven’t, be careful, you don’t want to miss them!

Posted in Evangelism, God's Work, Influence, Ministry, Obedience, Salvation, The Gospel, Witnessing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mona Lisa

Posted on March 6, 2023 by russellmckinney

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. (James 1:17, N.K.J.V.)

In 1911, the famous Mona Lisa painting was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris and remained missing for the next two years. Interestingly, more people came to the museum to see the blank space than had come to view the masterpiece itself in the previous twelve years. What does that teach us about human nature? If nothing else, it teaches us that we take masterpieces for granted until they are gone.

Now let’s spiritually apply this illustration to our lives. God faithfully hangs countless masterpieces upon the walls of our lives, only to have us walk past them each day without appreciating them for the blessings they are. But the moment we realize that one is gone, we finally begin to understand just how wonderful it was and we start staring at the vacant spot, reminiscing about the happiness the blessing used to bring us.

I, for one, constantly need to be reminded to focus on the good in my life rather than the bad. Stating it simply, I need to spend more time appreciating all the Mona Lisas that God has granted me. Everything about my life can’t be categorized as a “good gift” or a “perfect gift,” but I’ve certainly got abundance enough of such gifts to know that God the Father (the Father of lights) has been exceptionally good to me.

Getting back to my opening illustration, my life is a figurative Louvre with its walls lined with masterpiece after masterpiece. Therefore, if I don’t give each one its proper appreciation, that says a lot more about me than it does the blessing. It means the blessing is doing its job of adding value to my life but I’m not doing my job of appreciating that value. Frankly, that makes me an ingrate, and I doubt that God is in much of hurry to pour out more blessings upon someone who doesn’t appreciate the ones he already has.

Posted in Attitude, Complaining, Contentment, Covetousness, God's Love, God's Provision, Grace, Praise, Thankfulness, Thanksgiving | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A True Masterpiece

Posted on March 4, 2023 by russellmckinney

An artist visited a museum where one of his masterpieces was on exhibit. He approached the painting and noticed that the museum had placed one of his earlier, lesser-known works beside it. As he stood there comparing both paintings, he began to feel sad. Just then someone recognized him and complimented him on his masterpiece. But the artist couldn’t enjoy that word of praise. Instead, he replied, “All I know is that it grieves me that I realized so little of the promise I showed in my youth.”

Truth be told, many Christians would have to say the same thing about their Christian growth. Oh, they showed so much promise when they were young! They went to church. They studied the Bible. They prayed. They gave. They witnessed. They lived lives of holiness. But then they got older and ran into some trouble.

When conflict within the church caused them to become disillusioned, they stopped attending. When differing doctrinal interpretations made studying the Bible harder, they gave up on it. When their prayers weren’t answered to their satisfaction, they quit praying. When their financial situation took a downturn, they eliminated their giving. When they saw no fruit from their witnessing, they hushed. When God didn’t seem to reward their life of holiness, they turned to worldly pursuits and pleasures.

Christian friend, does any of this description fit you? If it does, I urge you to find your way back to the fellowship you once had with Jesus. And, please, work on the fellowship before you start working on the service. If you can get the fellowship where it needs to be, the service will inevitably flow. By contrast, service without fellowship just becomes drudgery. Therefore, you should strive to rediscover the simple, childlike faith that you once had, a faith that was shown even in those classic rhyming prayers:

“God is great, God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. By His hands we all are fed. Thank you, Lord, for daily bread. Amen.”

“Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen.”

You should also consider Matthew 18:1-4, which says:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (N.K.J.V.)

Did you notice that Jesus said we must “become as little children” AFTER we are “converted”? Why did He make that the order? He did it because He knew that we are prone to become more hardened, cynical, and doubtful as we age. Yes, the adult life surely has a way of knocking the childlike faith out of us, and even authentic Christian conversion doesn’t eliminate that problem. That’s why even us Christian adults must become “as little children.” Is that a tall order? You’d better believe it. But is it one worth meeting? Absolutely, because when we meet it, that creates a true masterpiece.

Posted in Adversity, Aging, Atheism, Belief, Bible Study, Children, Church Attendance, Disappointment, Doubt, Evangelism, Faith, Giving, God's Work, Perseverance, Personal Holiness, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Problems, Salvation, Scripture, Service, The Bible, Trials, Trusting In God, Witnessing, Youth | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Christian’s Paradoxical Life

Posted on March 2, 2023 by russellmckinney

But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” (Acts 17:5-6, N.K.J.V.)

The events of our text passage took place in Thessalonica shortly after Paul and Silas began a successful ministry campaign in that city. On three successive Sabbaths, Paul went into Thessalonica’s Jewish synagogue and preached Jesus (Acts 17:1-3). That preaching resulted in a sizable group of citizens (a group that included Jews, devout Greeks, and some of the city’s most prominent women) converting to Christianity (Acts 17:4).

In turn, the Jews who refused to convert went into the city’s marketplace, recruited some evil men as a mob, and riotously marched on the house of Jason, where Paul and Silas were staying. The intent was to get Paul and Silas out of the house and into the hands of the mob (Acts 17:5). But when Paul and Silas couldn’t be found, the mob settled for bringing Jason and some of his fellow Christians before the rulers of the city. The official charge was that Jason, Paul, Silas, and all the other Christians were committing treason against Rome by saying that Jesus, rather than Caesar, was King (Acts 17:7-8).

It was only after Jason had posted bond that he and the other Christians were allowed to return to their homes (Acts 17:9). Perhaps the agreement was that Jason would lose the bond money if Paul and Silas did not leave town. Whatever the exact details were, Paul and Silas did leave Thessalonica that night and traveled to Berea, which was located about 46 miles southwest (Acts 17:10).

Okay, so there is a lot that I could unpack about this whole story, but the one thought that I want to run with for this post has to do with how those lost Jews described Paul and Silas. They called them “these who have turned the world upside down.” How’s that for a graphic description? It speaks to what a powerful impact the ministries of those two men had wherever they went.

But do you know something? The fact is that every devout Christian lives a life that surely seems “upside down” when contrasted with how lost people live their lives.  A.W. Tozer, who was one of the most famous preachers that America has ever produced, did a good job of describing this contrast when he talked about the Christian life being full of paradoxes. He said of the Christian:

He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen. He talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see, expects to go to Heaven on the virtue of Another, empties himself in order that he might be full, admits he is wrong so he can be declared right, goes down in order to get up.

He is strongest when he is weakest, richest when he is poorest and happiest when he feels worst. He dies so he can live, forsakes in order to have, gives away so he can keep, sees the invisible, hears the inaudible and knows that which passeth knowledge.

Let me encourage you to take the time to reread Tozer’s description and linger a while on each part of it. If you are a devout Christian, you should easily find yourself in his words. Even more than that, you should also get some inkling as to why us Christians are so confusing to lost people. They genuinely don’t understand why we live the way we live, talk the way we talk, and act the way we act. To them, we’re not only out of step with the real world but the vertical opposite of it. Actually, the real shame is that enough of us aren’t doing enough for the cause of Christ these days to get our world turned upside down. Considering the way things are going, it really could use a good inverting.

Posted in Belief, Brokenness, Current Events, Discipleship, Doing Good, Dying To Self, Evangelism, Faith, Faithfulness, God's Work, Influence, Ministry, Missions, Personal Holiness, Salvation, Sanctification, Service, Trusting In God, Witnessing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Missed Opportunities

Posted on February 27, 2023 by russellmckinney

When Alexander Graham Bell was trying to market the telephone, he went to wealthy financier Chauncey DePew and offered him a one-sixth interest in the new invention for the price of $10,000. DePew took a week to consider the offer and wrote back the following:

Dear Mr. Bell:
The incident is closed. That telephone is a clever idea, but it is utterly lacking in commercial possibilities. Ten thousand dollars is far too much to risk in marketing an instrument that, at best, can never be more than a source of amusement.

Applying this illustration to spiritual matters, how many daily opportunities does God extend to each of us for us to either draw closer to Him or be used in His service? That time of boredom when you have nothing to do? That unexpected circumstance? That chance encounter with a stranger? That conversation with a friend? That request for help? These are all spiritual opportunities whereby we can either draw closer to God or be used in His service. But what do we do with these opportunities? Far too many times we let them slip through our fingers.

Today, be especially on the lookout for the opportunities that God sends your way. Maybe there will be opportunities for you to become more intimate with Him. Maybe there will be opportunities for Him to use you in His service. Most likely there will be both. Pray a simple prayer right now and ask Him to help you be especially in tune to these opportunities. Seriously, there’s just no telling what marvelous opportunities God has scheduled for you today if you will only understand them for what they are and take advantage of them.

Posted in Discernment, Discipleship, Doing Good, God's Omnipotence, God's Work, Influence, Ministry, Personal Holiness, Service, Spiritual Gifts, Talents | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Year by Year

Posted on February 24, 2023 by russellmckinney

As the story in 1 Samuel chapter 1 begins, a woman named Hannah is barren. She has a husband, Elkanah, who loves her very much, but she cannot give him children. Perhaps that is why he has a second wife. Her name is Peninnah, and she and Elkanah do have children. But as is typical in Old Testament stories in which the man has more than one wife, there is jealousy and rivalry between the wives. Because Peninnah knows that Elkanah loves Hannah more than her, she takes great delight in verbally abusing Hannah concerning Hannah’s barrenness. 1 Samuel 1:6 says of Hannah:

And her rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the Lord had closed her womb. (N.K.J.V.)

Peninnah’s cruel taunts are even thrown around during the family’s annual trips to Shiloh to worship and offer sacrifices at the Tabernacle, Israel’s central place of worship in those days. 1 Samuel 1:7 says:

So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, that she provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat. (N.K.J.V.)_

Please notice those three words: year by year. How many years did Hannah endure the vicious taunting of Penninah? We can’t say for sure. All we know is that God didn’t come riding in with the calvary and fix the problem overnight. He let things go on for years!

This brings me to the core message of this post. How long have you been waiting for God to do that certain something? How long have you been waiting for Him to grant that specific request? How long have you been waiting for Him to deal with that one problem? If you can truthfully answer, “For years,” you are in the good company of Hannah.

The difference between you and her is that you know how her story turned out. God did eventually open her womb and grant her Samuel, who would grow up to become one of Israel’s greatest leaders. But as for the end of your story, well, right not that’s still in doubt (at least in your way of looking at things). Understand this, though: All those years of what you might classify as silence or inactivity on God’s part are no indication, in and of themselves, that He isn’t still going to do what you’ve asked Him to do. Remember the words of Psalm 27:14:

Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord! (N.K.J.V.)

Posted in Disappointment, Encouragement, Faith, God's Love, God's Timing, God's Provision, God's Will, Impatience, Needs, Patience, Perseverance, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Problems, Trusting In God, Waiting | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Too Close to His Price

Posted on February 22, 2023 by russellmckinney

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:12-13, N.K.J.V.)

Back in the days of the Civil War, a smuggler asked a riverboat captain to accept an illegal shipment of cotton onto the captain’s boat. The smuggler said, “I’ll give you $300 to transport these bales.” The captain answered, “No, I don’t want to get mixed up in anything illegal.”

Undeterred, the smuggler said, “I’ll make it $1,000.” But the captain held firm in his convictions and again answered, “No.” Finally, the smuggler made his highest offer: $3,000. At that point, the captain pulled a pistol from his belt and said, “You get off my boat. You’re getting too close to my price!”

Let me point out two things about that captain. #1: He was moral enough to sincerely try to do right in a wrong world. #2: He was wise enough to know that even he was capable of yielding to temptation if the pay was too much to resist. I think we need more people like that today, people who have a lot of godly morality about them but who also realize they are still sin-tainted enough to engage in immorality if the circumstances are right.

I ask you, are you such a person? Well, if you are, have you learned how to recognize your breaking point in regards to being tempted? If you haven’t, I hope it goes without saying that you’d better learn to recognize it fast!

Posted in Character, Choices, Depravity, Doing Good, Personal Holiness, Sin, Temptation | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Stretch Your Soul

Posted on February 20, 2023 by russellmckinney

Many years ago The Alabama Baptist ran the following story told by R. Lee Sharpe:

I was just a kid. One spring day, father told me to go with him to old man Trussell’s blacksmith shop. He had left a rake and a hoe to be repaired. And there they were ready, fixed like new. Father handed over a silver dollar for the repairing. But Mr. Trussell refused to take it. “No,” he said, “there’s no charge for that little job.” But father insisted that he take the pay. If I live a thousand years, I’ll never forget that great blacksmith’s reply. “Sid,” he said to my father, “can’t you let a man do something now and then – just to stretch his soul?”

James 2:18 says:

Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith through my good deeds.” (N.L.T.)

Christian, do at least one thing today (for someone other than a family member or a friend) just to stretch your soul.

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Right Praying in Old Testament Days

Posted on February 18, 2023 by russellmckinney

Who prayed true prayers to the true God in the days of the Old Testament? Well, we must keep in mind that God didn’t reveal Himself in that era as fully as He would in the New Testament era. Therefore, the answer is: In Old Testament days, it was the people of Israel who got prayer right as they prayed exclusively to their one “LORD.”

This title “LORD” is the translation of four Hebrew consonants, the English equivalent of which would be: Y-H-W-H. “YHWH” is used thousands of times in the Old Testament as the name of God. Unfortunately, how we got from the Hebrew name “YHWH” to the English name “LORD” is very confusing. I will, however, make an attempt to give you the basics of the process.

First, we begin with the fact that the earliest form of Hebrew writing didn’t use vowels. While the Jews did use vowels when speaking Hebrew words, they didn’t use them when they spelled out those words. Consequently, the simple consonants “YHWH” are all that are given for this particular name of God in the Old Testament text. Our modern English translations of the Old Testament indicate this specific name’s use by capitalizing all the letters in “LORD.” For example, the next time you read David’s opening line to Psalm 23 notice that the word “LORD” is in all caps. This is the way our English translations attempt to convey that the Hebrew name for God that is being used is the famous “YHWH.“

Second, to further complicate matters concerning the Old Testament’s primary name for God, sometime around 300 B.C. the Jews stopped pronouncing the name out loud whenever they read from the Old Testament. Why did they do this? They did it because they considered the name too holy to even speak and didn’t want to run the risk of breaking the commandment about taking it in vain. So, whenever they came to “YHWH” in their reading, they spoke the name “Adonai” instead. In Hebrew, “Adonai” means “Lord.”

But then a tragic thing happened. With the death of the last Jew who had actually heard the name “YHWH” pronounced aloud using the proper vowels, the correct way to pronounce it was lost to history. This left the Jews, not to mention everybody else, to attempt to guess at not only the correct way to pronounce the name but also the correct vowels — the Jews did eventually start incorporating vowels into their writing — to add to its spelling to make the pronunciation sound as it should. Unfortunately, the entire world has been dealing with this problem ever since.

Third, at some point, the Jewish scribes took the Hebrew vowels from “Adonai” and combined them with the consonants “YHWH,” and from this combining came the name in Hebrew “Yahweh.” Later on, the result of this combining was translated from Hebrew into Latin, and from this translating came the name “Jehovah.”

Now, I realize that this is all pretty confusing, but please don’t get bogged down in the translation minutia. The main point of this post is that during the days of the Old Testament the Jews were the people who prayed legitimate prayers to the legitimate God. They prayed to their “LORD” (“Yahweh,” “Jehovah”). Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is the Jewish Shema, their ancient confession of faith. Even now devout Jews recite its words twice a day. And the heart of the passage is found in verse 4: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!”

In light of the Shema, Old Testament believers prayed to the one “Lord” of Israel. Scripture’s examples of such prayers are far too numerous to list, but perhaps the most famous is the prayer King Solomon prayed to dedicate the Jewish temple (1 Kings 8:22-53). That prayer covers thirty-two verses! So, to sum up, if the question is, “Who prayed true prayers to the true God in the days of the Old Testament?” the answer is: The Jews and any Gentiles who had enough spiritual light to pray to Israel’s one true God.

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How Does a Worm Get Inside an Apple?

Posted on February 16, 2023 by russellmckinney

Most people think the worm burrows down inside the apple from the outside. In actuality, however, the worm was born inside the apple. It’s an interesting process. I’ve read this in various places, but for this post I’ll quote directly from Big Site of Amazing Facts.

During the summer, small fruit flies can be found buzzing around apple orchards. These are called apple maggot flies. Each female finds herself a sweet smelling apple that is ripening and lands on it. Using a small, sharp, hollow tube on the underside of her body, the fly stabs a small hole in the fruit. Then she releases her eggs, which slide down that hollow tube into the apple.

Soon afterwards, the eggs hatch into tiny white worms, in no way resembling their mother. These worms are called railroad worms.

All during the summer and into the fall, the always hungry worms nourish themselves by munching tunnels in the apple. When the apples are ripe in the fall and drop from the tree, the worms crawl out and burrow into the ground.

There, a hard outer skin develops on each worm’s body. This hard skin becomes a winter home for the worm in the ground. It is inside this winter home that the worm becomes a maggot fly.

The following summer, the fly breaks open the skin, emerges, and begins to fly about the orchard. Then the entire process begins all over again.

The Bible teaches that the heart of man’s problem is the problem of man’s heart. (It should be understood that the Bible primarily uses the word “heart” as a metaphor for a person’s innermost being, not to the actual organ itself.) Sin doesn’t enter in from the outside and burrow its way down into a person’s heart. No, the sin is there in the heart from the very beginning. This is the result of being born into Adam’s fallen race. Consider the following passages (all from the N.K.J.V.):

Psalm 51:5: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”

Ecclesiastes 9:3: “…Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil…”

Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?”

Matthew 15:18-19: “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.”

Mark 7:20-23: “And He said, ‘What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.’”

While detox centers and prison rehabilitative programs have their place in the grand scheme of things, as do political attempts at moral and social reform, let us never forget that the heart of man’s problem is the problem of man’s heart. The “worm” of sin is forevermore eating its way up from deep within each of us, and it is only Jesus who can adequately deal with that worm. That’s why each of us should, to use the old evangelistic invitation, accept Jesus into our “heart” (Revelation 3:20; Ephesians 3:17). So tell me, have you done that? If you haven’t, I encourage you to do it right now and let Jesus begin to bring that “worm” inside you under control.

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