When God Stirs You Up

Posted on August 9, 2021 by russellmckinney

“Ezra” series: (post #1)

Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all whose spirits God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. (Ezra 1:5, N.K.J.V.)

The book of Ezra opens with all the Jews from Judah, Israel’s southern kingdom, still living in forced exile in Babylon. It has been around seventy years since the Babylonians conquered Judah and initiated the first of what would ultimately be three separate waves of relocating the Jews to Babylon over a period of approximately sixteen years. That’s seventy years of judgment for sinfully disobeying God’s laws and worshiping false idols. That’s seventy years of living somewhere other than their homeland of Israel. That’s seventy years of having no temple in which to worship and offer sacrifices. By now, most of those original deportees from Judah have died off in Babylon. But their descendants, probably numbering between two and three million, remain there.

However, a different wind is now blowing in Babylon. The Medo-Persians (an alliance between the Medes and the Persians) have conquered the Babylonians and become the most dominant nation on earth, and their leader, Persia’s Cyrus the Great, has issued a startling decree. He has decreed that any Jew who wants to return home to Judah and help in building a new temple in Jerusalem may do so. The decree raises the obvious question, “Why would a Gentile ruler give a rip one way or the other about the Jewish people?”

We find the answer in scripture. In our Bibles, the book of Ezra is directly preceded by the book of 2 Chronicles, and the closing two verses of 2 Chronicles read as follows:

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up! (2 Chronicles 36:22-23, N.K.J.V.)

These two verses are repeated almost verbatim as the opening three verses of the book of Ezra. Notice two things from both passages. First, Cyrus’ decree was the means by which God fulfilled a prophecy that He had given decades earlier through the prophet Jeremiah. That prophecy stated that the Jews would serve the Babylonians for the limited amount of time of seventy years (Jeremiah 25:8-14; 29:10). Second, it was God Himself who inwardly prompted Cyrus the Great to issue the decree. As Cyrus said of God, “He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah.” This is a classic example of Proverbs 21:1, which says:

The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. (N.K.J.V.)

I especially like the wording 2 Chronicles 36:22 and Ezra 1:1 both use in saying that “the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia.” The Hebrew word is ur, which means “to awake,” to arouse,” to “stir up.” It’s the same word that is used in our text verse, Ezra 1:5, which says that God “moved” (N.K.J.V.) the spirits of the heads of the Jewish tribes of Judah and Benjamin to arise, go to Jerusalem, and build a new temple. The point is, just as God stirred up Cyrus’ heart to issue that famous decree, He stirred up the hearts of those Jews to put it to good use.

History shows us that, in both instances, God’s inward stirring coincided with outward circumstances. In the case of Cyrus, who was a lost unbeliever, God’s stirring coincided with Cyrus’ plan to create loyalty to him on the part of his subjected peoples by allowing them to return to their original homelands. As evidence of this, the historical artifact known as the Cyrus Cylinder, which was created on the occasion of Cyrus’ capturing Babylon, quotes Cyrus as saying, “May all the gods whom I have resettled in their sacred cities daily ask Bel and Nebo for a long life me.” Bel and Nebo were two of Persia’s gods.

Also, the Jewish historian Josephus wrote that Cyrus was shown the prophet Isaiah’s prophecies concerning himself and wanted to fulfill them. Speaking under the inspiration of God, Isaiah had actually named Cyrus by name approximately 200 years prior to the time God lifted Cyrus to world domination (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1-13). If the Josephus account is accurate, it provides even more evidence of how Cyrus’ outward circumstances confirmed what God was inwardly stirring him up to do.

Along the same lines, in the historical case of the exiled Jews in Babylon, God stirring many of them to return to Jerusalem and build a new temple there coincided not only with their national longing to return to their homeland but also a prophet’s specific prophecies concerning that return. As I mentioned earlier, it was Jeremiah who had prophesied that seventy years would mark the end of Babylon’s rule over the Jews. So, here again we see that the Jews’ outward circumstances as well as the prophecies concerning their future worked together to confirm what God was inwardly burdening them to do.

Perhaps God is right now stirring you up to do a specific thing. If He is, you already know what it is because you have already been feeling an undeniable inward tug to do it. In addition to you feeling that tug, you are probably also noticing that your circumstances are aligning in a way to make it easy for you to do what God wants you to do. I won’t even begin to guess what that something is, but I will tell you that God has business interests all over the place. All He requires from you to join Him in doing that business is your obedience. This boils the matter down to the simple question: “Will you give Him that obedience and do what He is stirring you up to do?” You see, God has blessings awaiting you in Jerusalem, but you’ll never know those blessings if you ignore His inward stirring and remain in Babylon.

Posted in Change, Courage, Decisions, Faith, God's Omnipotence, God's Timing, God's Will, Government, Obedience, Prophecy, Series: "Ezra", Service, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Landing Is Important (repost)

Posted on August 4, 2021 by russellmckinney

(I’m on vacation this week, which means that I won’t be doing any writing. Instead, each day (Monday through Friday) I’ll republish an old post. Since even I myself don’t remember writing half the things I find on the blog, don’t feel bad if each day’s post seems brand new to you. Hopefully, God will use these old posts in even greater ways than He used them when I first wrote them. Enjoy.)

A student pilot was doing an excellent job flying the plane during his lesson. Then came the moment when the flight instructor looked over at him and said, “Okay, let’s take it down and land.” The student said, “Sounds good, let’s do it.”

As the plane began to descend, the instructor couldn’t help but notice how calm the student remained. Whereas most trainees instinctively got a little nervous at the thought of bringing the plane in for a landing, this trainee’s facial expression and demeanor didn’t change one bit. The instructor thought to himself, “This guy is going to make a great pilot.”

Not too long afterward, though, the plane hit the runway hard, bounced 50 feet into the air, hit the runway hard again, bounced 25 feet into the air, hit the runway hard again, bounced 5 feet into the air, and finally came to a full stop. The instructor was horrified. Actually, he was just glad to be alive after that awful landing. He looked over at the student and said, “You did just fine flying the plane, but your landing was the worst one I’ve ever seen.” That’s when the student looked at him and said, “MY landing? I thought YOU were handling the landing!”

When you seek God’s will regarding a decision and then do that will, the landing for that decision becomes God’s responsibility. Conversely, when you do your own will regarding a decision, God isn’t responsible for the landing. Unfortunately for God, His reputation has taken many a hit simply because He got blamed for a landing in which He had no part.

So many times we go our own way, do our own thing, and then somewhere in the middle of it all say, “Lord, please bless my efforts as I do Your work.” God must think to Himself, “MY work? Do you really think you are doing MY work here?” The term “rubber stamp a decision” is a metaphor that means that the person who is technically in charge of an operation robotically grants approval to what his underlings think should be done. This approval is evidenced by the person opening his desk drawer, pulling out the custom-made rubber stamp that has his signature embossed on it, and pressing that stamp down onto the official document that sanctions the project. Needless to say, God doesn’t “rubber stamp” anything that isn’t His will.

Right now, whatever decision you are facing, seek God’s will concerning that decision. Even more than just seek it, do it. Then take your hands off the controls and let God bring the decision in for a landing. Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that even God’s landings can sometimes get a little rough. Oh, and did I mention that He might not land you where you thought you were going to land? Still, though, the great benefit from doing God’s will and letting Him handle the landing is that when you are finally at “all stop,” you will have the deep-settled inner peace that only comes from doing God’s will. And that, of course, is really the only way to fly.

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How Can a Loving God Send Anyone to Hell?

Posted on July 31, 2021 by russellmckinney

“How can a loving God send anyone to Hell?” is a question that has been asked thousands of times down through the years. You yourself have probably asked it at one time or another. One Bible scholar who has left us with a good answer was Dr. Henry Morris. As a matter of fact, his answer was so good that I thought I’d just share it with you verbatim. Morris wrote:

The reason is that, as a God of love, He will not force people into Heaven against their will. Such people would not be happy in Heaven!

God is not only a God of love but also of perfect holiness and absolute righteousness. There can be no sin of any kind whatever in His presence in Heaven. He created man for fellowship with Himself, but of course man (Adam first, then every other person individually since Adam) has become a sinner, separated from God’s presence and fellowship. No one therefore has a right in himself to be in Heaven. Every person, without exception, deserves to go to Hell. As the Scripture says, it is a place where men “shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (II Thess. 1:9).

Thus, in Hell there will be no love, for “God is love” (1 John 4:8). There will be no light, for God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). There will be no peace or rest or joy, since these are all gifts of God (John 14:27; Heb. 4:3; John 15:11). On the contrary, there will be eternal corruption, strife, rebellion and hatred.

Now this is exactly what we all deserve. “But God…is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us” (Eph. 2:4). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Pet. 3:9).

Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, lived a perfect human life. He died for our sins,…and then He arose victorious over death and Hell, “alive forevermore” (Rev. 1:18). He paid the full price for our redemption and restoration to the presence and fellowship of God for which we were created.

The only rational response a man can possibly make to this infinite manifestation of God’s love is to fall on his knees before God, confess and forsake his sin, receive the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior and commit his life and soul, for time and eternity, to the service of the One who has loved him so much and paid such an awful price for his salvation.

On the other hand, if a man either rejects or ignores the love of God in Christ, he thereby chooses to remain independent of God and to continue in his own way with his own interests and ambitions and pleasures. He is too proud to acknowledge himself as the worthless, Hell-deserving sinner that he is and thus unconsciously aligns himself with those other self-righteous, religious, intelligent, unbelieving people whom God permitted to reject and crucify His Son two thousand years ago.

Basically, Dr. Morris’ one answer can be boiled down to two answers. First, God’s love demands that He send lost sinners to Hell. As Dr. Morris pointed out, God loves people too much to force them into Heaven against their will, and those who loved sin on earth more than they loved God wouldn’t be happy in Heaven anyway. I would add in that those who defiantly resisted submitting to the Lordship of Jesus in life certainly wouldn’t want to spend eternity under that Lordship. That would be too great a violation of their willful independence.

Second, God’s holiness demands that He send lost sinners to Hell. The scriptures that speak of how holy God is are far too many to list, but you can read Isaiah 6:1-5, Habakkuk 1:13, and Revelation 4:8 to get you started. Unfortunately, God’s holiness raises an eternal problem for us humans because we are all sinners. We are conceived with and born with the nature of sin (Psalm 51:5; Ephesians 2:1-3), and this nature of sin compels us to commit acts of sin (Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:11-18). Each and every one of these acts must be forgiven before God’s holiness can allow Him to let us into Heaven, and that forgiveness can only be found in Jesus Christ.

Posted in Christ's Death, Depravity, Eternity, God's Holiness, God's Love, Heaven, Hell, Rebellion, Salvation, Sin, Submission | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Singing, Making Music, and Dancing

Posted on July 28, 2021 by russellmckinney

Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth! (Psalm 96:1, N.K.J.V.)

Question: “How many years have to pass before a Baptist church sings a new song?” Answer: “It’s a trick question; Baptists never sing new songs.” Okay, okay, I’ll admit that’s an exaggeration. Even the songs we Baptists do sing had to be new at some point, right? That’s the thing about music — it’s all contemporary when it is first written, whether that happens in 1821 or 2021.

We read the Psalms as if we are reading poetry, but in reality they were songs. That’s why the book of Psalms has been called “Israel’s hymn book.” There is no heading over Psalm 96 to tell us precisely who wrote it, but our best guess is that the author was David. Many scholars and commentators belief that he wrote it as part of a collection of songs he wrote to commemorate the Ark of the Covenant being brought into Jerusalem (1 Chronicles chapters 15 and 16).

From ancient times, singing has been used as a prime means by which to praise God. According to the Biblical record, the playing of the harp and the flute — and presumably the creating of those instruments — goes all the way back to a man named Jubal. He was one of Cain’s descendants and is said to have been “the father of all those who play the harp and flute” (Genesis 4:21, N.K.J.V.). But the first actual song, complete with words and singing, that is mentioned in scripture doesn’t crop up until Exodus chapter 15. The Israelites have just crossed over the Red Sea on dry ground and watched as God has drowned Egypt’s army in that same sea. It is then that the men and women of Israel break out into that song.

The bulk of the first section of that 15th chapter of Exodus features Moses leading the Israelites in the singing of the words that are recorded in verses 1-18. Then, in verses 20 and 21, Moses’ sister Miriam and all the other women play their timbrels as Miriam sings her response to Moses’ song. That response is: “Sing to the Lord, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!” I should also mention that Miriam and those other woman also dance about as a part of the celebration.

Singing a new song? Playing musical instruments? Dancing unto the Lord? My goodness, it kind of makes us wonder what heaven will be like! Along those lines, I think about Christ’s story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). In that story, when the younger son returns home from sowing his wild oats in the far country, the father throws a great celebration for him. When the older son comes in from working in the field, he hears that celebration taking place. And do you know what the Bible specifically says that he hears? He hears “music and dancing” (Luke 15:25, N.K.J.V.).

Now let me tell you what that little detail has to do with heaven. According to the symbolism of that story, the father represents God the Father and the father’s house represents heaven. By putting everything together, we can conclude that heaven is a place where music (and surely that includes singing) and dancing can be heard. Revelation 5:8-13 confirms all this, as it says that the 24 elders (who represent the entirety of the church) will each have a harp in heaven and will sing the following new song to Jesus:

You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For you were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue. And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9-10, N.K.J.V.).

Christian, your proper response to all this is to do your best to get in practice for it here on earth. Can you singing the classic hymns of the faith be a part of that practicing? Sure. But you should also sing some new songs as evidence that God isn’t forevermore trapped in the past. As for playing musical instruments and dancing, well, if you are like me, you’ll probably have to get to heaven before you start up with all that. As a matter of fact, now that I think about it, whenever I’m handed that harp in heaven, somebody had better also teach me how to play it. Hopefully, my musical abilities will be brought up to par in glory, but they sure do leave a lot to be desired right now.

Posted in Church, Eternity, Heaven, Music, Praise, Talents, Worship | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Lord Opened Lydia’s Heart

Posted on July 26, 2021 by russellmckinney

Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. (Acts 16:14, N.K.J.V.)

Roman emperors organized colonies/cities at strategic sites throughout the sprawling empire and ordered selected Roman citizens, especially retired military personnel, to live in those places. This was done to ensure that there were strong Roman settlements strategically dotting the map of the empire. As a reward for leaving their homes in Italy and settling down in these foreign lands, Roman citizens were granted certain privileges. In particular, they were made exempt from having to pay taxes.

The city of Philippi, which was located in the Roman colony of Macedonia in Greece, was one of those cities. As such, everyone who lived there was expected to be loyal to Rome. That meant obeying Roman laws and giving honor to the Roman emperor. Paul, Silas, Luke, and Timothy visited Philippi as part of what we now call Paul’s second missionary journey. The historical significance of this group coming to Philippi is that this was the gospel’s initial entrance into Europe. It was also Paul being true to “the Macedonian Call” vision he had recently experienced (Acts 16:6-10).

Paul’s usual method for beginning his evangelism in a city was to go to the city’s synagogue on the Sabbath and share the gospel with the Jews in attendance. However, in Gentile cities such as Philippi, there wasn’t a synagogue because Jewish custom required at least ten Jewish men to organize one. That meant that Paul and his group had to find another way to begin sharing the gospel at Philippi.

Somehow they learned that some of Philippi’s citizens regularly offered up prayers at a certain spot on the riverbank just outside the city. Accordingly, when Paul, Silas, Luke, and Timothy arrived at the site on the Sabbath day, they found a group of women meeting there and struck up a conversation with them (Acts 16:13). A woman named Lydia, who was originally from the city of Thyatira but now lived in Philippi, was one of that group. Since Philippi was the leading city of that part of Macedonia, she made a good living there by selling the expensive dyed purple cloth that her home city of Thyatira was famous for producing.

Luke (the writer of the book of Acts) says that Lydia, a Gentile, “worshiped God.” Evidently, that group of women who met to pray at the riverbank was a mixture of Jewish women and Gentile converts to Judaism. Why else would they have met for prayer each Sabbath day?

We might say that these women were doing the best they could to serve God by way of the limited spiritual light they had. Presumably, the Jewish women in the group knew the Old Testament, and we can logically assume that they had taught what they knew to Lydia and the other Gentile converts to Judaism. But none of the women knew anything about Christ’s life, death, burial, and resurrection. Those events had happened in another part of the empire, and the news hadn’t reached Philippi yet even though some twenty years had now passed. Therefore, what those women needed most was someone to tell them the story of Jesus. That’s where Paul, Silas, Luke, and Timothy entered into the picture.

You see, each of those women was an example of a worshiper/seeker. A worshiper/seeker was someone who was right with God as far as their revelation of Him had taken them. Such people did the best they could in obeying the limited spiritual light they had, but someone had to share the gospel of Christ with them if they were going to become all that God wanted them to be.

The book of Acts features several examples of such worshipers/seekers. The Ethiopian eunuch whom Philip led to Christ was such a person (Acts 8:26-39). The Bible says he had come to Jerusalem to worship. Cornelius, a Gentile from Caesarea whom Peter led to Christ, was another such man (Acts 10:1-8). The Bible describes him as a devout man who feared God, prayed to God always, and gave alms generously to people. Apollos, an Alexandrian man who was learned in theology ranging from the Old Testament scriptures to the baptizing that John the Baptist had done, was another such man (Acts 18:24-28). It was the husband-and-wife team of Aquila and Priscilla who took him aside, explained the gospel to him, and led him to Christ.

As for Lydia, the Bible says she worshiped God, and that was long before Paul and his group hit town (Acts 16:14). The capital “G” in the passage’s use of the word “God” clearly shows that she worshiped the true and living God (the God of Judaism, the God of the Old Testament). So, even though she was a Gentile, she had the right God. What she needed to hear was the story of how that God had left heaven, lived 33+ sinless years on the earth, died on a cross for the sins of the human race, and resurrected.

Like those other worshipers/seekers in Acts, Lydia wasn’t stubbornly refusing to believe in Jesus as Savior. To the contrary, like them, her sincere desire to know God and to worship God had her primed and ready to embrace Jesus as Savior as soon as she heard about Him. When Acts 16:14 says the Lord opened her heart, it’s not like He had to march right over the top of her freewill and take her from one extreme (being dead set against Jesus) to the other extreme (believing in Him as Savior). That’s why Lydia can’t be presented as a piece of slam-dunk evidence to support Calvinism’s doctrine of unconditional election in regards to salvation.

As a matter of fact, the same Greek word (dianoigo) that is translated as “opened” in Acts 16:14 is used in Luke 24:45 in reference to how Jesus opened the understanding of His apostles in order that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Those men, significantly, were already saved when Jesus did that opening. That might mean that Lydia was already saved when the Lord opened her heart to a fuller understanding of salvation. If she was, her salvation would be placed in the same category as that of the Old Testament era believers who were saved apart from a full knowledge of Jesus.

Whatever the exact details of Lydia’s salvation experience were, we do know that she beautifully evidenced her salvation in the wake of responding to Paul’s presentation of the gospel. For one thing, she got baptized. For another, her entire household got baptized. (Perhaps that refers to her family, but some commentators suggest that it refers to her household servants). For yet another, she insisted that Paul, Silas, Luke, and Timothy stay at her house while they were in Philippi.

Another thing we know is that the church of Philippi sprang from those humble beginnings of Paul and his group meeting with those woman at that riverbank. That church, for the record, was one of the best of the early churches. It was definitely one of Paul’s favorites, as even a casual reading of the book of Philippians will attest. And just think, that church’s roots could be traced back to a conversation that Paul, Silas, Luke, and Timothy had one Saturday with a group of women who had met on a riverbank to pray. It just goes to show that great things can come from small beginnings. All it takes are people who are hungering and thirsting to worship God and do His will, and a God who will open hearts to bring those people into the fullest possible revelation of Him and what He wants to do in their lives.

Posted in Calvinism, Evangelism, God's Work, Missions, Salvation, The Heart, Witnessing, Worship | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Women & Spiritual Discernment

Posted on July 25, 2021 by russellmckinney

If you come to me and say in a nice way, “Russell, sometimes you have a problem with your temper,” you will be telling me the truth. (My wife and sons will vouch for that.) You will also, in a sense, be doing me a favor. It is a favor because you will be telling me the truth about a deficiency in myself, and once I see that area as a deficiency, hopefully I can improve on it.

With this in mind, I want to tell you ladies the truth about a deficiency that is commonly found in your gender. It is a deficiency in the area of spiritual discernment. You say, “Russell, what makes you think that your opinion on womanhood is all that important anyway?” Well, I don’t think that my opinion is all that important. But God’s opinion is important, and the reason why I say that women tend to be weaker than men in the area of spiritual discernment is because three passages in God’s word indicate it.

The first passage is 1 Timothy 2:11-14, where Paul says:

Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. (N.K.J.V.)

These words deal with a woman’s role in the church service, and Paul is very clear that her role is to be different than the man’s. It should be understood, of course, that the churches of Paul’s day did not have Sunday School classes, choirs, committees, or business meetings. That makes comparing the way we do church to the way they did church almost like comparing apples to oranges. Nevertheless, the point Paul is making is an important one. The God-inspired reason for limiting the woman’s role in the church service goes back to the fact that it was Eve, not Adam, who was deceived by Satan (who was inside the serpent) in the Garden of Eden.

We might ask, “If Adam wasn’t deceived by Satan, why did he eat the fruit?” The truth is, no one can say for sure. But one thing we can say for sure is that it was Eve (the woman) who was deceived, not Adam (the man). I don’t even think we stretch things too far to say that Satan approached Eve with the temptation because he knew that he had a better shot with her than he did with Adam.

The second passage is 2 Timothy 3:1-6, where Paul says:

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts…(N.K.J.V.)

We see here that Paul specifically singles out the women for a direct word of warning about letting spiritual charlatans into the home. Does this mean that men never come under the spell of religious charlatans? No, it doesn’t. Let us admit, though, that this passage provides us with a highly specific word about how easily women can be duped by sinful people.

The third passage takes us to the little epistle of 2 John. The opening words of that one-chapter book say:

The ELDER, To the elect lady and her children…(N.K.J.V.)

“The ELDER” is the title the apostle John, the man who wrote this short letter, gave to himself. But who is “the elect lady” to whom he wrote? She was a Christian woman who had children. By studying the entirety of the letter, we learn that this woman had gotten herself into sin by opening up her home to anyone who knocked on her door, claimed to be a God-called teacher of the word, and asked for lodging.

A little context here will help. Inns were scarce in those days, and we wouldn’t even call most of them inns according to our modern definition of the word. They were little more than animal shelters where you could house your animal in a stall, throw down your bed roll, and make camp for a night. Such “inns” were typically crowded, dirty, flea-infested, and overpriced.

Because of this a great need arose for Christian hospitality. When a traveling Christian would come into a town, he or she would oftentimes stay in the home of a fellow Christian. That is how the apostles usually operated as they moved about from place to place.

The problem with this woman was that she wasn’t showing any spiritual discernment in regards to who she was allowing to stay in her home. False teachers had been knocking on her door, and she had been giving them food and shelter. In doing so, she had been, as John says in verse 11, sharing in their evil deeds. You see, it is highly significant that the book of 2 John, which is probably the only book in the Bible to be written specifically to a woman, holds within it a rebuke for the woman’s lack of spiritual discernment. That rebuke is found in verses 10-11 of the book, where John says to her:

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. (N.K.J.V.)

So, the teaching found in all three of these references is that women, generally speaking, can oftentimes have problems in situations where spiritual discernment is required. Men can as well, for that matter, but these passages deal exclusively with women. I trust that these references are enough to make the point I’m trying to make in this post, but I can also cite what the Bible teaches about leadership in the home, the church, and the nation. Here goes.

First, the Bible teaches that the husbands (the men) should be the leaders of the homes. We find this is Colossians 3:18, 1 Corinthians 11:3, Genesis 3:16, and Ephesians 5:22-24, which says:

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord, For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. (N.K.J.V.)

Second, the Bible teaches that the men should be the leaders in the churches. This is the plain teaching of 1 Timothy 3:1-13, Titus 1:5-9, Acts 6:1-7, 1 Corinthians 11:1-16, and 1 Timothy 2:11-14. Another passage is 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, which says:

Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for women to speak in church. (N.K.J.V.)

Third, the Bible teaches that the men should be the leaders of the nation. A good passage here is Isaiah 3:11-12. In those verses, God is describing the time of national judgment that He is going to bring upon the people of Judah because of their sins. And would you believe that bringing the people to the lowly state of having children and women serve as their rulers is listed as a part of that judgment? God says:

Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, For the reward of his hands shall be given him. As for My people, children are their oppressors, And women rule over them. O my people! Those who lead you cause you to err, And destroy the way of your paths. (N.K.J.V.)    

As for additional passages that teach that men should serve as national rulers, I could pretty much list the entire Old Testament. I say that because the Old Testament is dominated by kings, not queens. This applies especially to Israel, the nation God chose for Himself in Old Testament times. The book of Proverbs, in particular, has many passages that speak of how God expects kings to conduct themselves.

Of course, there is so much more than could be said about the men being the leaders in the homes, the churches, and the nation. For example, when God established Israel’s order of priests in the Old Testament, He deemed that only males could serve as priests. Also, when Jesus chose His twelve apostles, He chose twelve men. Hopefully, though, I’ve said enough to prove the case. Again ladies, I’m not trying to hurt your feelings or make you mad. All I’m trying to do is take the Bible and show you a potential trouble spot in your life and teach you what it has to do with you serving in leadership positions in the home, the church, and the nation. As for how you accept it and what you do with it, well, I guess I’ll just have to leave that between you and God.

Posted in Church, Deacons, Discernment, Family, Fatherhood, God's Will, God's Word, God's Work, Headship, Husbands, Leadership, Marriage, Motherhood, Pastors, Politics, Preaching, Service, Submission, Wives, Worship | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Do You Really Believe All of It?

Posted on July 23, 2021 by russellmckinney

But this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets. (Acts 24:14, N.K.J.V.)

As part of his defense before the Roman governor Felix, Paul unashamedly proclaimed that he believed all the things that were written in the Law and in the Prophets. This meant that he believed everything written in the five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), and it also meant that he believed everything that was written in the books from the various prophets of the Old Testament era. Even more than that, since the term “The Law and the Prophets” can be used to refer to the entirety of the Old Testament (Matthew 7:12), Paul also believed everything written in the “wisdom” books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon).

And just what is it that believing all of the Old Testament entails? Oh, not much. You just have to believe a whole bunch of things that a whole bunch of people call utterly unbelievable. Here is a list of 20 such things to get you started:

  • God created all of creation in six 24-hour days (days with an evening and a morning).
  • Adam and Eve were real people who ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.
  • God once flooded the entire earth with water that covered the highest mountain peaks worldwide.
  • God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone because of the rampant homosexuality that was pervasive in those cities.
  • God spoke to Moses out of a burning bush.
  • God struck Egypt with ten devastating plagues.
  • God parted the waters of the Red Sea so the Israelites could walk through on dry ground.
  • God made a donkey talk to the prophet Balaam.
  • God parted the waters of the Jordan River so the Israelites could walk through on dry ground.
  • God made the sun stand still for Joshua.
  • Samson killed 1,000 Philistines in one day using only the jawbone of a donkey as a weapon.
  • David killed a giant named Goliath, who was almost ten-feet tall.
  • At the word of the prophet Elijah, it didn’t rain in Israel for three-and-a-half years.
  • Elijah didn’t physically die but was instead taken up into heaven by way of a chariot of fire.
  • The prophet Elisha raised the son of a Shunamite woman from the dead.
  • The Angel of the Lord killed 185,000 soldiers in one night as they slept.
  • The prophet Daniel survived being cast into a den of ravenous lions.
  • Daniel’s three friends (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) survived being cast into a fiery furnace.
  • The story of Jonah is literally true, even the part about him living inside the belly of the great fish/whale/sea monster.
  • All the prophecies from the Old Testament prophets about a coming Messianic kingdom upon the earth will one day come to pass.

The fact is that scientists who dogmatically hold to the theory of evolution can’t get past the first item on that list. Liberal preachers who think the story of the Garden of Eden is some type of mythical allegory can’t get past the second item. Archaeologists who think the flood of Noah was merely a localized catastrophe can’t get past the third item. Anyone who thinks that homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle in the eyes of God can’t get past the fourth item. Agnostics can’t get past the fifth item. You get the idea. Just name your Old Testament story, and there’s someone out there who doesn’t believe it as written.

This is to say nothing, of course, of believing the entirety of the New Testament as well. Certain academic types question that Jesus ever lived, let alone that He performed miracles, died on the cross for the sins of the world, and arose from the dead. Liberal theologians doubt the virgin birth. Feminists don’t believe all those passages in which Paul says that the wife should be submitted to the husband. Pacifists don’t believe Romans 13:1-5, a text that describes where capital punishment fits into God’s plan for government. Racists don’t believe all the verses that say that God is no respecter of persons and shows no partiality. Satanists don’t believe Revelation 20:10, which promises that Satan will spend eternity in the lake of fire. Atheists don’t believe the passages that describe heaven and hell. Legalists don’t believe that salvation comes simply by grace through faith in Jesus. Women preachers don’t believe 1 Timothy 2:11-15, 1 Timothy 3:1-7, and Titus 1:5-9, three passages that plainly teach that only men should serve as pastors.

How sad it is that so many people attempt to treat the Bible like a buffet line at a restaurant. They pick and choose the stuff they like, what they can accept as being believable truth, and then refuse to accept the rest of the book as being of the same ilk. Speaking as a preacher, I can’t imagine operating that way. If I had to figure out which passages I was going to believe and which ones I wasn’t, I’d just quit preaching altogether. Like Paul said in his day about the Old Testament, I believe all the things that are written in the book. Show me a preacher who doesn’t, and I’ll show you a man who should quit the ministry. For that matter, show me a supposed Christian who doesn’t, and I’ll show you a person who has good reason to doubt that he or she is even saved at all.

Posted in Atheism, Capital Punishment, Christ's Second Coming, Christ's Birth, Christ's Death, Christ's Miracles, Christ's Resurrection, Christ's Return, Creation, Favoritism, Government, Grace, Headship, Heaven, Hell, Homosexuality, Husbands, Ministry, Pastors, Preaching, Prophecy, Salvation, Satan, Scripture, Submission, The Bible, The Devil, The Old Testament Law, Truth, Virgin Birth, Wives | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

When Church Work Becomes a Burden

Posted on July 20, 2021 by russellmckinney

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, N.K.J.V.)

To rightly understand what Jesus is saying here, you have to know what a yoke is. For starters, it has nothing to do with the inside of an egg. That is a yolk (y-o-l-k); this is a yoke (y-o-k-e). A yoke is a harness device that binds two animals (usually two oxen) together for the purpose of working. Basically, it’s a wooden board that sits across the necks of the two animals. The board has two u-shaped harnesses that hang down from each side of its bottom. One animal’s head goes into one of the harnesses, and the other animal’s head goes into the other. The amazing thing about this illustration is that Jesus speaks of Himself as being one of the oxen in the yoke. He is saying, “I have My head in one of the harnesses and am ready to do My part of the work.”

Obviously, being in a yoke is a very humble and lowly position because a yoke certainly isn’t a device for showcasing an animal. To see an animal in a yoke is almost to hear that animal say, “I am submitted to another. I am broken. I don’t do my own bidding. I do the bidding of another.” This causes us to ask, “Who is Jesus submitted to? Whose bidding does He do? Who owns the yoke in which He has placed Himself?” The answer to all of these questions is: God the Father.

So, the players involved in the symbolism of Jesus’ illustration aren’t hard to identify. First, God the Father is the farmer who has work that He wants done, work that requires that two be yoked together. Second, Jesus, God the Son, has already taken His place inside God the Father’s yoke, which means that He has already submitted to do the work of God the Father. Third, Jesus extends the invitation to each of us to join Him inside that yoke.

Any individual who voluntarily becomes the other half of that yoke is saying, “I am now dead to my own work, goals, aspirations, ideas, plans, schemes, and priorities, and I am now going to do God the Father’s will and work.” And, amazingly, Jesus promises that doing God the Father’s will and work will actually allow the individual to find rest for the soul and a burden that is light. Admittedly, this whole deal seems paradoxical, but if Jesus said it, we ought to believe it.

But can we just admit something? Can we admit that understanding this illustration raises a certain question in the minds of a lot of church workers? That question is: “If I am in yoke with Jesus, and if that yoke is supposed to bring rest to my soul and make my burden light, why do I feel like I’m about to either fly apart from stress or just drop to the floor from exhaustion?”

This disconnect between what Jesus promised and what many church workers experience is the result of too much “busyness” in regards to church work. I know this for a fact because this “busyness” is part and parcel to my job. I’ve been a pastor for 28 years now, and that means that I’ve been there for all the Sunday morning services, the Sunday night services, and the Wednesday night services. I’ve taught my share of Sunday School classes. I’ve sat in on the meetings of: the deacon board, the youth committee, the budget and finance committee, the building and grounds committee, the kitchen committee, the nominating committee, etc.

I’ve stayed for choir practice at the close of many a Sunday night service or a Wednesday night service. I’ve gone with youth groups on youth trips and senior citizens on senior-citizen trips. I’ve been there for the youth pizza parties, the Fall Festival/Halleluiah (Halloween) parties, and the youth lock-ins. I’ve worked in helping decorate the church for Bible school. I’ve gotten up between 4:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. every Easter Sunday morning so that I could not only lead the Sunrise Service but also help with the fellowship breakfast that followed the service.

I’ve attended the Thanksgiving and Christmas fellowship meals. I’ve attended the Christmas Eve services. I’ve attended the Valentine’s Day spaghetti suppers, the “poor-man’s supper” fundraising meals, and the potluck fellowship meals. I’ve not only attended but also scheduled the singings and the revival services. I’ve worked in the Brotherhood work days. I’ve written the bulletin and had my wife Tonya run off the copies of it. I’ve decorated the Christmas trees in the sanctuary, and I’ve taken the decorations off the Christmas trees in the sanctuary.

With all this in mind, I trust that you will understand when I say that there have been times when I have actually dreaded going to church. I will never forget one Sunday afternoon, some 15 or so years ago now. Royce, my son who didn’t come with a built-in filter for his mouth, was around 5 years old, and he was having a grand old time playing in his bedroom floor. He had some of his toys out and was in his own little world playing with them. As I stood in the doorway to his room, about to tell him it was time to get ready for Sunday night service, I couldn’t help but feel sad that I had to interrupt that perfect little scene of a five-year-old playing in his bedroom. But I had to do my job as a daddy/pastor, and so I looked at the little fellow and said, “Royce, you are going to have to start getting ready for church tonight.” And how did he respond to that? With all the perfectly innocent and blameless honesty that a little boy could muster, he said, “Oh, NOT AGAIN!!!” As for how I responded to his response, I couldn’t help but laugh and think, “I’m with you, son. I’m with you.”

Yes, I really do understand why I’ve had some faithful church workers come up to me over the years and say, “I’m fried. I’ve got to have a break. I’m going to step down from church work for a while.” In most of those instances, rather than get upset at those people, what I wanted to say to them was, “Can I go with you? I need a break too.”

So, as the close to this post, let me offer at least one answer to the question, “If Christ’s yoke being easy and His burden being light doesn’t mean that you (as a church worker) will never experience any fatigue or frustrations in doing the work, what exactly does it mean?” Well, among other things, it means that you don’t have to come up with all the answers. You see, when you are genuinely dead to self and seeking only to do God the Father’s will and work, that takes the pressure off of you because all you have to do is listen to the Lord and do whatever He tells you to do.

In this way, you making that one decision to fully surrender and get in yoke with Jesus takes care of all your other decisions. You can rest in the fact that God is incapable of making a mistake. You can rest in the fact that He knows the future. You can rest in the fact that He knows more about you and your situation than you do. You can rest in the fact that He knows what He wants to do in you, for you, and through you. And you can rest in the fact that He knows your needs before you even realize they are needs. Even if one of those needs involves you stepping down from some church work, He will not only burden you to do that but give you an undeniable peace about doing it. Just don’t expect your pastor to be thrilled when you inform him of your decision. Remember, no church has an ample supply of willing workers, and he probably needs a break himself.

Posted in Christmas, Christmas Traditions, Church, Church Attendance, Deacons, Easter, Easter Traditions, Elderly, God's Work, Ministry, Personal, Service, Sunday School, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Worship Is Both an Act and a Lifestyle

Posted on July 17, 2021 by russellmckinney

Famed radio announcer Ted Malone hosted an early-morning radio show. One day he received a note that had been written by a sheepherder in Idaho. The note said, “Will you, on your broadcast, strike the note ‘A’? I’m a sheepherder way out here on a ranch, far away from a piano. The only comfort I have is my old violin. It’s all out of tune. Would you strike ‘A’ so that I might get in tune?” Malone honored the request and later received a “thank you” note from that sheepherder. The note said, “Now I’m in tune.”

Do you know what it is that keeps you in tune with God? It is something called worship. True worship is not playing church. It is not going through the formal motions of religion. It is not praying a “canned” prayer that is filled with old clichés and worn-out lines. It is not begrudgingly dropping a few bucks into an offering plate. It is not enduring a sermon while you think about what you are going to do after church. It is not listening to a choir special or a solo and picking apart the quality of the singing or the playing. It is not robotically mouthing the words to a hymn while you inwardly yawn. It is not reading your Bible with one eye on the page and the other eye on the television, the cell phone, or the computer screen. It is not resisting the temptation to commit some sin simply because you are afraid that you will get caught if you commit it. Actually, true worship is both an act and a lifestyle.

An act of worship is an singular deed that ascribes praise, honor, and obedience to God. It is church done in the right way. It is a prayer prayed the way a prayer should be prayed. It is cheerfully making a monetary contribution to the Lord’s earthly work. It is mentally interacting with a sermon in a manner that allows you to hear God speaking through the text and the preacher. It is doing the same with a choir special or a solo. It is singing a hymn from the heart, focusing especially on the words you are singing, and not worrying about how you sound doing it. It is reading your Bible with a attentive focus worthy of reading the written word of God. It is resisting the temptation to commit a sin, not because you fear getting caught but because you don’t want to disappoint God.

On the other hand, true worship is also a lifestyle. As someone has said, it is going where God says go, being what God says be, doing what God says do, and giving what God says give. It is to serve God by means of whatever you happen to be doing at any given time. In this way, you turn everything you do — even those acts that we don’t normally think of as worship — into a spiritual exercise.

This lifestyle of worship is what Paul had in mind when he said, “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31), “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:17). Paul’s words remind me of that old illustration about the woman who had a little sign that hung on the wall in front of the sink in which she washed her dishes. The sign read: “Divine service rendered here three times a day.” Going back to my opening illustration about that sheepherder, to live out such a lifestyle is to bring your entire life into tune with God’s key.

It has often been noted that the term “worship” is akin to the term “worth-ship.” To worship someone or something is to see that person or that thing as being “worthy.” I especially like the idea that to worship is to classify that person or thing as being “worth it” to the ultimate degree.

Christian, it should be your life’s pursuit to see God as being “worth it” in regards to giving Him your obedience, your devotion, your passion, your time, your energy, your talents, etc. Just start right where you are by performing a singular act of worship to Him, and then keep stringing those singular acts together until you have developed a lifestyle of worship. According to Jesus, God is seeking people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24). I guess the only question, then, that is left to be asked is, “Will you and I be such people?”

Posted in Commitment, Discipleship, Faithfulness, Obedience, Priorities, Sanctification, Service, Spiritual Gifts, Submission, Talents, Worship | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Be an Andrew

Posted on July 15, 2021 by russellmckinney

The apostle Andrew was the brother of the apostle Peter. Being the brother of a frontrunner like Peter automatically consigned Andrew to a lesser status in terms of history. That does not mean, however, that his service to Christ was lacking. Much to the contrary, Andrew is famous in his own right for one thing in particular. Do you know what it was? Whenever the gospels talk about him, he is usually bringing someone to Jesus.

Scripturally speaking, Andrew’s story begins with the events of John 1:29-42. There we learn that he was a disciple of John the Baptist. Presumably, he was an eyewitness to John the Baptist baptizing Jesus and calling Jesus, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (1:29-34). The next day Andrew and an unnamed disciple of John the Baptist — the unnamed disciple was probably John, the modest writer of the gospel — listened to Jesus speak and followed Him when He walked away from the scene (1:35-37). At some point, Jesus turned around and asked them, “What do you seek?” to which they answered, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Jesus’ answer was simply, “Come and see.” John tells us it was 10:00 a.m. when Jesus extended that invitation to Andrew and John, and the three spent the rest of that day together (1:38-39).

Sometime shortly after all that, the Bible says that Andrew brought his brother Peter to Jesus. John 1:41-42 says:

He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah (which is translated, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone). (N.K.J.V.)

The second instance of Andrew bringing someone to Jesus is found in John 6:1-14. That’s John’s account of Jesus using a young lad’s lunch of five barley loaves and two small fish to feed 5,000 men and an unreported number of women and children. Who was it that brought that young lad to Jesus? You guessed it. It was Andrew. John 6:8-9 says:

One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?” (N.K.J.V.)

The third instance of Andrew bringing someone to Jesus is found in John 12:20-26. In that story, a certain group of Greeks approach the apostle Philip and ask for an audience with Jesus. Rather than take the request straight to Jesus, Philip tells Andrew about it because, evidently, he wants to get a second opinion on the matter. Andrew and Philip then go together and present the request to Jesus. As John 12:22 says:

Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus. (N.K.J.V.)

Concerning Andrew, M.R. DeHaan, that famous preacher of another day, said this:

He was not known for his oratory, his literary ability, his unusual personality or popularity. He had no degrees that we know of. He could not sway a crowd, but he could convince a soul. He never wrote a book, but in the Book of Life are the names of precious souls brought to Jesus by Andrew. Give us a few more soul winners like Andrew and we can begin praising God for revival instead of praying for it.

I ask you, Christian, how much “Andrew” do you have about it? Do you bring others to Jesus? Do you point others toward Him? Like M.R. DeHaan said, you don’t have to have a great oratory ability or literary ability to do it. You don’t need an unusual personality that makes you wildly popular. Neither having a seminary degree or being able to sway a crowd is a requirement. If you know the basics of the plan of salvation, if you have a personal testimony, if you are willing to make an effort, Jesus can use you to bring others to Him. Even if you think of your evangelistic abilities as being as small as that young lad’s lunch, Jesus can use you to bless thousands if you will give those abilities to Him and say, “Here I am, Lord. Use me.” Perhaps you’ll never become famous like Peter, but even the Peters of the world need Andrews to get them started with Jesus.

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