God Doesn’t Always Provide Simple Solutions

Posted on April 26, 2021 by russellmckinney

In his book Morning Devotions, Tom Wallace tells the following story:

Everybody’s heart went out to the little lady who hobbled through the waiting room of one of our local doctors. She was bent over like a horseshoe. A short cane kept her from toppling over. Her face bore the burden of her bent body. In just a few minutes she came out with a big smile beaming on her face. Her joy was evident. She walked tall with shoulders erect. “Amazing,” said one. “A miracle,” said another.”

The next person called in asked, “Doctor, we all saw that poor old woman go in there all bent over and then we all saw her come out straightened up, walking briskly with a big smile. What did you do to her?” “I really didn’t do much for her,” the doctor stated. “I just gave her a longer cane.”

Everyone enjoys a simple solution to a problem. We want it clean. We want it clear cut. I have to admit, though, that my dealings with the Lord have taught me that simple solutions aren’t always the way He rolls. For example, in John 9:1-7 Jesus restores a blind man’s sight by means of a rather complicated procedure. First, He spits on the ground and uses the saliva to make mud. Second, He rubs the mud on the man’s eyes. Third, He tells the man to go wash himself in the pool of Siloam. The Bible doesn’t even identify precisely when the man actually receives his sight in that whole process. All we’re told is that he went and washed, and came back seeing.

A similar story is found in Mark 8:22-26. For the healing in that instance, Jesus begins by taking the man by the hand and leading him out of town. Then Jesus spits on the man’s eyes, puts His hands of him, and asks him if he sees anything. The man answers, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Finally, Jesus puts His hands on the man’s eyes a second time, and at that point the man’s vision is perfectly restored.

I guess we might say that Jesus did provide the simplest solutions in each of these cases of blindness. In other words, He cured the blindness. But we’d be lying if we said that He provided those simple solutions simply. No, what He did in each situation was work through multilayered processes to bring about the solution. As for why He chose to work that way, He no doubt had His reasons. I particularly like Bible teacher John MacArthur’s suggestion that Jesus making the mud in the John chapter 9 story might have hearkened back to the time when He had created Adam out of the dust of the ground. As MacArthur theorizes, “Jesus may have used the clay (mud) to fashion a new pair of eyes.” Taking that possibility a bit further, if the man had been born without any eyeballs, Jesus using the mud to literally build two new ones would have made perfect sense.

Perhaps right now you find yourself faced with a serious problem, and you need the Lord to provide you with a solution. Naturally, you’d love for that solution to be a simple one. And maybe it will be. After all, I certainly don’t mean to imply that God’s solutions are always complex. With that said, though, don’t be surprised if a solution that you thought would be as simple as a touch or a word turns into a process involving spit and mud. During such times patience will be required on your part, and you’ll have to trust the Lord’s expertise concerning your problem. But if you will stick with Him, He will, in His timing, deliver your solution to your door. You might have to walk around seeing that solution through blurry eyes for a bit, but in the end your vision will clear up and you will see things exactly the way He wants you to see them. So, hang in there, trust the process, and let the Lord work you through whatever He wants to work you through in order to bring you to that solution that has your name on it. Rest assured, it really will be worth the wait.

Posted in Choices, Christ's Miracles, God's Timing, God's Provision, God's Will, Needs, Patience, Problems, Trusting In God, Waiting | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

God’s Word Will Stand

Posted on April 24, 2021 by russellmckinney

God told the prophet Jeremiah to take a scroll and write on it all the words that God had spoken to him against not only the Jewish people but also against other nations (Jeremiah 36:1-2). Jeremiah carried out that assignment by having the scribe Baruch write out all the words that Jeremiah spoke to him (36:4). It is not known whether Jeremiah recited the words of his prophecies from memory or if he read them from scrolls on which they had previously been written. Whatever the details were, once the writing was completed Jeremiah told Baruch to go to the temple in Jerusalem and read the scroll in the hearing of the people during a day of national fasting (36:6). Jeremiah would have done the reading himself, but at that time he had been barred from the temple (36:5). By having the scroll read publicly, especially on a day when fasting was required, Jeremiah hoped that the people would turn from their sins and get right with God (36:7).

At least a year passed (compare 36:1 with 36:9) before the next day of fasting arrived, but on that day Baruch did as he was told by standing in a certain room above the temple’s courtyard and reading to the crowd of people who were gathered beneath him (36:10). A man named Michaiah heard that reading and went and told King Jehoiakim’s administrative officials what was read (36:11-13). Those officials then had Baruch come to them and personally read the scroll to them (36:14-15). The scroll’s prophetic words of doom concerning Judah threw a serious scare into those royal officers, and they instructed Baruch to go into hiding and to tell Jeremiah to do the same (36:16-19). As for the scroll, the officers kept it and placed it in the home of a scribe named Elishama (36:20).

Next, those officials went to King Jehoiakim, who was in the fifth year of his reign, and told him what the scroll said about the judgment that was prophesied to befall his kingdom (36:20). The king responded by having Jehudi, a member of his staff, fetch the scroll from Elishama’s home and read it out loud to the king (36:21). But Jehudi only got three or four columns into the reading before the king took Jehudi’s knife and started slicing up the sections of the scroll and tossing them into the fire that was burning in the hearth (36:22-23). The king himself showed no fear or remorse for this shocking act of literally burning the word of God (36:24). To the contrary, he commanded his son Jerahmeel and two other men to arrest both Baruch and Jeremiah (36:26).

And how did God respond to King Jehoiakim’s actions? He had Jeremiah and Baruch repeat the whole process of scroll writing, with Jeremiah again doing the speaking and Baruch again doing the writing to reproduce the destroyed scroll (36:27-28). The only difference in the second scroll was the fact that God added in a personalized word of judgment regarding King Jehoiakim. God’s added word of judgment was that Jehoiakim would be put to death, his body would lie unburied outside on the ground, none of his descendants would ever reign as king in Jerusalem, and those descendants would instead experience God’s hand of judgment (36:29-31). The demise of not only Jehoiakim himself but also his family and his kingdom of Judah was ultimately accomplished by the invading Babylonian army.

William MacDonald, in his Believer’s Bible Commentary, calls Jehoiakim’s burning of God’s word “a perfect picture of what liberals and rationalists have been doing with the Word of God ever since.” Harry Ironside, in his commentary, calls Jehoiakim “the first mutilator of the Word of God recorded in scripture.” Surely, however, scores of others have arisen throughout history to follow in Jehoiakim’s footsteps. Even now our modern-day Jehoiakims, in their blatant rebellion against God, are attempting to destroy what the Bible, God’s written word, teaches about abortion, homosexuality, gender, gender roles, and a whole host of other moral topics. As Jehoiakim found out, though, God’s written word cannot truly be denied. It will stand when everything else falls, and in the end those who try to destroy it will find that all they have really done is destroy themselves upon it.

Posted in Abortion, Bible Study, Current Events, Disobedience, God's Word, Homosexuality, Politics, Scripture, The Bible, Truth | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Bringing Down Giant Walls & Giant Men

Posted on April 22, 2021 by russellmckinney

In a devotion entitled “Spiritual Battles,” Ed Young Sr. uses Israel’s defeat of the walled city of Jericho (Joshua 6:1-27) as an illustration of how we Christians must overcome our own strongholds if we want to enjoy all the blessings available to us. He writes:

In every life there is a Jericho. You know what it is? It is that thing that would block you from becoming all that God wants you to be. Whether it is a besetting sin, a habit, or an attitude, our Jericho will block our way to the full blessing of God.

As long as we try to scale the walls and knock them down using our own resources, we will fail. We cannot win spiritual battles with weapons we have borrowed from the world’s arsenals. Instead, recognize how impossible it is to handle the situation on our own. Then, just be patient, be quiet, and soon — at God’s command — you will be able to shout the shout of faith that will bring the wall crashing down.

David refused to wear any armor when he went to fight the Philistine giant Goliath. Even when King Saul had David try on the king’s personal armor, David refused to wear it (1 Samuel 17:38-39). While it was true that David wasn’t used to wearing such armor, hadn’t trained with it, and hadn’t tested it in battle, he also had an innate understanding that the key to winning the battle was God rather than any suit of armor. If God was with him, he wouldn’t need any armor to defeat Goliath, and if God wasn’t with him, no suit of armor would save him. David even told Goliath before the fight began, “The battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands” (1 Samuel 17:47).

Just as God brought Israel up against the great walled city of Jericho and David up against the mighty giant Goliath, He brings us up against “walls” and “giants” that we simply cannot defeat in our own power. We might think of this as Him stacking the deck to ensure that we must call upon Him and seek His help. Of course, this doesn’t mean that we have no role to play in the battle. Like the Israelites marching around the walls of Jericho, and like David placing a rock in his sling, we should do our part to enable the victory to happen. But once we have done our part, we must look to God in faith and say, “Okay, Lord, the outcome is now up to you.” You see, we can march and pick up rocks until we faint from exhaustion, but what we can’t do is make walls and giants fall. Only God can do that.

Getting back to Ed Young Sr.’s devotion, he says that we must recognize how impossible it is to handle the situation on our own. Unfortunately, this is why many people continue to struggle with their strongholds year after year. They can’t defeat their Jerichos because they are leaving out the one indispensable element: God. And the bigger the walls of a Jericho are, the more indispensable God is to bringing them down. Therefore, I will leave you with this basic piece of advice: Whatever your Jericho (or Goliath, if you like that story better) is, do whatever God leads you to do about defeating it, and then cry out to Him in faith, asking Him to add in His indispensable power to complete the job. That, my friend, is how you bring down strongholds. It’s also how your faith in God gets strengthened, and the stronger your faith becomes the more strongholds you will be able to conquer.

Posted in Addiction, Adversity, Dying To Self, Faith, God's Omnipotence, God's Sovereignty, God's Work, Obedience, Prayer Requests, Problems, Spiritual Warfare, Trials, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Saving One

Posted on April 19, 2021 by russellmckinney

A young man on vacation at the beach got up one morning at dawn to take a stroll on the sand. As he made his way along he happened upon an elderly gentleman who was searching for starfish that had been stranded on the shoreline by the tide. Whenever the old man found one, he would carefully pick it up and fling it back into the ocean.

After following the gentleman for a while and watching him rescue several starfish, the young man approached him and asked, “Sir, why are doing what you are doing?” Somewhat surprised at the question, the gentleman answered, “If I don’t get these poor creatures back into the ocean they will die when the morning sun hits them.” “I understand that,” said the young man, “but the beach goes on for miles and there’s no way you can rescue all the starfish. I mean, if you think about it, how much difference can what you are doing really make?” At that point the elderly gentleman picked up another starfish, flung it into the ocean, and said, “It made a big difference to that one.”

In 1 Corinthians 9:19-22, the apostle Paul talks about his chameleon-like approach to attempting to win people to Jesus. He says, “I am free from all men, but I have made myself a servant to all men. I became a Jew under the law that I might win the Jews who live under the law. I became a Gentile not under the law that I might win the Gentiles who don’t live under the law. I became weak that I might win the weak.” But then he says, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22, E.S.V.).

You’ll notice that Paul had to exchange the word “all” with the word “some” in order to truthfully finish that last sentence. No matter how great he was at winning people to Jesus, there was no way that he was ever going to win everybody. Even Jesus Himself hadn’t been able to do that during His earthly life and ministry. However, in regards to each person that Paul got saved, his efforts made a big difference to that one. The point is that individuals matter, and getting just one saved makes all the effort worthwhile. Even mass evangelistic crusades in which hundreds are won to Christ can be boiled down to the individual salvation experiences of each of the hundreds.

Christian, have you ever seriously asked Jesus to use you to win someone to Him? If you haven’t, let me encourage you to start doing so. The fact is that you might have more spiritual impact upon that certain person than the world’s greatest evangelist could have. Whether that person be a family member, friend, neighbor, coworker, fellow student, or someone else, you can become the “Paul” who leads him or her into a saving relationship with Jesus. Will it be easy? Perhaps not. But whatever time, energy, and effort you put into it will be rewarded a zillion fold throughout eternity if you can win that person to Christ. So what are you waiting for? Get to it. Some “starfish” out there needs your help.

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Limburger Cheese, Traffic, & Roses

Posted on April 16, 2021 by russellmckinney

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. (Psalm 100:4, N.K.J.V.)

Evangelist R.T. Kendall tells the story of some youngsters who played a prank on a man who had a prominent mustache. Somehow they got hold of some limburger cheese and gently rubbed it on his mustache while he was napping. When the man awoke, he said, “This bed stinks.” Then he got up off the bed, walked around the bedroom, and said, “This room stinks.” Next, he walked throughout all the rooms of his house and said, “This whole house stinks.” Finally, he walked outside, took a deep breath, and announced, “This whole world stinks!”

Like that fellow, we can sometimes start thinking that the whole world stinks. Isn’t it funny how we can get up from a comfortable bed in the morning, put on nice clothes, enjoy a filling breakfast, walk out of a good home, start up a reliable vehicle, head off to a job that keeps all the bills paid, and then, as soon as someone cuts us off in traffic, decide that the whole world stinks? What about being thankful for another day to live? What about being grateful for that comfortable bed? Those nice clothes? That breakfast? That home? That vehicle? That job? For that matter, what about just appreciating the fact that we have the health and ability to get out there and ride that big wave called the “modern world”? I’ll guarantee you that there are people in hospital beds and nursing homes right now who would love to get up tomorrow morning, hit the highway, and have someone cut them off in traffic.

Our text verse is one we hear quoted a lot around the holiday we call Thanksgiving. But the truth is that God bestows His blessings upon us every day, which means that He should be thanked every day. That goes for saved believers as well as lost unbelievers. On the subject of God bestowing blessings upon everybody, Jesus pointed out that God makes His sun rise on not only the good but also the evil and sends rain on not only the just but also the unjust (Matthew 5:45). By the way, Jesus said that as part of His teaching about how God loves His enemies, a teaching in which Jesus commanded His followers to likewise love their enemies (Matthew 5:43-48).

Of course, it’s hard to show much love (either to our friends or to our enemies) when we go around grumbling all the time about life’s assorted problems. Unfortunately, we seem to have too much in common with that father whose son was once asked, “Does your dad spend a lot of time in his den?” To that, the boy replied, “No, he just growls all over the house.” I myself shutter to think what answer my two sons would give if someone ever asked them, “Does your dad complain much?” Let’s just hope they never get asked that.

Someone has said, “What a grand world this would be if we could forget our troubles as easily as we forget our blessings.” All I can say to that is, “Amen!” I only wish that me saying, “Amen!” to it automatically equated to me actually living it. Another quote I picked up somewhere along the way goes like this: “Don’t be mad about roses having thorns; be thankful that thorns have roses.”

Along about now I can hear someone saying, “But that cutesy little saying ignores the problem. What we really need is some way to eliminate the thorns from the roses. That’s how we can truly make this world a better place.” Well, my answer to that is, “Good luck, let me know how that goes for you.” Until someone actually succeeds in eliminating the thorns, I think the best way I can make this world a grander place overall and build a more enjoyable life for myself and my family is for me to do a better job of focusing on the roses rather than the thorns. And I’m sure that I’ll do that, every single day I live, that is at least until the next time someone cuts me off in traffic.

Posted in Adversity, Anger, Attitude, Complaining, Contentment, Disappointment, God's Love, God's Omnipotence, God's Mercy, God's Provision, Grace, Human Life, Personal, Praise, Problems, Thankfulness, Work | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Importance of Context

Posted on April 14, 2021 by russellmckinney

“For where two or three are gathered in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20, N.K.J.V.).

Countless pastors, leading sparsely attended church services, have justified continuing on with those meetings by quoting this verse. As a guy who has pastored small, rural churches for the entirety of his ministry, I myself have played this card more times than I care to remember. It reminds me of the pastor who said, “I know that Jesus said wherever there are two or three gathered in His name, He is there in the midst of them. But that doesn’t mean that He wouldn’t prefer a larger crowd!”

It is worth mentioning, though, that a closer inspection of the context for Matthew 18:20 reveals that Christ’s words don’t specifically have anything to do with church attendance. Instead, they come at the end of His teaching on church discipline. Church discipline, in case you don’t know, has to do with excommunicating an unrepentant church member from the congregation. The old timers used to call it “churching” someone.

In the verses that precede Matthew 18:20, Jesus lays out a step-by-step plan for how to handle a fellow believer who has sinned against you. First, you should go to that person and have a one-on-one conversation in which you tell him exactly how he has sinned against you (18:15). Second, if that private conversation does not produce the desired confession and repentance from the person, you should take one or two witnesses along with you when you pay him a second visit to discuss the situation (18:16). Third, if the person still refuses to confess the sin and repent of it, you (along with the witnesses) should bring the matter before the entire church (18:17). Fourth, if the offending party still won’t muster up the appropriate confession and repentance, even after the church congregation has heard the case and agreed with you and the witnesses, the person should be put out of the church (excommunicated, churched). That’s what Jesus means when He says, “But if he refuses to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector” (18:17).

Jesus then verifies the church’s God-sanctioned authority to excommunicate a member in such a way. He says, “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (18:18-19, N.K.J.V.). The promise is that God will honor in heaven the corporate decision, which was based upon the testimony provided by at least two witnesses, that was made by the church on earth. This applies whether the church decides to excommunicate the member (“whatever you bind on earth”) or reinstate the formerly churched member who has now confessed and repented (“whatever you loose on earth”). Finally, Jesus concludes the teaching by giving us our text verse: “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (18:20, N.K.J.V.).

As we read the entirety of the passage, we notice the repeated importance of having at least two witnesses involved in the process, with the offended party himself serving as one of the witnesses. Concerning the second step of the process, Jesus says the offended party should take along one or two more witnesses. That, according to Jesus, will fulfill an important precept that God actually built into the Old Testament law. That precept is: No one should ever be pronounced guilty based upon the testimony of just one person. In verse 16, Jesus even quotes a law passage, Deuteronomy 19:15, as His proof text on that.

By taking along at minimum one other person to serve as a witness, the offended party can meet God’s requirement of “by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” Ideally, the offended party will take along not just one but two other witnesses as he himself serves as the third witness. All of the witnesses should then be heard by the church if the situation reaches the next stage of the process. The one or two other witnesses will verify that the offended party made a legitimate effort to settle the matter in an “out of church” setting.

Understanding this important precept about the “two or three witnesses” allows us to understand the totality of the passage correctly and not make the two common mistakes that get made in applying the passage. The first mistake is the aforementioned one about church-goers claiming verse 20 for every poorly attended church service. The second mistake is the one about Christians claiming verse 19 (“…if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.”) for prayer requests. You see, verse 20’s “two or three gathered in my name” refers to the two or three witnesses involved in the church discipline situation. Likewise, verse 19’s “two in agreement” refers to these witnesses as well.

As long as I am passing through here, let me also throw in that the New Testament teaches that church congregations, not civil courts, should decide disputes between fellow Christians. Paul affirms this teaching in 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 when he rebukes the Christians of Corinth for suing one another in the courts of Corinth. The very idea of two Christians having their dispute heard by and decided by lost people in public courts horrified Paul. You can hear his horror when he asks those Corinthian Christians, “If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people?” (1 Corinthians 6:1, N.I.V.).

In closing, let me say that it is not my intention here to minimize the validity of two or three Christians assembling together and calling it “church.” As a pastor, I’m all for having church. Likewise, it is not my intention to minimize the power of two Christians agreeing for something in prayer and taking that request to God. As a believer, I’m all for praying. My purpose with this post is simply to draw our attention to the importance of a verse’s context when we are attempting to rightly interpret that verse and rightly apply it. Context is our friend, not our enemy, and any interpretation or application that can’t pass the test of context is not one upon which we should be relying. I won’t go so far as to say that a wrong interpretation or application should get you churched, but it is one that can create wrong thinking on your part. And that, of course, is never a good thing.

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For the Furtherance of the Gospel

Posted on April 12, 2021 by russellmckinney

But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. (Philippians 1:12, N.K.J.V.)

The traditional view is that Paul wrote the books of Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon during his first imprisonment in the city of Rome while he was waiting for his case to be heard by Caesar. This explains why he speaks in Philippians 1:13 of the “palace guard” and in Philippians 1:13-14 of “my chains.” Understanding the context for the writing of Philippians is important because it lets us know what Paul means in Philippians 1:12 when he talks about “the things which happened to me.” Those “things” were his arrest and imprisonment.

We believe that Paul’s imprisonment lasted for two years, but he doesn’t fill the pages of Philippians with depression, doom, and gloom. To the contrary, he saw the blessing in the injustice that had befallen him. And what was that blessing? His imprisonment gave him the opportunity to evangelize a group of people whom he otherwise wouldn’t have been able to evangelize: those soldiers who made up that “palace guard.”

According to historians, Paul’s imprisonment entailed him being literally chained to a Roman soldier 24 hours per day, with the soldier being changed every six hours. That meant that Paul could witness to at least four men every day. Can you imagine being a lost person having to be chained to Paul for a six-hour stint? As Warren Wiersbe wrote:

Imagine yourself as one of those soldiers, chained to a man who prayed “without ceasing,” who was constantly interviewing people about their spiritual condition, and who was repeatedly writing letters to Christians and churches through the empire. It was not long before some of those soldiers put their faith in Christ.

A second blessing that Paul saw in his imprisonment was the effect that it had upon his fellow Christians. When the news spread of how well Paul was handling his imprisonment and how God was even using it for the saving of souls, that emboldened other Christians to speak the word of God without fear (Philippians 1:14). You see, Paul the prisoner wasn’t just an evangelizer to Roman soldiers, he was also a role model to other Christians.

Paul’s whole attitude toward his imprisonment should cause every Christian to ask, “Do I know how to turn the low points of my life into opportunities to further the gospel and be a role model for other Christians?” For example, a Christian who loses his/her job can get another one, one that will involve people to whom that Christian has never witnessed. Or, a Christian who loses a loved one by way of death can be a tremendous role model if he/she handles that death well rather than falling to pieces about it. Of course, the key to being either this type of evangelist or this type of role model is to see your loss not as an impediment to your Christian life but as a means by which you can serve the Lord in a new kind of way.

As for Paul’s efforts bearing fruit, it is worth noting that some of his closing words to his book (letter) of Philippians say to the Christians of Philippi: “…The brethren who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar’s household” (Philippians 4:21-22, N.K.J.V.). While the term “Caesar’s household” probably included those Christians in Rome who held all sorts of roles in Caesar’s service (soldiers, judges, cooks, food-tasters, musicians, custodians, accountants, etc.), it also most likely included those new converts whom Paul had personally won to Christ during his imprisonment. In Paul’s way of looking at the situation, the eternal salvation of any one of those people was worth him being imprisoned, and may modern-day Christians follow his example. How do we do that? We do it by using our trying times as vehicles upon which we take the gospel further than we’ve ever taken it. The fact is that lost people are everywhere, and any new circumstance in which we find ourselves — whether that circumstance be pleasant or unpleasant — brings us the opportunity to tell someone about Jesus. That’s how Paul handled the troubles of his life and kept on serving Jesus, and it’s how us Christians today should as well.

Posted in Adversity, Attitude, Change, Complaining, Disappointment, Discipleship, Evangelism, God's Work, Influence, Ministry, Missions, Persecution, Perseverance, Problems, Service, Suffering, The Gospel, Trials, Witnessing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

7 Don’ts For Social Media

Posted on April 9, 2021 by russellmckinney

Facebook. YouTube. Instagram. Twitter. TikTok. Snapchat. Pinterest. Twenty years ago, who could have dreamed that these names would become as much a part of the younger generation’s world as Woolworth’s, Sears, Texaco, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Pan Am, Kodak, and Polaroid were to the older generation’s? For people like me who grew up in the late 60s, 70s, and early 80s, we’re still wondering what happened to Tab colas, Magnavox vcrs, Blockbuster video stores, and Jordache jeans. But that’s a whole other story.

Yes, our brave new world is one built upon social media as keyboard warriors can be found in every nook and cranny of the internet. They are out there right now posting pictures, creating videos, espousing their opinions, commenting on the opinions of others, tweeting, retweeting, and seeking “friends,” “likes,” and “shares.” According to digitalmarketing.org, almost 4 billion people — that’s one half of the world’s population — use social media, and users spend an average of 144 minutes per day on social media sites. While it’s understood that the numbers vary not only with age levels but also with different parts of the world, an individual average of almost two and a half hours per day spent on social media sites is nothing to ignore. We’re talking about a worldwide phenomenon here.

Like everything else in life, Christians don’t get a free pass in regards to behavior when it comes to social media. The apostle Paul’s God-inspired words to the Christians of his day still hold sway over our day, and he couldn’t have been any clearer on the issue. In Colossians 3:17, he writes: “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus…” (N.K.J.V.). Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 10:31, he writes: “…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (N.K.J.V.).

So, Christian, can you spend time on Facebook in the name of the Lord Jesus? Can you post your pictures on Instagram or your videos on You Tube to the glory of God? Can you do your “likes,” “dislikes,” and comments in the name of the Lord Jesus? Can you share your links to the glory of God? These are questions you need to ask yourself every time you pick up your smart phone or sit down at your computer.

It is with this in mind that I’d like to offer a simple checklist list of seven things that you should be on guard against anytime you enter the realm of social media. This list certainly isn’t exhaustive, and its items aren’t even in any particular order, but I trust it will at least get you to thinking seriously about how to apply your Christianity to social media. Ready? Here we go.

#1: Don’t make your social media life more important than your real life. If you frequently catch yourself thinking in the middle of a great day, “I have to get a picture or a video of this because my followers will love it,” you might have a problem. Also, if the person you portray yourself to be on social media bears very little resemblance to who you really are, you might as well be playing a leading role in a fictional Hollywood movie.

#2: Don’t base your self worth upon how many followers you have or how many likes you get. When your feelings get hurt by the fact that other people have more followers than you do, that indicates that you are basing your self worth upon the wrong criteria. Likewise, thinking less of yourself because your new post didn’t create much buzz or response should be a warning alarm that you’ve lost perspective. Remember, Christian, you are a child of God! And nothing that ever happens on social media can change that.

#3: Don’t seek the world’s approval. This one plays off the previous one. The temptation each Christian faces in regards to social media is: “How much like the world am I willing to become to win the internet?” In case you haven’t heard, God’s standards rarely align with the world’s standards, and that means that taking a stand with Him and His written word (the Bible) can create some backlash for you in regards to dislikes and comments. Some people will even unfollow you. But it’s always God’s approval that you should be seeking, not the world’s.

#4: Don’t spend time on social media that you should be spending doing other things. Jesus wants to be the Lord of our time, and He has a list of things that He wants each of us to get done each day. Can this list include spending a couple of hours on social media? Perhaps. I hope we all understand, though, that time spent on social media should never take the place of time spent doing all the other things that Jesus wants us do.

#5: Don’t feel like you have to vent your feelings about every single thing you read or watch on social media. One of the benefits of social media is that it gives every individual a voice. But you, as a Christian, will use your voice the most effectively by being selective as to when you use it. If you start coming off as the world’s leading authority on everything, people will resent you for it and tune you out completely. That’s why you must pick your spots wisely when you have something to say.

#6: Don’t showcase your lewd or crude behavior. It is amazing how some Christians who wouldn’t dream of coming to church scantily clad think nothing of posting pictures of themselves on social media wearing next to nothing. Equally as amazing are the number of Christians who take to social media to show off their partying and carousing. At best, such posts destroy any credibility these professing Christians merit to be God’s voice to a lost world. At worst, they even cast doubt as to the reality of these peoples’ salvation.

#7. Don’t gossip. The Bible verses that condemn gossip are numerous. One example is Proverbs 26:20, which says: “Without wood a fire goes out, without a gossip a quarrel dies down” (N.I.V.). Gossiping has long been a problem, even among Christians, but the platforms of social media now allow tidbits of gossip to run faster and farther than ever before. Therefore, Christian, you must exercise great self control to ensure that you don’t add to the problem.

Posted in Current Events, Discernment, Entertainment, Individuality, Personal Holiness, Priorities | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Sin in the Multitude of Words

Posted on April 7, 2021 by russellmckinney

In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise. (Proverbs 10:19, N.K.J.V.)

I read about a cheapskate woman who walked into the office of her local newspaper to make sure that her recently deceased husband’s obituary was written to her specifications. After being escorted to the desk of the fellow in charge of the obituaries, she told him, “The only thing I want the obituary to say is: ‘Bob died.'” The man chuckled and said, “Sorry, ma’am, but there is a 7-word minimum on all obituaries.” “Well then,” said the woman, “let it read: ‘Bob died. His truck is for sale.'”

If I understand our text verse correctly, it means this: the more we talk, the higher chance we have of crossing the line into sin. It’s our inborn nature of sin that creates this problem. As Romans 3:13-14 says of our sinful condition: “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” (N.I.V.).

One of the things I like about Twitter is that it only gives you a limited amount of space in which to make your point. If you want to keep from spilling over into a whole other tweet, you must choose your words carefully and economically. That’s why my guess is that if Proverbs 10:19 is any indication, Solomon would approve of Twitter. But it’s along about here that we should ask the question: Does Proverbs 10:19 forbid all lengthy blog posts, long-winded sermons, etc.? My answer is, “No.”

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount wasn’t exactly brief, was it? The sermon Paul preached in Troas wasn’t either (Acts 20:7-12). That’s the one where Paul preached until midnight and caused a young man named Eutychus to fall into a deep sleep and plunge to his death out of a third-story window. Miraculously, Paul ran down to the street and resurrected him, but none of that would ever have happened if Paul had taken Solomon’s Proverbs 10:19 words to a fanatical extreme. Therefore, I think the best way to apply Proverbs 10:19 is to treat it as a general principle rather than an ironclad command. (I will admit, though, that I do believe the verse applies in more situations than we apply it.)

With that said, I’m starting to get the feeling that I myself should wind up this particular post. Wouldn’t it be awful to build a post around Proverbs 10:19 only to have that post drag on too long? So, even though there are some more things that I could say on this subject, I’m going to leave them for another time. Hopefully, that will spare some Eutychus out there a deep sleep and a long fall. You see, those of us who can’t raise people from the dead really should apply Proverbs 10:19 every chance we get.

Posted in Communication, God's Work, Ministry, Preaching, Service, The Tongue, Witnessing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Beware of the Dead Snake

Posted on April 5, 2021 by russellmckinney

Forty-year-old Jeremy Sutcliffe of Corpus Christi, Texas, made national news a couple of years ago when he almost died from a rattlesnake bite. Even more than being featured on the news, the story also received mention on the channels Animal Planet and Discovery. What was so newsworthy about Sutcliffe’s story? It was the fact that the bite that almost took his life came from a snake whose head Sutcliffe had severed ten minutes earlier!

Jeremy’s wife, Jennifer, was pulling some weeds from her flower garden when she came across a four-foot long Western Diamondback rattler. She screamed for Jeremy’s help, and he raced over and killed the snake by using a shovel to decapitate it. Ten minutes later, when he bent down to pick up the snake’s body to dispose of it, the severed head suddenly sunk its fangs into two of the fingers on his right hand.

Jennifer, who works as a nurse, called 911 and loaded Jeremy into the car to find a hospital that had rattlesnake antivenom on hand. But she only made it about two miles down the road before he started losing consciousness and having mini-seizures. At that point she decided to pull the car to the side of the road and wait for help to arrive. Fortunately, the ambulance arrived quickly and rushed Jeremy to a helicopter. He was then flown to Christus Spohn Shoreline hospital where he went into septic shock and was placed into a medically induced coma.

The next several hours were touch and go as Jeremy was given multiple doses of antivenom, pumped full of fluids, and placed on a ventilator. His blood pressure bottomed out repeatedly and at one point his organs began to fail. Three separate times the doctors told Jennifer that they didn’t think they could save him. The next day, however, his condition finally stabilized. All told, Jeremy received 26 doses of antivenom, which was a staggering amount considering that most snake bites require no more than four. Again, all this happened because of the severed head from a snake!

Experts say that the decapitated head from a snake retains the ability to reflexively strike and inject venom for at least a full hour. Jeremy Sutcliffe found that out the hard way, and unfortunately for him his story doesn’t have a completely fairy-tale ending. While his doctors were able to use dialysis to restore his kidneys to full function, all efforts to save the poisoned fingers on his right hand proved futile and he lost both of them. Additionally, he stills suffers from extensive nerve damage as a result of the antivenom and has a megacolon in his stomach.

As for the spiritual application to Jeremy Sutcliffe’s story, it isn’t hard to identify. Despite the fact that Jesus has rendered a lethal blow to Satan, whom Revelation 12:9 calls “the serpent of old,” Satan still retains the ability to strike us and harm us with his poison. Did Christ’s life, death, and resurrection bruise Satan’s head in fulfillment of the Genesis 3:15 prophecy? Absolutely. But numerous post-resurrection passages from the New Testament plainly teach that Satan and his army of fellow fallen angels are still dangerous foes of whom we should be wise, be warned, and beware. One day, thankfully, Jesus will dispose of Satan and all his demons permanently by imprisoning them in that eternal lake of fire called “Gehenna” in the Greek language (Matthew 25:41). Until then, though, we must remain vigilantly careful to keep ourselves a safe distance from Satan’s venom. Remember, even though he is a defeated foe, he can still bite you!

Posted in Demons, Discernment, Personal Holiness, Prophecy, Repentance, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, Temptation, The Devil | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment