Have You Forgiven God?

Posted on September 9, 2020 by russellmckinney

That title is not a misprint. I’m guessing that you’ve heard a lot of preaching about God forgiving you. For that matter, you’ve probably also heard a lot about you forgiving others. But when was the last time you heard anything about you forgiving God? “Never,” you say? Then pull up a chair and let’s talk about it.

Maybe a spouse died. Maybe a child died. Maybe a test result came back bad. Maybe a surgery didn’t produce the desired results. Maybe a marriage never happened. Maybe one ended in divorce. Maybe a job was lost. Maybe a business went bust. Maybe a terrible injustice occurred. Maybe a dream turned into a nightmare. Whatever it was that happened (or didn’t happen) to you, all you know is that you prayed your guts out for God to come through for you but He came up small, very small. At least that’s your assessment of what happened.

And you’ve heard the well-intentioned advice of family, friends, and colleagues. “You need to get over this.” “You have to move on with your life.” “You’ve dwelt on this long enough.” “It’s time to let this go.” For your part, though, such words fall upon deaf ears. Why? Well, allow me to suggest that you just flat out aren’t ready to move on. Furthermore, let me also suggest that you and your situation have unfinished business, some of which involves you forgiving the God whom you think failed you.

If you do feel disappointment or anger toward God, the chances are that you’ve expressed it by attempting to get back at Him. Basically, you’ve tried to hurt Him the way you believe He has hurt you. Such attempts at revenge usually take the form of quitting church, failing to pray, letting dust collect on your Bible, purposefully engaging in some sin, or any and all of the above. These things (and some others I didn’t list) are your way of saying to God, “Hey, if You didn’t care about doing what I wanted You to do for me, why should I care about doing what You want me to do for You?”

One of the great problems with the thousands of “Christianity lite,” “health-and-wealth,” “prosperity,” “self help” sermons that pass for preaching these days is that they only convey one side of God’s nature. These sermons tell you over and over that God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that you can ask or think. They tell you that He is an all-powerful God who never met a problem that He couldn’t fix. They tell you that your miracle is on its way. What they don’t tell you is that God being able to do something doesn’t mean that He will do it, and Him having the power to fix a problem doesn’t always translate to Him fixing it. And as for your miracle being on its way, well, let’s just say that some miracles evidently get lost in the mail.

I’m talking now to the person, even the Christian, who had faith that God was going to save your day, only to discover that He opted not to do it. Mary and Martha received their miracle when Lazarus was resurrected, but you didn’t get yours. Jesus walked on the water to keep the chosen 12’s boat from sinking, but you rode yours all the way down to the bottom. David felled his Goliath, but your Goliath body-slammed you, put his foot in the middle of your chest, raised his sword in victory over you, and has been enjoying the accolades ever since.

I truly believe that God has you reading this right now because He doesn’t want you to abort the work He is doing inside you in the aftermath of your traumatic event. While He’s not asking you to put on a fake smile and act like nothing happened to you, He does want you to stick with Him. Rather than burying your disappointment/anger toward Him and cutting off all communications, He wants you to acknowledge that disappointment/anger and convey your emotions to Him by way of prayer. His offer to you is, “Let’s talk about what you are feeling toward Me, and in so doing begin the process of bringing you out the other end of it.

Of course, it’s along about here that someone might say, “But who are we to second-guess God? He is the Creator and we are mere dust. He doesn’t have to explain Himself to us. And since He cannot sin, He never makes a mistake and therefore never needs to be forgiven.”

My comeback to that is that it’s possible for a person (or God) to disappoint someone or anger someone without actually committing a sin or making a mistake. You see, the disappointment or anger occurs within the mind of the person who considers himself or herself the victim. So, even as God remains authentically innocent of any charges the person might level toward Him, He is gracious enough not to take offense at the charges. Even more than not take offense at them, He’s loving enough to actually come to the person and say, “Let me help you take what you’re feeling and weave it into a deeper experience with Me than you’ve ever had.”

Actually, the Bible provides us with numerous examples of people who became disappointed/angry with God. Here are a few names from that list:

  1. After patiently waiting for years for God to give him and his wife Sarah a child, Abraham finally expressed the disappointment/anger he was feeling toward God about the delay. (Genesis 15:1-3)
  2. After Moses had been leading the Israelites for a while, there came a time when he expressed his disappointment/anger toward God because of all the problems that were associated with leading such a group. He even told God, “If you are going to keep treating me like this, please kill me now.” (Numbers 11:10-15)
  3. David got mad at God for striking Uzzah dead when Uzzah touched the Ark of the Covenant as it was being transported to Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 6:1-8)
  4. Jonah got mad at God for sparing the citizens of Nineveh. As a matter of fact, he got so mad that he asked God to kill him. (Jonah 3:10;4:1-4)
  5. Jeremiah once reached an emotional low point in his ministry and expressed his disappointment/anger toward God by asking Him, “Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will You be to me like an unreliable stream, as waters that fail?” (Jeremiah 15:18)
  6. John the Baptist became disappointed that Jesus hadn’t ushered in the glorious Messianic Age for Israel yet and even openly questioned whether or not Jesus truly was the Messiah. (Matthew 11:1-3)
  7. When Jesus first told the chosen 12 that He was going to Jerusalem in order to be put to death there, Peter took Him aside and actually rebuked Him for saying it. (Matthew 16:21-22)

If you think that all of these servants of the Lord didn’t have to work through these complicated feelings they were feeling toward Him, you don’t have the first clue about human nature. It’s not that these men didn’t understand that God is sovereign, holy, and doesn’t make mistakes. The problem they all had was that their emotions didn’t ask for permission to pop up inside them. That is how we humans are wired. Instinctually, we feel what we feel, and even though self-control can prevent us from expressing those feelings or acting upon them, what self-control cannot do is change the feelings themselves.

This is where the admittedly strange idea of forgiving God comes into play. Staying disappointed in Him or mad at Him is your choice, but that mindset will never get you to a better place spiritually. At some point, you’re going to have to enter into some uncommon times of prayer with Him, prayers in which you vent all that toxic stuff that is bubbling inside you. Trust me, God can take it. If He took it from Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, and Peter, He can take it from you. Then, once you are finished with your venting — and that might require numerous rounds of prayer — you and God can begin to rebuild the fellowship between the two of you. Afterward, once that fellowship has been rebuilt to an adequate extent, the two of you can start to rebuild your “followship” to walk hand in hand with your fellowship.

Am I saying that any of this process is easy? Certainly not. The truth is that it’s so hard that many people never complete it and consequently spend the rest of their lives disappointed/angry with God. Others try to race through the process like it’s some kind of speed course and consequently fail to glean its full benefits. Neither outcome is desirable.

But then there are those precious few who slowly, carefully, methodically put in the time and effort to max out the course and in so doing reach an intimate fellowship with God that is deeper and more multilayered than any they ever planned to have with Him. These are the people who understand God about as fully as He can be understood, and they incorporate that understanding into ministry. In particular, they are able to counsel others who find themselves disappointed/angry with God.

I won’t close this post by asking you to become such a counselor — that would require you yourself to first become disappointed/angry with God, and I wouldn’t wish that on anybody — but I will close it by asking you to become such a counselor if you’ve lived firsthand what I’ve described in the preceding paragraphs. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I myself am in that group, and so what I’ve written here has been my attempt to be that kind of counselor. As for how God uses all this in the lives of others, I guess I’ll just leave that to Him.

Posted in Adversity, Anger, Complaining, Contentment, Disappointment, God's Omniscience, God's Will, Perseverance, Personal, Prayer, Problems, Suffering, Trials, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , , | 34 Comments

What’s Your Excuse?

Posted on September 7, 2020 by russellmckinney

Excuses are a dime a dozen, right? So, I thought I’d share a few “excuses” stories with you. Here we go.

Story #1: Mrs. Smith gave her class of high school students the assignment of writing a term paper that would be due in a couple of weeks. But as the days clicked off toward the deadline, she noticed that one student, Tom, didn’t seem to be working on his paper. She wasn’t the least bit surprised, then, when she started collecting the papers and found that he didn’t have one. She said, “Tom, didn’t you write your paper?” He answered, “Yes, but my dog ate it.” A disbelieving stare from Mrs. Smith followed, after which Tom explained, “It’s true. I had to force it down him, but he did eat it.”

Story #2: A young man was trying to help his date sneak into her bedroom after the two of them had stayed out way past her curfew. Her father met them at the top of the stairs and said, “Young man, didn’t I hear the clock downstairs strike three when you brought my daughter home?” The young man answered, “Yes sir, you did. It was going to strike eleven, but I grabbed it after a couple of bongs so it wouldn’t wake you.”

Story #3: A farmer asked his neighbor if he could borrow the neighbor’s rope. The neighbor answered, “Sorry, I’m going to use that rope to tie up my milk.” The farmer said, “You can’t tie up milk with a rope.” The neighbor admitted, “I know, but when you don’t want to do something, one excuse is as good as any other.”

Story #4 (my personal favorite): While a wife got ready for church one Sunday morning, her husband remained in bed. Finally, she asked him, “Aren’t you going to church today?” “No,” he said. “Why not?” she inquired. “I have three good reasons,” he said. “One, the congregation is cold. Two, no one there likes me. Three, I just don’t want to go.” Now the wife was mad. “Get out of that bed,” she boomed, “because I have three good reasons why you are going. One, there are a few warm people in the congregation. Two, some of them do actually like you. And three, YOU ARE THE PASTOR!!!”

Okay, so you’ve got that thing that God has been burdening you to either stop doing or start doing. Instead of yielding to His will, though, you’re making your excuses. Maybe those excuses make sense in your mind, or maybe they sound about as off the wall as these from these stories, but either way the result is the same: you are bucking God. All I can tell you is that you will never progress any further in your spiritual life until you lay aside your excuses and obey God’s command. James 4:17 tells us that it is sin to know to do good but not do it. So, until you do that “good” that God is telling you to do, you are in sin. Call it a sin of omission, call it disobedience, call it rebellion, or call it whatever you like, but don’t ever stop short of calling it sin. And don’t ever think that your excuses are cutting it with God.

Posted in Choices, Church, Church Attendance, Decisions, Disobedience, Doing Good, Dying To Self, God's Will, Lying, Obedience, Pastors, Rebellion, Sin, Submission | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Spiritual Leaders & Preachers’ Kids (post #2 of 2)

Posted on September 5, 2020 by russellmckinney

People tend to think that being called of God to spiritual leadership somehow causes the called to put on a magic cloak that miraculously changes everything about the person. The cloak corrects wrong thinking, fixes longstanding problems, strengthens weaknesses, and creates immediate repentance of all sin. If such cloaks existed a typical conversation with a candidate for spiritual leadership might go like this:

(the called person): “I have emotional scars from how I was raised. I’ve always had low self esteem. I have a problem with lust. I’ve never been able to manage money well. I have a quick temper. I don’t take criticism well. I’ve never read all the way through the Bible, and quite frankly I’m still a little fuzzy on certain points of doctrine.”

(the reviewing committee): “No problem, here’s your cloak. When can you start?”

The hard, cold fact of the matter is that billions of seriously flawed individuals are walking around out there, and some of them become Christians. From that pool of Christians some are tapped to become Christian spiritual leaders. The takeaway is that Christian spiritual leaders share more flaws in common with the masses than either the masses or the leaders themselves realize.

This problem is made worse when well-meaning Christians willfully overlook the obvious flaws of potential spiritual leaders. I once heard a deacon say of a certain man who was being considered for deaconship, “I know that he has some issues, but I think that if we make him a deacon he might rise to the challenge.” I didn’t like the sound of that statement then, and I like it even less all these years later. Sure, maybe that candidate would have risen to the challenge. Then again, maybe he wouldn’t have. Was it worth taking the risk? No way. As any pastor will tell you, a bad deacon can do more harm to a church than ten good deacons can fix.

Let’s do a little test, Christian. Think back to the fault lines and sinful tendencies that marked you before you became a Christian. Now tell me, did all those go away the moment you got saved? If you are like the rest of us, the indwelling Holy Spirit is still working inside you to fix your shortcomings. So, do you honestly believe that anything different happens within those who even in God’s will become spiritual leaders? I’ve been an ordained minister for 27 years and I still struggle with sin’s temptation every day. And God help me, sometimes I give in to that temptation.

You see, every spiritual leader sins. What’s at issue here is the type of sin. For example, if I get mad at a weed eater that won’t start and throw it twenty feet, there won’t be a public outcry for me to step down as pastor even though a pastor is supposed to be self-controlled and not quick-tempered (Titus 1:7-8). Since troublesome weed eaters usually have it coming, launching one in a momentary flash of rage is considered within the acceptable boundaries of sin in a pastor’s life. On the other hand, if I get caught cheating on my wife or embezzling money from the church, that puts the public outcry into full throat as each of those sins would probably prevent me from having a good reputation with people outside the church (1 Timothy 3:7).

Maybe you’ve heard the expression “God doesn’t rate sins.” That expression promotes the idea that one sin is every bit as bad as another. In other words, a man who looks at a woman lustfully but doesn’t have sex with her is every bit as much a sinner as a man who commits adultery (Matthew 5:27-28). Likewise, a woman who has anger in her heart toward an enemy but doesn’t kill that enemy is every bit as much a sinner as a woman who murders an enemy (Matthew 5:21-22).

Admittedly, the expression “God doesn’t rate sins” does align with what Jesus taught. However, what must be understood is that even though God classifies not only actual adultery but also lustful looks as sin, and even though He classifies not only actual murder but also hatred in the heart as sin, the earthly consequences for the two types of sins simply aren’t the same. We see this on full display in that body of law that God once gave to Israel. According to that law, some specific sins were worthy of the death penalty but others weren’t. This means that while the rating of sin doesn’t apply to whether or not an act gets classified as sin in the eyes of God, it does apply to what God deems should happen in the aftermath of any given sin.

Bringing this truth into the realm of spiritual leadership, even as all spiritual leaders are sinners who commit sins, some commit sins that God’s word says should disqualify them from spiritual leadership. You might ask, “But can’t these leaders receive forgiveness for these sins?” Yes, they can. Remember that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for every sin that any spiritual leader would ever commit. Additionally, 1 John 1:9 promises that there is forgiveness and cleansing to be found for any Christian who confesses his or her sins. Obviously, then, the problem is not a lack of forgiveness and cleansing on God’s part. The problem is that some sins carry lifelong earthly consequences. No spiritual leader ever learned this lesson more than David. Even though kings in that day weren’t forced to step down after scandals, God made sure that David paid a heavy earthly price for the sins he committed as part of the Bathsheba/Uriah situation (2 Samuel 12:7-12).

Sadly, David wasn’t the last spiritual leader to fall morally. History’s highway of spiritual leadership is littered with men who committed sins great enough to disqualify them from their roles. If you lived through the 1980s you will never forget the names Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggart, right? In more recent times, megachurch pastors Ted Haggard, Eddie Long, Mark Driscoll, and James MacDonald have watched their big-time ministries go down in flames because of sins ranging from homosexuality to bullying to misuse of church funds. This is to say nothing of the entire Catholic Church scandal involving pedophile priests and their fellow priests who covered for them rather than expose them. Cardinal Bernard Law, who lost his prestigious position as the Archbishop of Boston, embodies that far-reaching scandal.

All this brings us back to Jerry Falwell Jr., who now seems to have made his way onto this infamous list. No, he isn’t an ordained minister per se, but since 2007 he has been the face of a university that prides itself as being unashamedly Christian. As I said in my previous post, I’m not trying to bash the man. I just want you the reader to understand that Falwell Jr’s sins and mistakes are not necessarily evidence that it was never God’s will for him to serve as the President of Liberty University. Instead, what they are evidence of is the fact that having money and power gave him plenty of opportunity to express the nature of sin with which he was born. As for those ways in which he expressed that nature, they were surely in keeping with his personalized sinful bents.

Of course, what makes Falwell Jr’s sins so much worse in the eyes of many is him being a preacher’s kid (a “p.k.” to use the official term). Here again, though, being the child of a preacher, even one as famous and as influential as Jerry Falwell Sr., doesn’t give a person a special invincibility regarding sin. To the contrary, preachers’ kids face unique problems that other children don’t have to face, and unfortunately these problems can make those kids more prone to stray from Christlike behavior. The old joke is, “Preachers’ kids turn out so bad because they are always hanging around deacons’ kids.” In actuality, however, the reasons why preachers’ kids so many times go astray look and sound more like these:

  • Preachers’ kids grow up under a lot of pressure to be perfect little Christians.
  • Preachers’ kids see how church members oftentimes treat their fathers badly.
  • Preachers’ kids hear their parents discussing the ugly problems of church.
  • Preachers’ kids whose fathers act ungodly at home grow bitter about the hypocrisy.
  • Preachers’ kids often resent the churches for dominating their fathers’ time.
  • Preachers’ kids typically have to relocate multiple times during childhood.
  • Preachers’ kids often have to forego “fun” events because they have to go to church.

At the end of the day, I don’t know if Jerry Falwell Jr. being the son of a preacher helped him morally stay on track longer than he naturally would have or if it actually hastened his fall. Perhaps in some strange way it was a little of both. Irregardless of the answer, what’s for certain is that his case is neither new or uncommon. Spiritual leaders have been sowing the seeds of their own moral demise for centuries, and preachers’ kids have been turning out bad since the days of Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:1-3), Eli’s sons Hophni and Phinehas (1 Samuel 2:12-17), and Samuel’s sons Joel and Abijah (1 Samuel 8:1-3).

Falwell Jr.’s story hits home with me personally for two reasons. First, I am a pastor, a spiritual leader who brought a ton of sinful baggage into the ministry and still carries some of that baggage around. Second, I am the father of two p.k.s, and I don’t want to ever hear that either one of them has made an immoral fool of himself on Instagram. That, by the way, has a ton more to do with my concern over their spiritual well-being than it does my concern over my reputation as a pastor. Of course, in an ideal world I won’t fall as a spiritual leader and they won’t stray from what Tonya and I have taught them about how to live for God in the midst of a sin-cursed culture. I have to admit, though, that there are no guarantees. After all, I’m sure that Jerry Falwell Jr. didn’t set out to fail as either a spiritual leader or a preacher’s kid. But it happened, didn’t it? And that, I guess, is the scariest part of all.

Posted in Adultery, Anger, Backsliding, Character, Church, Church Attendance, Current Events, Deacons, Depravity, Family, Forgiveness, God's Work, Hypocrisy, Leadership, Lust, Ministry, Pastors, Personal Holiness, Preaching, Sanctification, Service, Sin, Temptation, The Death Penalty, The Old Testament Law | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Spiritual Leaders & Preachers’ Kids (post #1 of 2)

Posted on September 2, 2020 by russellmckinney

Maybe you’ve heard about the recent troubles of Jerry Falwell Jr. After a string of scandals, he has now been ousted as the President of Liberty University, the school his father founded. The whole story has given Christianity yet another black eye in regards to public opinion.

What I’d like to do with this post is provide the basic information concerning the rise and fall of Falwell Jr. This information will set the stage for my followup post, which is the one that I really want to write. Please know that it is not my intention with either post to bash Falwell Jr. or pile onto him after he has been tackled. Rather than do that, what I want to do is attempt to explain how a Christian leader such as him can get tackled so hard.

Falwell Jr. graduated from the Virginia School of Law in 1987 and worked as a lawyer for twenty years before becoming the President of Liberty University in 2007. Him becoming the school’s President was part of a succession plan that his father, Jerry Falwell Sr., had announced before Sr.’s death. Per the father’s wishes, Falwell Jr. inherited the presidency of Liberty University while the younger brother, Jonathan Falwell, inherited the Senior Pastor role of Thomas Road Baptist Church, the church Falwell Sr. founded. Obviously this was all a colossal case of nepotism, but the plan worked well for several years as both the school and the church flourished under the new leadership. For that matter, the church continues to thrive under the leadership of Jonathan Falwell.

As for the university, however, things have now hit the skids concerning Falwell Jr.’s leadership. Actually, there had been rumors and allegations before about problems with him. For example, in 2019 Politico ran an article that accused him of bringing profits into the school by selling merchandise that promoted Donald Trump’s campaign and of ruling over Liberty like a dictator. A Reuters investigation that same year accused him of taking part in a strange real-estate death whereby he apparently signed over ownership of the university’s sports facility to the personal trainer employed by him and his wife Becki. There was also a letter that certain members of Congress drafted in which they asserted that Falwell Jr. made a habit of personally blocking students from writing student columns that were critical of Donald Trump.

Nothing, however, ever seemed to touch Falwell Jr.’s leadership of Liberty. Whatever issues he had, none of them affected his ability to bring in money for the school. He had been, after all, a lawyer in his previous life and knew his way around the ins and outs of how to conduct big business.

Unlike his brother Jonathan, Falwell Jr. wasn’t an ordained minister and never claimed to be one. For lack of a better term, he was a “player” who knew how to get over with people and make money. His father put his abilities to good use in the mid 1990s when Liberty found itself more than 100 million dollars in debt. Falwell Jr. began the school’s financial comeback by renegotiating financing packages with Liberty’s creditors and pulling off a series of successful real-estate deals, all of which helped the school climb out of its financial hole. Next, he vamped up the school’s online distance-learning programs, a move that caused thousands of new online students and their tuition money to come pouring into the school. At one point, Liberty had over 100,000 students involved in its online distance-learning program.

By 2012, five years after Falwell Sr.’s death and Falwell Jr’s ascension to Liberty’s Presidency, the school had over 1 billion dollars in assets. The school’s Board of Trustees loved Jerry Jr. for the cash cow that he was for the school, and every major Republican candidate made his or her way to him to seek his endorsement. Not only did he regularly hobknob with America’s leading evangelicals and most powerful Republican politicians, he also lived the life of a millionaire king. What could possibly go wrong?

What went wrong was a certain trip to Miami that Falwell Jr. and Becki took in March of 2012. While staying at a posh hotel there, they met a 21-year-old pool attendant named Giancarlo Granda. Shortly after meeting Granda, Becki had an affair with him. Granda claims that Falwell Jr. knew all about the affair, and even enjoyed watching Granda and Becki engage in sexual relations, but Falwell Jr. denies these claims. What isn’t in dispute is that Granda quickly became a part of the Falwell’s inner circle as he began taking frequent trips with them in their private jet. Also, the Falwells put up almost 2 million dollars to buy and renovate a Miami Beach hostel (a lodging establishment similar to a hotel but cheaper) so that their son Trey could run it with Granda.

The deal for the hostel became a problem a few years later when a friend of Granda’s, Jesus Fernandez Jr., claimed that he and his father had helped Falwell Jr. choose the hostel site and that Falwell Jr. had promised them part ownership of the establishment. The father and son sued Falwell Jr., and things turned really ugly when rumors began to circulate that someone involved in the lawsuit was blackmailing Falwell Jr. with some type of sexually compromising photos. At that point Michael Cohn, who was well known as being Donald Trump’s “fixer,” got involved on Falwell Jr.’s behalf and somehow got the lawsuit dropped and the whole scandal buried. (For the record, the lawsuit has now been refiled.)

Then came January 18th, 2016, the day Donald Trump spoke at Liberty University. That was the day he made his infamous gaffe of calling the book of Second Corinthians “Two Corinthians.” Falwell Jr. lavished praise on Trump that day, and a few days later, on January 26th, less than a week before the Iowa caucuses, formally and publicly endorsed Trump as the Republican candidate for the office of President of the United States. Can you see how a cynic might say that Falwell Jr. owed Trump that endorsement for sending Michael Cohn down to Miami to solve the problem of the lawsuit and the reportedly blackmail-worthy photos?

Trump, as we know, went on to become the President of the United States, and everything remained relatively calm at Liberty for the next few years. But then Falwell Jr. served as the agent of his own demise by posting, of all things, a picture of himself on Instagram. The picture was taken during a bizarre yacht party in which the attendants wore outfits in keeping with the mock documentary “Trailer Park Boys.” In the picture, Falwell Jr. had the lower half of his shirt tied up and his pants unzipped low enough to expose not only his belly but some of his underwear, and he had his arm around a woman who was not his wife. The woman, who was later said to actually be pregnant, was wearing a pair of short, slightly unzipped shorts, and she too had the lower half of her shirt tied up enough to show her belly button and midriff. Falwell Jr. was holding a drink as well, which he jokingly noted was only “black water,” as if that was the only disturbing aspect of the whole photo.

The ensuing backlash forced Falwell Jr. to publicly apologize, and on August 7th he took an indefinite leave of absence as Liberty’s President. Even during that leave of absence, however, on August 19th he managed to stir up even more controversy around himself by posting, again on Instagram, a truly disturbing video of himself using a bar to do pelvic thrusts in Liberty’s workout room while two attractive co-eds, one standing on each side, literally stood on top of the bar. Anyone who saw that video had to wonder, “Has this guy lost his mind or what?” Along about that same time it was also revealed that Falwell Jr. had a longstanding habit of “liking” pictures of Liberty’s bikini-clad female students on Instagram.

By that point, the blood was in the water as all the old rumors and stories — stories such as Falwell Jr.’s ease at making crude sexual references and sharing provocative photos of his wife — began to resurface. Just a few days later, on August 23rd, he admitted his wife’s affair with Granda and suggested that Granda had been trying to extort money from him. Finally it all became too much for Liberty’s Board of Trustees, and on August 25th Falwell Jr. officially resigned as Liberty’s President, walking away with a severance package of over 10 million dollars. Since then the Board of Trustees has hired a leading forensic firm to conduct a thorough investigation into all aspects of Falwell Jr.’s days as Liberty’s President. That means they will be looking into not only all the reports of sexual misconduct but also into possible misconduct regarding all financial, real estate, and legal dealings.

Again, I’m not relaying all this information for the purpose of bashing Jerry Falwell, Jr. I’m doing it simply to lay the groundwork for my following post, which will address the twin topics of why spiritual leaders so oftentimes end up embroiled in scandals and why preachers’ kids so oftentimes end up straying from their Christian upbringing. Those are the two pieces of meat that I really want to provide for this meal. The fact is that Jerry Falwell Jr. is just the latest in a long line of spiritual leaders and preachers’ kids whose lives have not gone according to schedule. Hopefully, by dragging these topics into the light, I can provide some helpful insights into why that line is so long. So, until next time, I’ll ask you to stay tuned, and you might consider saying a prayer for Jerry Falwell Jr., his family, Liberty University, and everyone else involved in the whole sordid mess. I seriously doubt that we have heard the last of the story.

Posted in Adultery, Backsliding, Character, Church, Church Attendance, Current Events, Depravity, God's Work, Husbands, Hypocrisy, Lust, Marriage, Ministry, Pastors, Personal Holiness, Politics, Preaching, Service, Sex, Sin, Temptation, Wives | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Jesus On You

Posted on August 31, 2020 by russellmckinney

“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11, N.K.J.V.)

A church member caught a wave of excitement about serving the Lord and said to his pastor, “I’d like to do something to help the cause of Christ.” The pastor answered, “Well, if you are really serious, I happen to know that they are in need of volunteers at the Christian homeless shelter.” The man said, “Fine, I’ll go down there and make myself useful.”

Upon arriving at the shelter, which was located in a particularly seedy part of town,  the man told the shelter’s Director, “I’m here to help.” The Director said, “Great, you can start by standing outside on the street corner and inviting passersby to come inside and attend the chapel service that is about to begin.” The new volunteer agreed to do the job, but he was disappointed that he hadn’t been given a more glamorous assignment. To make matters worse, he wore his disappointment like a cheap suit as he extended his invitation to the bums and derelicts who were making their way down the street.

The more the man invited those societal outcasts to come inside, the more they rejected the offer, and the worse his body language and facial expressions grew. Finally, things came to a head when he asked one especially rough looking fellow, “Wouldn’t you like to come inside and hear about the Savior who has made me what I am today?” To that the fellow answered, “No thanks, I’ve got enough problems of my own.”

Christian, in case you haven’t been told lately, you make for a poor advertisement for Jesus when you go around looking like you’ve been reading the book of Lamentations all day. The fact is that people are tired, stressed out, and worn down by life. To quote the famous line from Henry David Thoreau, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” While this is pretty much the status quo all the time, it is especially true in these days of Covid-19, race riots, contentious politics, and all the other bad news that can be crammed into a nightly newscast. Therefore, the last thing people need to see out of you is a doom-and-gloom attitude marked by a hangdog face. Neither one of those conveys the joy that Jesus died that you might have and that others can have once they come to know Him as Savior.

Perhaps you’ve heard that well known acrostic for Christian “joy”: “Jesus, Others, and You.” In the spirit of this post, however, allow me to offer the different acrostic: “Jesus On You.” You see, just as our text verse quotes Jesus as saying that His joy remains in the Christian, that same joy should also remain on the Christian by way of body language and facial expressions. Keep this in mind, Christian, anytime you are dealing with others, and let them see the fullness of the joy that Jesus creates bubbling up from inside you. After all, if they don’t see that joy, why would they be interested in the Savior you claim has changed your life for the better?

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Dead Roses

Posted on August 28, 2020 by russellmckinney

And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his plan and purpose. (Romans 8:28, Amplified Bible)

Tony Evans tells the story of seeing a woman who was holding some dead roses. The site caught his attention because he wondered why she was holding those drooping, lifeless flowers. To him such flowers seemed good for nothing.

Then he watched as the woman began crumpling up the roses. At that point his curiosity was piqued enough to walk over to her and ask her what she was doing. She answered by explaining to him that the roses were sufficiently dead enough and dry enough to crush to create potpourri. Even though the roses were dead on the outside, they still had a sweet fragrance on the inside.

Life can be hard, downright brutal in fact. It can take vibrant, healthy situations and relationships and cause them to become as drooping and lifeless as those roses in that woman’s hand. And truth be told, metaphorically speaking, most of us are walking around carrying some dead roses. But can God use those dead roses to create some sweet-smelling potpourri? You bet He can.

The Bible’s classic passage to convey this truth is Romans 8:28, the text verse for this post. I used the Amplified Bible’s rendering because I suspect that many of us have heard the King James translation’s version so much that the power of the verse has become a little lost on us. You’ll note that Paul, writing under the inspiration of God, says, “We KNOW that God causes ALL things to work together for GOOD in the life of those who love God and are called according to His purpose and plan.” That would be you, Christian. Therefore, you should claim Paul’s statement as an encouraging promise that can be applied to anything that life throws at you.

A divorce, the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the diagnosis of a potentially fatal disease, an eviction notice — these all might be likened to dead roses. Of course, the ultimate example of “dead roses” is the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. But who could even begin to calculate the immeasurable good (the sweet-smelling potpourri, we might say) that God has brought out of that death and continues to bring out of it? I think you’ll agree with me that calling each Christian’s salvation experience “good” is a landmark understatement!

Christian, it is with all this in mind that I encourage you to get alone with God sometime and have a serious talk with Him about the “dead roses” in your life. Ask Him to help you get past the hurt of them. Ask Him to help you get over the bitterness that has settled upon you in the wake of them. And be sure to ask Him to bring sweet-smelling potpourri out of them. Not only does Romans 8:28 guarantee that He can do that and will do it, Christ’s death on the cross proves that the greater the loss, the greater the potpourri will be. This is why I say that you’d be well advised to give God your “dead roses” and let Him start crushing them. If you think about it, all you’ve got to lose is an armful of death.

Posted in Adversity, Anger, Brokenness, Christ's Death, Comfort, Death, Depression, Disappointment, Encouragement, God's Love, God's Omnipotence, God's Work, Grace, Persecution, Perseverance, Prayer, Problems, Reconciliation, Restoration, Revenge, Suffering, Suicide, Trials, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

More Beyond

Posted on August 26, 2020 by russellmckinney

For centuries the country of Portugal proudly proclaimed the motto “Nothing More Beyond.” This was back when European sailors believed that the world was flat and had an edge over which a ship would plummet into a black hole. Terrifying monsters purportedly lived at the world’s edge, and the waters off the shores of Sagres, Portugal were thought to be filled with these monsters. Eventually, of course, brave sailors proved Portugal’s motto to be an incorrect assumption, and at that time the country’s motto was changed to “More Beyond.”

Christian, have you walked with the Lord enough yet to have learned not to make long-range assumptions about His will for your life? Abraham (Abram, as he was then known) probably thought that he would live his entire life in the city of Ur. That certainly didn’t play out like he figured, did it? Likewise, Moses probably thought that he would live out his days in Egypt. Then he killed an Egyptian, had to flee from Egypt, found himself in Midian, got married, fathered children, and made a home in Midian. Scripture indicates that he planned to spend the rest of his life there in Midian, but that didn’t happen, either. Gideon surely didn’t see himself becoming a great leader of Israel, but that didn’t stop God from raising him up to be a Judge over Israel. Peter, Andrew, James, and John no doubt assumed they would all spend the rest of their lives working as fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. Then along came Jesus and, well, we know how that ended.

The fact is, the Bible provides us with scores of examples wherein individuals have their lives thrown into a totally different spin cycle at God’s bidding. A shepherd boy named David becomes a king. A sheep breeder named Amos becomes a prophet. A tax collector named Levi becomes an apostle named Matthew. A rabbinical student named Saul becomes an apostle named Paul. On and on the examples go. It seems that God hates few things like He hates people becoming stationary, complacent, and (dare I say it?) comfortable. Why is He like that? Surely it’s because He knows that when we become stationary, complacent, and comfortable we also become much less impressed by how much we need Him.

It is with all this in mind that I warn you against assuming that the Lord has no more surprises in store for you. Remember that Jesus called Himself “the good Shepherd” (John 10:11). And what do shepherds do? They lead. And what do sheep do when shepherds lead? They follow. Sheep following their shepherd, that’s how the likes of Abraham, Moses, David, Amos, Matthew, and Paul became the likes of Abraham, Moses, David, Amos, Matthew, and Paul.

I don’t know who first uttered that line, “If you want to make the Lord laugh tell Him your future plans,” but I guarantee you that Peter, Andrew, James, John, and a whole host of other Bible characters would say, “Amen” to it. God isn’t a stationary God. He is active, engaged, and on the move, and He doesn’t mind calling us to be active, engaged, and on the move with Him. You ask, “But where will He take me?” Honestly, I don’t know. But what I do know is that Psalm 23 only uses the word “leads” twice. In verse 2, David says the Lord leads us to still waters, and in verse 3 he says the Lord leads us in the paths of righteousness. Both of those descriptions sound pretty good, don’t they? So, anytime you feel that the Lord is leading you somewhere, don’t be afraid to follow Him. And anytime you think that you’ve got your life neatly planned, organized, categorized, and destined, don’t be surprised if the Shepherd says to you, “Nope, that’s your plan, not mine. Instead of doing that, I want you to……”

Posted in Change, Choices, Courage, Decisions, Discipleship, Dying To Self, Faithfulness, God's Will, Submission, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Was Solomon Saved?

Posted on August 24, 2020 by russellmckinney

One of my church members recently asked me about King Solomon’s salvation (or lack of it). The question was a fair one because there is some honest debate as to the answer. While no individual from the Old Testament era was saved in the sense of being born again and indwelt by God the Holy Spirit the way Christians are today, this is not to say that each of those folks can’t be categorized into either the camp “saved” or “lost.” As for which camp Solomon eternally finds himself, let me present the arguments for both potential answers and then conclude by sharing my answer.

First, let’s start with the possible evidences that Solomon was a saved individual. Those evidences are:

  • Solomon is credited with writing no less than three books of the Bible: Ecclesiastes, The Song of Solomon, and Proverbs (he personally wrote or at least compiled all or most of the material in that book).
  • Solomon oversaw the construction of the Jewish temple.
  • Solomon’s reign as Israel’s King, despite being fraught with serious problems, is generally looked upon as being Israel’s most glorious era.
  • Jesus twice referenced Solomon, and neither reference carries a hint of condemnation: Matthew 6:28-29, 12:42.
  • The story of how Solomon asked God to grant him wisdom to rule over the people of Israel speaks of how Solomon (at least in his younger days) loved the Lord and wholly trusted in Him (1 Kings 3:3-15).
  • It is generally assumed that Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes when he was in the last years of his life, and that makes the book’s closing words highly significant. He says, “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, N.I.V.).
  • God told David that David’s son (Solomon) would be the one to build the temple, and God promised David He would never take His mercy away from Solomon the way He did with Saul (2 Samuel 7:12-16; 1 Chronicles 17:11-15).

As you can see, the resume for Solomon being a saved believer whose soul is in heaven right now is an impressive one. But now let’s present the other side of the argument. As we will learn, that side turns out to be pretty impressive as well. The possible evidences that Solomon was not a saved individual are:

  • Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, many of them from races that Israel was commanded to avoid (1 Kings 11:1-3).
  • Over the course of time, those foreign women with their foreign gods turned Solomon’s heart toward idolatry (1 Kings 11:4-6).
  • More than just being an idolater in his heart, Solomon actually built worship shrines to many of his false gods (1 Kings 11:7-8).
  • The only reason that God didn’t tear the kingdom away from Solomon was out of remembrance for Solomon’s father, David. However, God did tear it away from Solomon’s son/heir, Rehoboam, as during Rehoboam’s reign the united nation underwent a civil war and was split into two separate kingdoms (1 Kings 11:9-13; 12-1-24).
  • There is no passage in which we find the record of Solomon ever confessing his sins or repenting of them the way David did after his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah (2 Samuel 12:13)
  • Despite the fact that David had told Solomon, “If you forsake the Lord, He will cast you off forever” (1 Chronicles 28:9, emphasis mine), Solomon launched headlong into rank idolatry and in so doing did forsake the Lord to some degree at least.

Do you see now why some people contend that Solomon, despite his legendary spiritual resume, was in actuality not saved? Okay, so which way do I fall in regards to this debate? Well, I maintain that Solomon was indeed a saved believer whose soul is right now in heaven with the Lord.

To me, it’s crystal clear that Solomon started out saved at the beginning of his reign. That being the case, the only way he could have died lost was to have sinned enough to cancel out his salvation somewhere along the way. That would mean that salvation can potentially be lost. Standing in contrast to that idea, however, is the long list of passages that teach that the saved believer is eternally secure in his or her salvation. (If you are interested in seeing that list, please read my post “Once Saved Always Saved.”) 

As I interpret Solomon’s life, he never lost his salvation even though he certainly did experience God’s chastisement because of his womanizing and idolatry. He didn’t lose his eternal relationship with God, but he did lose his daily fellowship with Him. I think that Solomon stands as a prime example of a person who allowed God’s blessings to actually become an impediment to serving God. He was a man who no doubt earned many eternal rewards by the outstanding ways he served God at various times in his life, but he also no doubt missed out on many such rewards as well. All in all, though, I simply cannot imagine Solomon not being saved. There’s just too much evidence that he was despite the fact that he surely didn’t always live up to his salvation.

Posted in Backsliding, Eternal Security, Polygamy, Salvation | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Two Fascinating Teachings From Jesus

Posted on August 21, 2020 by russellmckinney

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'” (Matthew 7:21-23, N.K.J.V.)

These words from Jesus are famous for a reason. In them, He provides us with two fascinating teachings. Let’s take these teachings one at a time.

Teaching #1 is: There is an inextricable link between salvation and doing the will of God. When Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven…”, we expect the next words from Him to be something along the lines of, “…but he who believes in Me.” But that’s not what Jesus says. Instead, He goes with, “…but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” This means that if you want to enter the kingdom of heaven, you must do the will of God.

Obviously, if this was the only passage that we were allowed to consult, our preaching concerning salvation would have to major upon works. We’d have to preach that the way to experience salvation is to do God’s will. However, the problem with such preaching is that it starkly contradicts the Bible’s scores of other passages that plainly teach that salvation comes through belief (faith) and not works. I’m talking about passages such as John 3:16; Romans 1:16; Ephesians 2:8-9; and Titus 2:5 just to name a few.

So, what are we to make of this apparent contradiction? Well, this is one of those cases where we must interpret a minority passage (Matthew 7:21-23) through a list of majority passages to figure out exactly what the minority passage means. And by doing that we learn that true salvation — which is granted to you by God the moment you place your belief (faith) in Jesus — will inevitably create in you a desire to do God’s will.

This makes perfect sense in light of the fact that God the Holy Spirit literally takes up residence inside the believer at the moment of salvation. I mean, why wouldn’t the indwelling Holy Spirit build into the believer the desire to do God’s will? Actually, we would expect nothing less of Him. This explains why Philippians 2:13 says that God works inside the believer not only to will His good pleasure but to do it.

The upshot of all this is that even though good works can never be the requirement for salvation, they must be the result of it. They aren’t the basis for salvation, but they are the byproduct of it. As a matter of fact, this divine link between salvation and works is the major theme of the entire book of James. Summing up that theme, James says that if you are authentically saved, you will have some outer evidence to verify your claim.

Moving on now, teaching #2 is this: Lost people have the ability to perform religious works but don’t get any eternal credit for those works. As for the question of which acts constitute God’s will, we would assume that it would be things like prophesying in Christ’s name, casting out demons in Christ’s name, and performing many other wonders in His name, right? Interestingly, though, Jesus says that it’s possible to do all these things and yet still remain spiritually lost. Talk about a confusing turn of events!

Furthermore, Jesus goes on to say that lost people performing such works amounts to the practicing of “lawlessness” (N.K.J.V.). The Greek word translated as “lawlessness” is anomia, and it literally means “a violation of the law.” You see, lost people can’t even earn credit with God by doing deeds that most people would classify as good and wholesome. To the contrary, when lost people do one of these deeds, God considers it nothing less than a breaking of His law.

Can you spot the ironic twist that is latent in these two teachings from Christ? It goes like this: The exact same deeds that authenticate the salvation of believers actually alienate lost people even further from God! When the saved believer performs religious works in the name of Christ, the Lord says, “These works prove that you truly are one of Mine.” But when the lost unbeliever performs those same religious works in the same name of Christ, the Lord says, “You just added to the sin debt that stands between Me and you.”

This raises the question: Why does God classify the lost person’s religious works as a breaking of His law? It’s because whereas the keeping of God’s law is all about submitting to God, the lost person’s fundamental refusal to place his belief (faith) in Jesus is proof positive that he takes every breath as an unsubmitted rebel. Even if he doesn’t ride in a biker gang, cuss the police at every turn, and refuse to pay income taxes, he is still a rebel in God’s eyes because he hasn’t carried out what we might call God’s “starter will” by getting saved. In this way, any fine upstanding citizen who has a clean track record by earth’s standards can nevertheless be deemed a law-breaking rebel by heaven’s standards.

And how will such a life end if the lost person never places saving belief in Jesus, thereby submitting to the Savior in a very real sense? It will end the only way that it can end, with Jesus saying to that person in the afterlife, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” Notice that He won’t say, “I knew you while you were performing those religious works in My name, but then we parted ways when you stopped doing those works.” No, what He’ll say is, “I never knew you.” This is yet more proof that salvation isn’t based upon works. Of course, I shouldn’t have to tell you that these are words that no one will want to hear from Jesus. Sadly, though, no less an authority than Jesus Himself assures us that MANY will surely hear them.

Posted in Belief, Coming Judgment, Dying To Self, Eternity, Faith, God's Wrath, God's Judgment, God's Will, Good Works, Grace, Heaven, Hell, Obedience, Salvation, Submission | Leave a comment

Working on Your Real You

Posted on August 19, 2020 by russellmckinney

Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. (Psalm 51:6, N.A.S.V.)

Tony Evans has a wonderful illustration involving Michael Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, and Diana Ross. Since all three of these celebrities are older now, and Jordan has long been retired from his sport, the illustration is a bit dated. Making allowances for that, however, it still conveys a powerful truth. Evans writes:

Who is Michael Jordan? Most would probably say the greatest basketball player that has ever played the game. Who is Sylvester Stallone? Most would probably say a great actor depending on the movie. Who is Diana Ross? Most would probably say one of the greatest singers of this generation.

If you would say Michael Jordan is a basketball player, Sylvester Stallone is an actor, and Diana Ross a singer, you would be absolutely wrong for I would not have just described to you who they were. I would have only told you what they do. The greatest mistake in the world is to use your performance to give you your identity. The greatest mistake in the world is to define yourself by what you do. And yet it is the primary way that people define themselves.

I’ve found that pastors seem to be especially prone to falling victim to this mistake that Evans describes. Someone asks me, “Who are you?” I answer, “I’m Russell Mckinney, the pastor of Roan Mountain Baptist Church.” No, that answer is incorrect in two ways. First, I’m Russell Mckinney no matter what I’m doing. Second, being the pastor of a church is what I do, not who I am.

Regardless of whether Russell Mckinney earns his living as a pastor, a dishwasher, a librarian, a surgeon, a bulldozer operator, or some other way, the same basic rules apply to his personage. He needs Jesus as His Savior. He needs to spend quality time in prayer each day. He needs to regularly read his Bible in a devotional way and study it in a discipleship way. He needs to be a part of a good local church. He needs to use his spiritual gifts and talents for the cause of Christ. He needs to give a right amount of his finances to support the Lord’s work. He needs to witness to others, telling them about Jesus. He needs to live a moral life. He needs to shun temptation. Etc., etc., etc.

All this holds true regardless of whether Russell Mckinney is married or single, has children or doesn’t, owns his home or rents it, and has the title to his car or is still making monthly car payments. You see, the core basic of who I am is never dependent upon outward circumstances. If Roan Mountain Baptist Church fires me today, I’m still Russell Mckinney. If my wife Tonya divorces me today, I’m still Russell Mckinney. If my two sons forsake me, I’m still Russell Mckinney. If the bank forecloses on my house and evicts me, I’m still Russell Mckinney. If I have to sell my car and start walking everywhere, I’m still Russell Mckinney.

Job was the wealthiest man of the East, his wealth being determined by means of livestock rather than stocks and bonds (Job 1:3). He was also the father of seven sons and three daughters (Job 1:2). But even when Job’s wealth was stolen from him and his children were all killed in a freak tragedy, he was still Job (Job 1:13-19). Somehow he instinctively understood this. That’s why he tore his robe in a symbolic act of mourning, shaved his head, and worshiped God by saying, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:20-21). Job was conveying the idea, “Lord, what has happened to me outwardly has not changed who I am inwardly.”

You can’t always control what is going on with you (either for the good or the bad) outwardly, but you can always control what is going on with you inwardly. I’m reminded of that little girl who was standing with her family in front of their house that had just been destroyed by fire. A firefighter said to her, “I’m sorry, honey, but you and your folks don’t have a home anymore.” She answered, “Yes, we do; we just don’t have a house to put it in.” That was her way of saying to that firefighter, “We are still who we are. The circumstances in which we currently find ourselves have changed, but we haven’t.”

Do you know why some people fail once they are given the opportunity to sit in one of life’s big chairs? It’s because inwardly they were too small to fill the chair. The truth is that no golden opportunity can bring out the best in a person if that best isn’t already inside that person. This is why I encourage you to work on your “real you,” that person our text verse calls your “innermost being.” Get that person mature, healthy, and holy before you try to conquer the world.

Of course, the most effective way to get this inward work done is to allow the indwelling Holy Spirit to help you with it. The problem with that, though, is that the Holy Spirit only indwells born-again Christians, and the vast majority of people in the world aren’t born-again Christians. If, however, you are a born-again Christian don’t hesitate to request the Holy Spirit’s help to make your “real you” the best “you” you can possibly be.

Remember that who you are as an individual has nothing to do with your family, your job, your financial status, your social standing, or your accomplishments. All of those things are simply the lens through which the world sees you. God, on the other hand, sees you for who you actually are way down there in your innermost being. As our text verse says, that is where He desires truth from you and that is where He will cause you to know His wisdom. That means that your “real you” is both the ultimate confessional and the ultimate classroom. It’s your job to bring the unfiltered truth about yourself to that confessional, and then it’s God’s job to turn that confessional into a classroom wherein He teaches you wisdom about not only yourself but all other types of subjects.

Posted in Brokenness, Character, Confession, Individuality, Sanctification, Truth | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment