Should the Christian Pray Imprecatory Prayers?

Posted on December 30, 2020 by russellmckinney

The word “imprecatory” means “to invoke evil upon” or “to curse.” In accordance with this definition, many passages from the Bible’s book of Psalms can be accurately described as being imprecatory prayers. Here are seven such examples (all from the N.K.J.V.) from a pretty long list:

  • (Psalm 5:10): Pronounce them guilty, O God! Let them fall by their own counsels; Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, For they have rebelled against you.
  • (Psalm 10:2, 15): The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised…Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man; Seek out his wickedness until You find none.
  • (Psalm 17:13): Arise, O Lord, Confront him, cast him down; Deliver my life from the wicked with Your sword.
  • (Psalm 35:4-6): Let those be put to shame and brought to dishonor Who seek after my life; Let those be turned back and brought to confusion Who plot my hurt. Let them be like chaff before the wind, And let the angel of the Lord chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery. And let the angel of the Lord pursue them.
  • (Psalm 69:22-25): Let their table become a snare before them, And their well-being a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, And make their loins shake continually. Pour out Your indignation upon them, And let Your wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their dwelling place be desolate; Let no one live in their tents.
  • (Psalm 109:8-13): Let his days be few, And let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, And his wife a widow. Let his children continuously be vagabonds, and beg; Let them seek their bread also from their desolate places. Let the creditor seize all that he has, And let strangers plunder his labor. Let there be none to extend mercy to him, Nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off, And in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
  • (Psalm 137:8-9): O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, Happy the one who repays you as you have served us! Happy the one who takes and dashes Your little ones against the rock!

Those last two examples, in particular, use especially harsh language. Not only do they seek God’s vengeance upon the wicked, they seek it upon their children. Tell me, could you ever pray a prayer in which you asked God to make your enemy’s children homeless vagabonds who cannot find any favor and have to continually beg for food? Even worse, could you ever pray a prayer in which you sing the praises of the people who dashed those children’s heads against a rock? Even if you could envision yourself praying such prayers, could you truly pray them with a Christlike spirit rather than a vengeful one?

Many Christians would say that no Christian has any business praying any type of imprecatory prayer, and the proof text they would cite is Matthew 5:43-48. There, in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, He says:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (N.K.J.V.)

At first blush, these words from our Savior do seem to rule out praying imprecatory prayers. For that matter, they seem to rule out even having imprecatory feelings. But before we completely dismiss praying such prayers and having such feelings, we need to consult some other quotes from Jesus, quotes that find more in common with those Psalms passages than that Sermon on the Mount one. Here are four of the type of quotes I’m talking about (all from the N.K.J.V.):

  • (Matthew 23:13-15, 33): “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves…Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?”
  • (Luke 10:13-15): “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades.”
  • (Revelation 2:18, 20-23): “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God…I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.'”
  • (Revelation 3:14-16): “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.'”

Jesus, by way of these quotes, didn’t seem to show much love to the scribes and Pharisees, the citizens of those three cities, that false prophetess in the church of Thyatira, and those members of the church of the Laodiceans, did He? You say, “But those quotes from Him aren’t really prayer requests and consequently can’t be called imprecatory prayers.” You’re right, they aren’t prayer requests. What you must realize, though, is that Jesus is God. Therefore, He doesn’t have to work through the process of taking His requests to God. He can just make the requests happen.

Continuing on with this theme of New Testament quotes that seem to have more in common with the imprecatory requests from the Psalms than Christ’s words from the Sermon on the Mount, consider these (all from the N.K.J.V.):

  • (1 Corinthians 16:22): If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come!
  • (Galatians 1:8-9): But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
  • (Jude 1:11-15): Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds with water, carried about by the winds, late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.

Coming at this topic another way, 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. That word “all” definitely includes each and every imprecatory-type passage from either the Old Testament or the New Testament. Along the same lines, Jesus Himself said in that same Sermon on the Mount, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17, N.K.J.V.). Even though the Psalms are technically not part of the writings of the Law or the Prophets, the term “the Law and the Prophets” can be taken to refer to the entirety of the Old Testament, including the Psalms and the other “wisdom” books. This means that Jesus put His divine stamp of approval upon every “jot” and “tittle” of the Old Testament (Matthew 5:18).

If nothing else, the imprecatory passages from the Old Testament and the New Testament prove that love (even God’s love) doesn’t cancel out other godly characteristics. Justice, for example, still has a place in God’s plans. Vengeance does as well. As a matter of fact, the imprecatory prayers found in the Psalms can accurately be taken as requests for God to honor His words from Deuteronomy 32:35, where He says, “Vengeance is Mine.” Furthermore, they are merely Old Testament calls for God to do what He promises to do in Romans 12:19 and Hebrews 10:30, where He says, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.”

You see, there is a difference between loving someone (even an enemy) on a personal level and asking God to mete out just punishment on that person on a judicial level. The same mother who loves her serial-killer son with a godlike love can stand in full agreement with the calls for that son’s capture and execution. That’s the difference between the personal side of her and the judicial side. Likewise, the same Christian who shows love to an enemy by trying to help that enemy get in line with God’s will can rightly ask God to take vengeance upon that enemy for the enemy’s rejection of God and His will. Actually, if you think about it, any call for imprecatory judgment upon a wicked person inherently carries with it a love for other people. I say that because when a wicked person is brought down by judgment, that prevents that person from inflicting future harm on others.

So, to sum all this up, there are times in our Christian lives when we are perfectly in the right to pray imprecatory prayers. What differentiates these prayers from mere fleshly requests for revenge is our motivation. First, if we are praying from a motivation of sincere love for others, we can rightly pray imprecatory prayers. Second, if we are genuinely seeking God’s justice, we can rightly pray imprecatory prayers. Third, if we are joining God in a righteous indignation against the rank evil of wicked people, we can rightly pray imprecatory prayers. Fourth, if we are simply asking God to keep His word about repaying vengeance, we can rightly pray imprecatory prayers.

Look, I’m not saying that imprecatory prayers should be our default setting in regards to our times of prayer. But I am saying that the Bible does sanction such prayers when the situation calls for them. Certainly, those situations won’t crop up every day in our lives, but we mustn’t kid ourselves by thinking that they never will. If they cropped up in David’s life, Paul’s life, Jude’s life, and Jesus’ life, they will crop up in ours, and when they do we shouldn’t be afraid to humbly, reverently, and (don’t forget) lovingly ask God to judiciously deal with them. The truth is, to do any less is to fail to employ the totality of scripture.

Posted in Adversity, Anger, Discernment, Discipleship, Forgiveness, Persecution, Prayer, Prayer Requests | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The CSS Shenandoah

Posted on December 28, 2020 by russellmckinney

The full-rigged sailing ship known as Sea King was a British merchant ship that was re-purposed as a raiding ship by the Confederate States Navy during the Civil War. The ship was renamed CSS Shenandoah and was deployed to raid Union commercial ships in the Pacific Ocean. Captain James Waddell served as the ship’s captain and commander.

For a full year the ship terrorized Union commercial ships around the globe. All told, it either captured, sunk, or bonded (captured and held for ransom) a total of 38 Union ships. In particular, the ship reeked havoc among the whaling fleets that sailed the waters of the Bering Sea between Siberia and Alaska. Those waters had beforehand provided safety for Union ships, but the CSS Shenandoah’s arrival there changed that quickly as the Shenandoah captured 20 of the 58 Union ships that sailed those waters during the summer of 1865.

The tragic thing, however, about all the CSS Shenandoah’s success during that time was the fact that General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant months earlier, on April 14, 1865. That surrender, in effect, had ended the Civil War as over the next few weeks all the other Confederate forces had surrendered as well.

Interestingly, Captain Waddell first heard about Lee’s surrender by way of the captain of the Union ship Susan & Abigail. On June 27, 1865, after the CSS Shenandoah had captured that ship, the ship’s captain showed Waddell an article from a San Francisco newspaper. The article told how the Confederate government had been forced to flee from the city of Richmond, Virginia, two and a half months earlier. While Waddell was inclined to believe the report of the Confederacy’s defeat, he chose to fixate upon a quote the article featured from Confederate President Jefferson Davis. That quote from Davis proclaimed that the war should be carried on with renewed vigor. In keeping with that idea of renewed vigor, Waddell and his crew proceeded to capture ten more whaling ships over the course of the next seven hours. That’s what you call picking up speed after you’ve heard that you are going in the wrong direction!

Finally, on August 3, 1865, as Waddell and his crew were sailing for the city of San Francisco to attack it, they encountered the British vessel Barracouta and learned from that crew that the Civil War was indeed officially over. In addition to the rest of the Confederate armies having surrendered in the weeks following Lee’s surrender, Jefferson Davis had been captured on May 10, 1865. Only after hearing this news did Captain Waddell officially lower the Confederate flag from his ship. The crew then moved the ship’s guns below deck and painted the hull to give the ship the appearance of a merchant ship.

Fearing what might happen to them if they surrendered at a port in America, Waddell and his crew took three months to sail their ship to Liverpool, England, even as Union ships searched for them diligently. Upon the arrival of the CSS Shenandoah in Liverpool, Waddell had the ship’s Confederate flag raised again. He surrendered the ship to the captain of the Royal Navy’s ship HMS Donegal and lowered the Confederate flag for the last time. He then made his way to the Liverpool Town Hall and presented the city’s mayor with a letter that officially surrendered his ship to the British government. After a full investigation and trial, Waddell and his entire crew were unconditionally released to resume their lives as they saw fit.

Perhaps by now you are saying, “Okay, Russell, that’s an interesting story, but what does it have to do with my walk with the Lord?” Well, I’m glad you asked. What the story vividly illustrates is that, like Captain Waddell and the crew of the CSS Shenandoah, it is possible for you to fight battles that you shouldn’t be fighting. For that matter, you can even win them! In the end, though, what good does it do you to fight a battle that God doesn’t want you to fight? That’s why I advise you to pray long and hard before you go to war against someone. Speaking as a person who has fought some battles that God wanted me to fight, I can assure you that every battle takes a toll on you even if that battle is God sanctioned. You can imagine, then, the toll any battle takes when it is your idea rather than God’s.

Posted in Anger, Choices, Decisions, Discernment, God's Will, Priorities, Reconciliation, Revenge, War | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

A Christmas Version of 1 Corinthians chapter 13

Posted on December 23, 2020 by russellmckinney

1 Corinthians chapter 13 is often called the great “love chapter.” With this is mind, someone has written a Christmas version of it. Somewhere down through the years I picked up a copy and stuck it in my file folder marked “Christmas,” but I honestly don’t even remember doing it. Likewise, I would gladly attribute full credit to the author, but the name isn’t provided. So, I’ll just offer the piece as it reads according to the printout I have. I hope you enjoy it. Better yet, I hope you put it into practice this Christmas season.

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows,

Strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls,

But do not show love to my family,

I’m just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen baking dozens of cookies,

Preparing gourmet meals

And arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime,

But do not show love to my family,

I’m just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home,

And give all that I have to charity,

But do not show love to my family,

It profits me nothing.

If my tree has gleaming angels and crocheted snowflakes,

And I attend a myriad of parties, and sing in the cantata,

But do not focus on Christ,

I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

Love sets aside the decorating to kiss a loved one.

Love is kind, though harried and tired.

Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china

and table linens.

Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful

they are there to be in the way.

Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return,

but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,

endures all things.

LOVE NEVER FAILS!

Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, gold clubs will rust…

But giving the gift of love will endure.

Posted in Christmas, Christmas Traditions, Love | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

How a Man Named Jeconiah Affects the Christmas Story

Posted on December 21, 2020 by russellmckinney

Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon. And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel. (Matthew 1:11-12, N.K.J.V.)

Shortly following the death of King Solomon, the united nation of Israel underwent what we might call a civil war and split into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom went by the name “Israel” while the southern kingdom went by the name “Judah.” The northern kingdom (Israel) was larger in terms of tribes and territory, but the southern kingdom (Judah) included the city of Jerusalem, Solomon’s temple, and the temple’s priesthood. Also, Judah’s kings could trace their ancestral lineage straight back to King Solomon and his father, King David. In other words, Judah’s kings all sat upon “the throne of David.”

The genealogy found in Matthew 1:1-17 gives us the record of Jesus’ earthly family tree by beginning with Abraham and working the family line down to Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father. The line includes King David and King Solomon as well as several of the kings of Judah. The Jeconiah mentioned in our text verse was one of those kings of Judah.

However, the inclusion of Jeconiah — who was also known as Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:6) and Coniah (Jeremiah 22:24) — in Jesus’ genealogy potentially brings up a major problem. That problem centers around the fact that God decreed that none of Jeconiah’s descendants would ever sit upon the throne of David. The proof text is Jeremiah 22:30, which says concerning Jeconiah:

This is what the Lord says: “Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.” (N.I.V.)

At the time God gave this decree, which is sometimes called “The Curse of Jeconiah,” Jeconiah already had several sons (1 Chronicles 3:17). Therefore, the idea of Jeconiah being “childless” obviously should be understood figuratively rather than literally. But the point remains the same in that none of Jeconiah’s offspring would ever sit upon the throne of David. Okay, so how then could Jeconiah be a link in what Matthew calls “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ” (Matthew 1:1) and yet still fit in with the angel Gabriel telling Mary that God the Father would give Jesus the throne of David (Luke 1:32)?

The answer is found in the virgin birth. Even though Joseph was Jesus’ legal father, he was not His biological one. That means that Jesus is not included in the genetic line that links Joseph’s descendants up with Jeconiah’s descendants. This helps explain why the New Testament also includes the record of Jesus’ earthly family tree through Mary (Luke 3:23-38) and genetically links Jesus to King David by way of David’s son, Nathan (Luke 3:31). Like Joseph, Mary herself was a genetic descendant of King David. Luke doesn’t use any female names in his genealogy, and so there is no direct mention of her, but she is included in the listing by Luke’s use of the phrase “the son of Heli” (Luke 3:23). Heli was Mary’s father and Joseph’s father-in-law.

The upshot of all this is that Jesus would be disqualified from one day ruling over the world from the throne of David if Joseph had been his biological father. This is just one more reason why the virgin birth is a non-negotiable in regards to Christian doctrine. Even when God the Father decreed that none of Jeconiah’s descendants would ever sit upon the throne of David, He knew that Joseph would be born into that line. But He also knew that Joseph wouldn’t be Jesus’ literal father, and so Joseph’s cursed ancestral line wouldn’t be a problem in regards to Jesus one day reigning over all the earth.

Posted in Bible Study, Christ's Birth, Christmas, Doctrine, God's Word, The Bible, Virgin Birth | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Going the Extra Mile

Posted on December 18, 2020 by russellmckinney

In Business By the Book, Christian financial consultant and author Larry Burkett told the story of how he once became the victim of a bad long-term lease. The mistake he made was renting an office space in a building that had an unstable foundation. The problem with the foundation caused the entire building to literally sink several inches per year, and that in turn caused the building to be plagued by all sorts of electrical problems, power failures, and a water outage that lasted for several weeks.

Burkett honored the lease by remaining in the building for three years before finally moving his office to another building. A couple of months later, though, his former landlord called him, demanding that Burkett pay to remodel and repaint the former office. Since Burkett felt that he had already been more than fair with the landlord, he politely but firmly said, “No, I’m not going to do that. Those repairs are not my responsibility.” The landlord, however, continued to make the demands by frequently calling Burkett.

Burkett consulted an attorney, and the attorney agreed that Burkett had fulfilled his responsibility to the landlord. That reassured Burkett that the landlord was in the wrong. But Burkett’s oldest son had a different take on the issue, and he shared it with his dad. First, the son reminded Burkett that the landlord and his wife had lost their only child a few years earlier and had never gotten over the tragedy. Second, the son reminded Burkett that Burkett had often commented that he would like to do something to help the landlord as a way of showing Christianity to the man. As the son saw it, this was a perfect opportunity to do that. The son even reminded his dad that Jesus had taught that Christians should go the extra mile in their dealings with lost people even when those lost people are treating those Christians unjustly (Matthew 5:38-42).

In the end, the son’s argument swayed the father’s heart and Burkett committed to spending several thousand dollars to restore the virtually nonusuable office space. Spending that money was especially difficult for him because he was, after all, a financial consultant who made a living telling other people how to save their money and manage it better. What he came to realize, though, was that the situation between him and his former landlord was not so much a business deal as it was a spiritual deal. That placed it into a completely different category.

Christian, it could be that God might one day call upon you to go the extra mile for a lost person who surely won’t deserve it. Most likely you’ll even be called upon to go that extra mile as you are being treated unjustly. Even worse, you might not see any immediate results (good ones, anyway) from you going that extra mile. It will be during such times that you will have to trust God to take care of the outcome. No matter how the other person responds to your efforts, God will surely reward you somewhere down the line for your work. If nothing else, you’ll at least leave that lost person with a Christian witness that he or she should have no trouble remembering.

Posted in Adversity, Business, Character, Discipleship, Doing Good, Evangelism, Faithfulness, Giving, God's Work, Influence, Ministry, Perseverance, Problems, Reward, Service, Sowing and Reaping, Suffering, Trials, Trusting In God, Witnessing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

“What Do You Want Me to Do For You?”

Posted on December 16, 2020 by russellmckinney

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.” And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.” (Mark 10:35-37, N.K.J.V.)

So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. Then they called the blind man, saying to him, “Be of good cheer. Rise. He is calling you.” And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus. So Jesus answered and said to him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, that I may receive my sight.” (Mark 10:49-51. N.K.J.V.)

Here we have two separate stories from the same chapter of Mark, and in each story Jesus asks someone, “What do you want Me to do for you?” James and John wanted the honor of sitting at Jesus’ right hand and left hand during His prophesied kingdom reign upon the earth. Jesus, after some discussion, refused to grant that request (Mark 10:38-40). Conversely, the blind man (whose name was Bartimaeus) asked to receive his sight. Jesus immediately granted that request.

What made the difference between one request being refused and the other one being granted? The answer is: the will of God. As Jesus Himself says in John 14:13-14, “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (N.K.J.V.). Notice that the asking of which He speaks must be done in His name. That’s an important qualifier because asking for something “in Jesus’ name” naturally involves only asking for things “in God’s will.” As 1 John 5:14-15 says:

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. (N.K.J.V., emphasis mine)

I wouldn’t even begin to try to guess which prayer-request items are in God’s will for your life and which ones aren’t. That’s between you and Him. What I will tell you, though, is that you are crazy if you don’t reverently ask Him for the things you want. I’m not talking about you demanding anything or attempting to impose your will upon Him. Again, you asking for anything “in Jesus’ name” automatically includes you being submitted to God’s will concerning that request. I’m simply saying that there’s nothing wrong with asking God to grant you that certain something. Who knows? That something just might be in God’s will for your life.

Three young brothers once spent the night with their grandparents at the grandparents’ farm. The next morning the farm’s old rooster did his job and woke everyone up at sunrise. While the boys moaned and went back to sleep, the grandmother got up and prepared a big breakfast complete with country ham, eggs, and grits. When everything was ready, she called the boys down to eat.

One by one they came into the kitchen, each one barely dressed and still rubbing the sleep from his eyes. It didn’t take long, though, for the youngsters to become fully alert when they saw all that food just waiting for them. They quickly took their places at the kitchen table and everybody, including grandma and grandpa, enjoyed the morning feast.

With their bellies full, the boys were now ready to get outside and explore the wonders of the farm. But just as they were about to hit the door, the grandmother said, “Hold on a second. I’ve got a treat for you.” The treat turned out to be a pan of piping hot biscuits, freshly pulled from the oven.

The oldest brother forced his way to the head of the line and grabbed his biscuit first. In a flash, he was out the door with it and into the yard just outside the kitchen. Next came the second oldest, and he had no trouble following suit. Finally, the youngest brother took his turn getting a biscuit, and then he headed for the door to join his two brothers in the yard.

Just before he reached the door, though, he stopped, turned around, and asked, “Grandma, do you have strawberry preserves to put on this biscuit?” The grandmother gave a big grin and said, “I certainly do.” Then she walked over to the refrigerator, opened the door, and pulled out a mason jar full of strawberry preserves. After carefully separating the top of the boy’s biscuit from the bottom, she opened the jar of preserves and spooned out a big helping onto the biscuit. With a twinkle in her eye, she then lovingly placed the top back onto the biscuit and handed it back to the youngster. He took it, said, “Thank you,” and hit the door like a shot.

When he got out into the yard, he saw that his two brothers had already finished eating their biscuits. That gave him the perfect opportunity to torment them by making them watch him take his first bite into his. As he sunk his teeth down into the biscuit, his brothers couldn’t help but notice that strawberry preserves began dripping down from both corners of his mouth. That prompted the oldest brother to ask the inevitable question, “Hey, where did you get those strawberry preserves?” Gleefully, the youngest brother answered, “I got ’em from grandma.” “But she didn’t give us any,” objected the second-youngest brother. “She didn’t give you any,” said the youngest brother triumphantly, “because YOU DIDN’T ASK.”

Posted in Desires, God's Love, God's Provision, God's Will, Prayer Requests, Problems | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

When the Timing Isn’t Right

Posted on December 14, 2020 by russellmckinney

Tonya and I lived in a rental apartment and then a rental house for pretty much the first two years of our marriage. Then we started looking around for a house to buy. One house in particular looked good and was in our price range, but it was dogged by a potentially serious issue.

The issue centered around a new road the state of North Carolina was building right next to the house. Since the state’s legal right-of-way extended far down into the bank that joined up with the house’s front yard, there was no way of knowing just how much of that bank the new road would take. How bad was the problem? It was bad enough to require the state to erect an intimidating warning sign on that bank, and bad enough to require any real-estate agent who showed the house to begin the conversation with, “I have to tell you that the state’s right-of-way extends…”

Needless to say, the cloud of uncertainty that hung over that house made it well nigh impossible to sell. Tonya and I could probably have gotten the place for a steal if we had been willing to risk having a busy road running only a few yards from our living room’s picture window, but that wasn’t a gamble we were willing to take. If we needed further confirmation that we were thinking correctly, I got it when I happened to run into a friend of mine a few days later. He told me that he and his wife had also considered buying that house, but the question mark about the new road had caused them to look elsewhere.

In case you are curious as to how much of that bank the new road ended up taking, the answer is: not much at all. Long after Tonya and I had bought another house and settled down in it, I drove past that other house one day just to see how the whole situation had resolved itself. What I found was that the new road was a major upgrade over the previously existing one, the people who had ultimately bought the house had beautifully redone the landscaping on that bank, and the whole place looked like something out of a Better Homes & Gardens magazine.

Did I feel a tinge of sadness and think, “That could have been us”? I’ll admit that I did. But it didn’t sting that much and certainly didn’t last very long. It passed as soon as my mind drifted back to that warning sign that had once sat squarely in the heart of that bank. That sign in no way, shape, or form had been a “Welcome, First-Time Homebuyers” sign.

Sometimes, in God’s sovereign plans, the timing just isn’t right for a thing to happen. It’s not that there is anything patently wrong with the thing or that it involves the committal of some sin. No, the problem is simply that two perfectly legitimate agendas are in play and there is no point of natural, unforced intersection between them. Going back to my illustration, Tonya and I were just looking to buy a house, the owners of that house were just trying to sell theirs, and the state of North Carolina was just trying to build a new road. No one was at fault in all of it, but that lack of fault still wasn’t enough to allow Tonya and I to pursue buying that house.

Perhaps right now you are attempting to forcefully bring something to pass that God’s timing isn’t allowing to happen. If that describes you, the best advice I can give you is to abandon your efforts and walk away. Rather than keep beating your head against an immovable wall or take some risky chance that might lead you to years of regret, just trust that God has something else in mind for you and get on with your life. Believe me, if He wanted the thing to come to pass, the way wouldn’t be blocked right now by conflicting agendas and imperfect timing. That’s why I say that no matter how good the thing looks to you, your best move is to let it go and stick with God.

Posted in Choices, Decisions, Desires, Disappointment, God's Timing, God's Sovereignty, God's Will, Impatience, Patience, Personal, Submission, Trusting In God, Waiting | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Benevolence Giving

Posted on December 12, 2020 by russellmckinney

The average person has absolutely no idea how much benevolent giving the churches of America do. The reason for this lack of knowledge is the fact that much of the giving is done quietly without any fanfare. All this giving isn’t exclusively done by large churches or wealthy churches, either. Even many small churches and churches that could be classified as poor make a regular habit of helping people in need.

Many churches have benevolence committees to which requests for financial help get made. Deacon boards or board of elders often serve as these committees. Some churches empower their benevolence committees to dole out any funds the committees agree to give. Other churches allow their committees to merely recommend that requests for money be granted, after which the congregations must pass the recommendations by way of a majority votes.

Offerings known as “love offerings” are another way that churches give. A love offering is a freewill offering that is collected for a certain individual or cause during a specific church service. Since any and all contributions to this type of offering are voluntary, the amount of the offering will always be different. However, some churches do have a rule that if the collection for a love offering doesn’t meet at least a minimum amount, the church will make up the difference out of the church treasury. This ensures that any individual or organization who is the beneficiary of a love offering will at least get an acceptable amount of money.

Having been a pastor for some 27 years now, I can tell you that benevolence giving can get really tricky. I’ll offer just one story — one of a long list — from my own experience as a way of illustrating my point. I once served as the pastor of a church that did all its benevolence giving by way of love offerings. One Sunday morning we took up an offering for a certain church member who had been struggling for months with a debilitating disease. This man had been forced to miss work, spend large amounts of money on medical bills and prescriptions, and consequently really needed help financially. I was happy to learn that the offering we collected for him was the largest amount I had ever known that church to give for a love offering.

A few weeks later, another church member asked the church for some financial help, and a date was set to take up a love offering for him. But when the amount given for that offering was totaled up, it fell far short of the offering that had been taken up for the other fellow. This, not unexpectedly, hurt the second man’s feelings.

When he asked me why the offering for him had come in so much less than the offering for the first man, I named a couple of reasons. One, the first man had a lot of family in that church, and that family had contributed heavily to his offering. Two, the first man’s need was perceived to be much greater than the second man’s. I have to admit, though, that I couldn’t tell him the third reason, that being that the first man was just more popular than him. Frankly, one of the problems with voluntary love offerings is that oftentimes they become popularity contests. That’s why, if a church takes up such offerings, it’s a good idea to make it a rule that the church must bring any love offering up to a minimum amount if the offering doesn’t meet or exceed that amount.

Actually, I believe it is preferable to eliminate the chance factor of love offerings altogether by earmarking a set amount the church will give. In other words, rather than “pass the plate” and “see what you get,” just decide that the church will write a check for a fixed amount to any individual or cause the church deems worthy to receive one. While this will mean that any beneficiary who could potentially receive a very large love offering might have to settle for less, the policy will serve the overall good of the congregation by keeping the peace and harmony. That’s my opinion, at least.

Another problem with benevolence giving gets into the question: “Should the church help those who won’t help themselves?” Let’s say that a known drug addict calls the pastor or asks some other church member if the church will help him pay his electricity bill. Obviously, the church shouldn’t give that addict cash or a check made out to cash, but should the church even send a check directly to the electricity company in the amount of bill? Isn’t that the same as enabling the addict to continue in his addiction?

As you might guess, there are many variations on this theme. Here are a few off the top of my head. Should the church buy heating fuel for a deadbeat who won’t work? Should the church pay the auto repair bill for an alcoholic who wrecked his car while driving under the influence? Should the church pay the rental deposit for a woman who was evicted from her last home because of her failure to pay the rent? I mean, after all, Christ’s followers are supposed to be people of love and compassion, right? So, what kind of a reputation will we have if we allow people to go without heat on cold winter nights, lose their jobs because they don’t have a car by which to get to work, or end up homeless because they can’t come up with the deposit required for a rental home?

And then there is the problem of innocent spouses, children, or other family members who become the victims of circumstances over which they have no control. Remember that deadbeat who wouldn’t work and couldn’t pay his fuel bill? What if he has a wife who works like a dog but still can’t make enough to pay all the couple’s bills? Remember that alcoholic who wrecked his car while driving under the influence? What if his two kids faithfully attend Sunday School and Bible School and are great kids? Remember that evicted woman who couldn’t manage her life well enough to avoid being evicted? What if her mother lives with her and has Alzheimer’s?

You see, sometimes a church will agree to help a problematic individual, not for the sake of that individual, but for the sake of the innocent victims in that individual’s vortex. It’s nuances like this that keep members of benevolence committees up at night. If a committee member has any humility at all, he or she will ask, “Who am I to make these potentially life-altering decisions? I’m not God. I’m not even Solomon.” Welcome to the world of church benevolence.

One easy solution to making these decisions is simply for the church to agree to write the check for any request that gets made. This solution isn’t an option, though, because of the high number of people who would take advantage of the church. The church I pastor is located in a small county, but even here we have people who are known to make the rounds in asking multiple churches for help. What these people don’t know is that local pastors talk to each other about them. Then again, maybe they do know it but are shameless enough not to care.

Of course, some pious man or woman might make the argument that Jesus helped any and all who came to Him, regardless of whether or not the person deserved it. Admittedly, there is some merit to this argument. I say this because Jesus did die on the cross for everybody’s sins even though He knew that only a minority of those people would actually believe in Him as Savior and thus receive the benefits of His sacrificial death. For that matter, I’m sure that not everyone He healed over the course of His earthly ministry actually became a saved believer. Therefore, if Jesus didn’t turn away anyone, shouldn’t our churches follow His example?

My answer is that while Jesus, in His divinity, had unlimited resources, our churches do not. Furthermore, scripture instructs Christians to practice not only wise stewardship but also spiritual discernment. Even Jesus Himself never spent an inordinate amount of time trying to teach individuals who clearly didn’t want to learn. To see this in the gospels, all you have to do is read about His interactions with the Jewish religious leaders of His day.

Oh, and let me mention one other relevant factor in regards to benevolence giving. What if God is working through a cold house, a wrecked automobile, or an eviction notice to bring an individual to the end of himself or herself so that he or she will at last fully submit to Him? If this is indeed the case, doesn’t it logically follow that any church that extends financial aid to that person is actually damaging God’s work rather than doing it?

Like I said, welcome to the world of church benevolence. And, unfortunately, there are all sorts of other questions that can be asked regarding this topic. For example, if a church does all of its giving very publicly in full view of the church, doesn’t that bring at least a little bit of embarrassment to the people who receive the gifts? On the other hand, if a benevolence committee does all of its giving in private, doesn’t such cloaked secrecy create accountability problems between that committee and the rest of the church?

Another question has to do with whether or not a church should “farm out” its benevolence giving. What I mean is, each church has the option of making monetary donations each month or each year to local parachurch ministries such as homeless shelters, food banks, child-care agencies, thrift stores, etc. A contributing church can, in turn, then pass all requests for benevolence along to these other ministries. One advantage of a church doing benevolence this way is that the church only needs to vet the overall organization as opposed to vetting each individual who makes a request. Another advantage is that referring all requests to outside organizations keeps the church from being criticized for playing favorites as to which requests get granted. A potential disadvantage is that it allows the church to take a somewhat aloof, hands-off approach to dealing with the oftentimes messy work of helping messy people.

Well, as you can probably tell, I could write an entire book about the topic of benevolence giving. For now, though, I trust that I’ve given you enough to cause you to agree with me that the whole area is laden with mine fields. It’s sad that certain individuals take advantage of churches whose members are prone to be lovingly generous. Then again, it’s equally sad that some churches choose to become banks rather than use the money in their coffers to help those who need help. Somewhere in the middle of the confusing maze is the appropriate balance that God would have us to strike.

As for me, I have no doubts that our churches sometimes make mistakes regarding benevolence giving. We either give when we shouldn’t or don’t when we should. However, the alternative is to not participate in benevolence giving at all, and that’s just not an acceptable route. That’s why we must continue to trudge along by diligently considering each request that gets made and asking God to guide us in our decision making. If we are sincere in our asking, He will surely do His part to guide us, but even with His help the job will never be easy. It could be worse, though, right? We could be the ones standing in need rather than the ones who are trying to figure out who to help and who not to help.

Posted in Church, Deacons, Doing Good, Giving, God's Work, Ministry, Money, Needs, Pastors, Personal, Stewardship | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

R.G. Lee’s Glimpse Into Heaven

Posted on December 9, 2020 by russellmckinney

After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. (Revelation 4:1-3, N.I.V.)

R.G. Lee served as the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, for 33 years. During his tenure there the church experienced remarkable growth and Lee served four terms as the President of the Tennessee Baptist Convention and three terms as the President of the Southern Baptist Convention. The term “legend” doesn’t even begin to describe Lee’s influence in Baptist circles.

When Lee was 91 years old, he lay dying in his bed in his home in downtown Memphis. He was surrounded by four men: Adrian Rogers (who was then serving as the pastor of Bellevue Baptist), Tommy Lane (who was then serving as Bellevue Baptist’s Minister of Music), Billy Graham (the world’s most famous evangelist), and Cliff Barrows (the music and program director for the Billy Graham Crusades). Graham and Barrows just happened to be holding a Crusade in the Memphis area at the time.

As the four men stood around Lee’s bed, singing songs and praying, Lee himself remained unconscious. Suddenly he opened his eyes and the first person he saw was Billy Graham. When Graham leaned down to talk to him, Lee put his hands on Graham’s face and pulled him down further toward him. Then he asked Graham, “Have you won the world yet?” Next, Lee said something those four men would never forget. He said, “I saw heaven. I saw Jesus. I saw my mother. I have preached on heaven many times, but I never had the vocabulary to adequately describe it. I never did justice to heaven in my sermons.” He died not long afterward.

The skeptic who hears this story might say, “That old man had been preaching about an imaginary place for decades, and that day he just turned his imagination into a dream.” Well, it just so happens that the Bible teaches in passage after passage that heaven exists! And I, for one, have no trouble believing that as R.G. Lee’s body lay dying, his soul spent some time straddling the line between earth and heaven as God gave him a glimpse of that land of which he was about to become a resident.

Perhaps this glimpse into heaven explains why Lee’s first words to Billy Graham were, “Have you won the world yet?” Could it be that what made Lee so anxious to get the world won to Jesus was the fact that he had just seen Jesus in heaven and wanted everyone else to have that indescribable experience? Oh, and here’s one other thought for you: If heaven is real, if Jesus is there, and if believing in Jesus as Savior is the only way that anyone can go to heaven, shouldn’t those of us who have believed in Him as Savior be trying to win as many people to Him as we can? That logic certainly makes sense to me. I’m sure it did to R.G. Lee, too, and I’m also sure that his soul is in heaven right now and is with Jesus.

Posted in Aging, Comfort, Death, Elderly, Encouragement, Eternity, Evangelism, Heaven, Preaching, Salvation | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Has Somebody Kept You From Your Milk & Honey?

Posted on December 7, 2020 by russellmckinney

A study of the life of Moses will show that he didn’t get to live the life he should have. Rather than lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into a land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:8), he led them out of Egypt and into forty years of wandering in the wilderness (Numbers 14:26-35). That happened, mind you, through no fault of his own.

The problem was created when the Israelites’ national lack of faith kept them from conquering Canaan on schedule (Numbers 14:1-38). Moses wasn’t to blame for that whole affair, but he certainly had to spend the rest of his life dealing with the fallout from it. To say that his God-ordained course in life took a hard right turn down an unpleasant road is a major understatement.

Perhaps you, like Moses, have been hurt by the wrong actions of someone else. God had something good in mind for you, but somebody prevented it from happening. Well, I hope you understand that the guilty party was for all intents and purposes serving as an emissary of Satan. Putting it bluntly, that person was doing Satan’s bidding rather than God’s bidding, and Satan always tries to mess up whatever God wants to do.

The Israelites whom Moses led out of Egypt weren’t all lost unbelievers, but all of them except for Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 14:30) fell far short of living out God’s plan for their lives. Consequently, since Moses was their leader, they caused him to fall far short of living out God’s plan for his life. This should show you, Christian, that lost people and saved people alike can hinder the wonderful things that God wants to do in your life.

Now let me offer some good news. Anytime someone’s actions rob the Christian of earthly blessings, God rewards that Christian with eternal blessings to make up for the loss. Since God is a God of justice (Deuteronomy 32:4; Job 34:12; Psalm 146:7), every injustice that He doesn’t make right in this life He must surely make right in the next one. Because of this, at least from an eternal perspective, wrongs done to the man or woman of God become nothing less than a beneficial experience for that person. It’s just that he or she has to wait until the afterlife to enjoy the added blessings.

Take hope in this, Christian, the next time someone robs you of your God-ordained “milk and honey.” Remember that the experience will ultimately provide you with even more “milk and honey.” Even better than that, you’ll get to enjoy that “milk and honey” not in the limited years of this life but in the unlimited years of the next one. I’m sure that Moses would tell you the same thing if you could talk with him right now. He’d tell you that earthly “milk and honey” is nice, but eternal “milk and honey” is far better.

Posted in Adversity, Comfort, Disappointment, Encouragement, Eternity, God's Word, God's Work, Heaven, Leadership, Persecution, Perseverance, Problems, Service, Trials, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment