Does Satan Know the Future?

Posted on March 9, 2020 by russellmckinney

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Revelation 12:7-9, N.K.J.V.)

I’ve been preaching a prophecy series on Sunday mornings at the church, doing more or less a survey course of the book of The Revelation. Like many other preachers, I interpret the events of the book to be the apostle John laying out a chronological timeline of events (with just an exception or two here and there) that will take place in the future. This means that I preach that Jesus will rapture away His church from this earth before the seven-year tribulation period begins, and that He will visibly return to walk this earth again at the end of the tribulation period just prior to the beginning of His 1,000 year reign upon the earth.

Okay, so why am I telling you this? I’m doing it to lay the groundwork for a question that arises from Revelation 12:7-9. Follow my logic here. If John truly is presenting a chronological timeline of future events, those verses must then refer to a second war in heaven that will take place at the midway point of the tribulation period. (For the record, the first war in heaven is referenced by way of the symbolized characters of Revelation 12:3-4.)

Of course, someone might object to this idea of there being a second war in heaven by saying, “But if Satan and the other rebellious angels were cast out of heaven long ago after the first war there, how could they ever get back into heaven to mount a second war?” While that sounds like a perfectly reasonable objection, it’s one that is easily answered by scripture. I say that because Job 1:6, Job 2:1, and Zechariah 3:1-2 all teach that Satan (and by implication the other fallen angels) still have some type of limited access to heaven if they chose to temporarily ignore their banishment from the place.

Therefore, we believe the midway point of the tribulation period will see a second war in heaven, and we believe the outcome of that war will be the same as the first heavenly war: Satan and his angels will lose and be kicked out of heaven. Satan will then come back down to the earth and, as John puts it, will have “…great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time” (Revelation 12:12, N.K.J.V.). That “short time” will be the last half of the seven-year tribulation period.

But all this gets me up to my question: Does Satan know the future? Specifically, if he knows that God’s written word prophesies that he and the other fallen angels will lose a second war in heaven, why would Satan forge on ahead with the war when the time comes? I mean, if you knew for a certainty that what you were planning was doomed to fail, wouldn’t you forego your plan? And if we have that much common sense, doesn’t Satan?

As my answer, let me first say that Satan does surely know what the Bible says about his future. For one thing, he’s had plenty of time to learn scripture. For another, even if he doesn’t know how to read (which I’m sure isn’t a problem for him), all he has to do is listen to preachers and teachers read passages of scripture and explain what the passages mean. Consequently, there’s no doubt that Satan knows what the Bible teaches. If you don’t believe that he knows scripture, let me remind you that when he tempted Jesus he actually quoted Psalm 91:11-12 to Jesus. Along the same lines, if you want to classify as scripture God’s words to Adam and Eve about not eating the forbidden fruit, Satan quoted (actually purposely misquoted) that scripture to Eve.

Obviously, then, Satan does know what the Bible declares about his future. That’s indisputable. But as for the question of whether or not he knows specific future events that aren’t mentioned in the Bible, I would have to say that he doesn’t have that much knowledge. Putting it simply, his knowledge of the future isn’t limitless. For example, does he already know that you are going to say a cuss word after you hit your hand with a hammer tomorrow? No. Does he already know that you are going to be involved in a car accident next week? No. Does he already know that you are going to buy a new house next year and what house you will buy? No. Only God has perfect foreknowledge of all future events (Isaiah 42:9; 46:9-10). That’s one of the things that makes God unique.

I will say that Satan has been around a long time and has been observing human tendencies for thousands of years. This makes him very good at predicting our behavior. He also has virtually unlimited access, through his vast network of demons (fallen angels), to incredible amounts of information, much of it supposedly secret or private. This explains how clairvoyants, fortune tellers, psychics, and seers can on occasion predict future events with incredible accuracy. These people are indeed channeling into a very real current of information, but it’s a current created by Satan and his demons based upon conversations, writings, etc. in which they’ve either heard or watched people engage. This explains why God’s word strongly warns against dabbling in the dark arts (Leviticus 19:31; 20:6; Deuteronomy 18:9-14). As a matter of fact, in ancient Israel being a soothsayer/medium/psychic/interpreter of omens was actually a death-penalty offense (Leviticus 20:27)!

In the end, I don’t know with certainty why Satan goes ahead with all his anti-God plans even when he knows full well that his prophesied future is:

  • a second failed attempt to take over heaven (Revelation 12:7-9)
  • a failed attempt to prevent Jesus from returning to this earth and establishing His 1,000 year reign over it (Revelation 19:1-21)
  • a thousand years of imprisonment in God’s bottomless pit during Christ’s 1,000 year reign (Revelation 20:1-3)
  • a final failed attempt to overthrow the reign of Jesus immediately following his release from that bottomless pit at the end of the thousand years (Revelation 20:7-9)
  • a formal sentencing to spend eternity in God’s lake of fire (Revelation 20:10; Matthew 25:41)

One possibility is that Satan hates God so much that he’d rather play out a doomed hand rather than submit to Him. Another one is that Satan is arrogant enough to think that he can still somehow beat God and in so doing rewrite prerecorded history. Another one is that despite the fact that Satan loves to think of himself as the ultimate rebel, even he must play his assigned role in God’s great plan for the future.

I myself like the thought of that last possible interpretation. Sure, Satan and those other rebel angels once went rogue by their own choosing, but once they had done that God said, “Alright, now that you’ve made your choice, not only am I going to seal you eternally in that choice, I’m also going to use you in your rebellious state in my far-reaching plan for the human race.” You see, under this interpretation, Satan and all his rebel angels must dutifully do the bidding of God even if they know that bidding won’t end well for them. This means that even though Satan does know the future — at least what the Bible says about his future — he really has no say whatsoever in doing anything to change it. He’s just a captain who sails a doomed ship, even if he does seem to be a captain who is immensely enjoying his limited time at the helm.

Posted in Angels, Demons, Eternity, God's Foreknowledge, God's Omniscience, Prophecy, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, The Devil | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“Christian Verses” Podcast: Genesis 4:7

Posted on March 8, 2020 by russellmckinney

In Genesis 4:7, God told Cain, “If you don’t do well, sin is crouching at your door.” The picture of sin crouching at the door is certainly a very graphic one, but what exactly does it mean? This is the question Malcolm and I answer with the new podcast. To listen, click on the link below:

Posted in "Christian Verses" podcast, Depravity, Sin, Temptation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Vance Havner’s Take on Worldly Christians

Posted on March 6, 2020 by russellmckinney

Vance Havner was born in Jugtown, North Carolina, in 1901, began preaching at the age of 14, and spent the next 70 years preaching, pastoring, writing, and speaking in revival services and Bible conferences. How much of a legend did he become? Billy Graham preached his funeral. Is that enough of a legend for you?

Havner was probably best known for his “Havner-isms.” These were pithy, folksy quotes and illustrations that were uniquely him. Preachers have been using these for decades. As Billy Graham said in that eulogy:

Of course, we’re going to miss him. Especially those of us who preach, for his books are on all our shelves and his illustrations are in our sermons. Someone has said everyone is born an original and dies a copy. That wasn’t true of Vance Havner. Vance Havner was born an original and he died an original.

Here are a few quotes from Havner, just to give you the flavor of the man and his ministry:

  • (on church): “If things are quiet and undisturbed in your church, that is not necessarily a good sign. Things are usually pretty quiet around the sick and the dead and especially in graveyards.”
  • (on preaching): “You can’t tell it like it is, if you don’t believe it like it was.”
  • (on marriage): “Switch two letters in the word ‘united,” and it reads “untied.”
  • (on the so-called “social gospel”): “If they had a social gospel in the days of the prodigal son, somebody would have given him a bed and a sandwich and he never would have gone home.”
  • (on science): “Sin has gotten men into more trouble than science can get him out of.”
  • (on prayer): “The measure of any Christian is his prayer life.”
  • (on Christianity): “We have been inoculated with such a mild form of Christianity that we are immunized against the real thing.”

I myself own two books full of Vance Havner quotes, but recently I ran across one of his extended quotes that I hadn’t read. So, I thought I’d offer it as the heart of this post. The quote is entitled “Our Downfall Is Plotted”:

Every Christian is a contradiction to this old world. He crosses it at every point. He goes against the grain from beginning to end. From the day he is born again until the day he goes on to be with the Lord, he must stand against the current of a world always going the other way. God expects him to be “beside himself,” “a fool for Christ’s sake.”

If he allows it, men will tone him down, steal the joy of his salvation and reduce him to the dreary level of the general average. If the Devil cannot keep us from being saved, he next endeavors to make average Christians of us; and in this he usually succeeds. He tames the holy recklessness of God’s dare-saints until they sink into the drab pattern of most of us, “faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null.”

The Devil does not mind our joining the church if we behave like most of those who are already inside. But when a real, wide-awake Christian breezes along, taking the Gospel seriously, the Devil grows alarmed and begins plotting his downfall.

What Havner was talking about in that quote was one of his favorite themes: the idea of the Christian being radically different (in a good way for God) from the rest of the world. Think about Havner’s description of the Christian. Such a person: contradicts this world, crosses it at every point, goes against the grain, stands against the current, and alarms the Devil to the point where the Devil begins plotting the person’s downfall.

Tell me, Christian, does that description of how the Christian is supposed to live describe your life? I mean, seriously, when was the last time you living out your faith caused you to be looked upon as “weird” or at least “different”? The fact is, if your Christianity isn’t frequently setting you at odds with this world, then you either don’t have the real thing or you aren’t putting it into practice correctly. Even Jesus said, “Woe unto you when all men speak well of you” (Luke 6:26). And He certainly knew what He was talking about, didn’t He? After all, Him living out His faith got Him not just criticized but also crucified.      

Posted in Backsliding, Character, Commitment, Discipleship, Doing Good, Dying To Self, Faithfulness, God's Work, Holiness, Influence, Persecution, Sacrifice, Salvation, Sanctification, Satan, Separation, Service, Sin, The Devil | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Danger of Leaving God’s Pasture

Posted on March 4, 2020 by russellmckinney

An old shepherd once attended a church service and was called upon to pray. The prayer he offered spoke of three things: his Christianity, his occupation of shepherd, and his experience with stepping outside God’s will. He prayed, “Lord, I got among the thorns and briars and got scratched so badly that I was torn and bleeding. But, Lord, it is only fair to say that I didn’t get scratched until I wandered out of Your pasture.”

The term “God’s pasture” was the shepherd’s quaint way of describing God’s will for his life. Admittedly, the inside of that will doesn’t always mean safety in terms of worldly circumstances. You can ask the apostles about that as they are furiously rowing in the midst of that windstorm on the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 14:22-33; Mark 6:45-52; John 6:15-21). It is equally true, however, that to step outside God’s will is to open the door for all kinds of worldly and spiritual disaster to enter your life. As the shepherd so descriptively put it, if you want to get scratched up to the point of bleeding, try wandering out of the Lord’s pasture.

My brother Richie and I were driving down a road the other day, trying to locate a certain car lot where I was going to look at a car I was considering buying. As we drove we passed a field where cows were grazing. The field was boxed in by a barbed-wire fence, and a few of the cows were grazing at the edge of the field, right up next to the fence line. One cow, however, was riskily reaching its neck between the lines of fence so that it could eat the grass that lay just on the other side of the fence. I said to Richie, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.”

Perhaps right now you find your feet in a place outside of the pasture God has designed for you. Maybe you have wandered into a wrong relationship, a wrong job, a wrong pursuit, or a wrong whatever. Then again, maybe you haven’t actually left God’s pasture yet but, like that cow, you are dangerously reaching out your neck to taste some new field even as you try to keep your feet in the one in which God has you. Am I writing to anybody out there?

If any of this hits you, all I can say is consider this post God’s warning to you. If you haven’t already started feeling the thorns and briars — or at least the cuts from that barbed-wire fence at your neck — get ready because they are surely headed your way sooner or later. They might be worldly. They will definitely be spiritual. The chances are they will be both. But rest assured, you are going to end up scratched. That’s a given anytime we get outside God’s will. So as the old saying goes, “Be warned, be wise, and beware.” God’s pasture is always the best place for you.

Posted in Backsliding, Change, Choices, Contentment, Decisions, Desires, God's Will, Temptation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Partial Obedience is Full Disobedience

Posted on March 2, 2020 by russellmckinney

Israel’s King Saul had his marching orders. They had been given to him by Samuel, Israel’s unquestioned spiritual leader. Samuel, speaking for God, had told Saul to take Israel’s army and attack the Amalekities. More than just attack the Amalekites, Samuel had commanded Saul to kill anything or anyone that carried the name “Amalekite.” That included: men, women, infants, babies, oxen, sheep, camels, and donkeys (1 Samuel 15:1-3).

Why was God coming down with such complete vengeance upon the Amalekites? It was because they were a wicked people, originally spawned from a wicked ruler (Amalek. a grandson of Esau), who had long ago attacked Moses and the Israelites in an unprovoked manner as the exhausted group had been making its way toward the promised land of Cannan (Exodus 17:8-13; Deuteronomy 25:17-18). That day the Amalekites had become a marked people in God’s eyes.

Following that attack, and Israel’s subsequent victory over them, God had sworn to one day utterly blot out the remembrance of the Amalekites (Exodus 17:14-16). Years later, He had even told Moses to instruct the Israelites to blot out the Amalekites completely once Israel was securely established in Canaan (Deuteronomy 25:19). And so now, under King Saul’s leadership, it was time for Israel to at long last make good on the blotting out of the Amalekites, who had been a thorn in their side for centuries (Judges 6:3).

But what did King Saul do? He didn’t completely obey his marching orders. Oh, he did gather together an army of over 200,000 soldiers (1 Samuel 15:4), and he did attack the Amalekites and slaughter thousands of them in a sweeping invasion of their territory (15:5-7). What he didn’t do, though, was thoroughly annihilate all of them, per Samuel’s instructions. As evidence of this, the Amalekites could still be found in the land years afterward (1 Samuel 27:8), and David, Saul’s successor to Israel’s throne, would one day be forced to engage in a memorable battle with them (1 Samuel 30:1-31).

Not only did Saul spare the Amalekites’ choicest livestock, he was audacious enough in his disobedience to even spare the Amalekite king, Agag, and keep him as a prisoner of war (15:8-9). Well, you can imagine how displeased God was with those decisions, and so He told Samuel, “I greatly regret that I have set Saul up as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments” (15:10-11, N.K.J.V.). In keeping with that word from God, Samuel then rose early the next morning and eventually found Saul and his encampment at Gilgal (15:12).

Saul greeted Samuel with the cheerful words, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord” (15:13, N.K.J.V.), but Samuel was in no mood to hear it. Rather than greet Saul with a warm reply in return, Samuel curtly asked him, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” (15:14, N.K.J.V.). You see, Samuel didn’t even have to hear about Saul’s sparing of King Agag to consider Saul a rebel. The mere fact that Saul had spared the Amalekite sheep and oxen was enough to do it!

In the conversation that ensued, Saul offered a lame excuse about how he planned to offer the sheep and oxen as sacrifices to the Lord (15:15). When Samuel reminded him that his marching orders had been to utterly wipe out everything about the Amalekites, Saul threw his troops under the bus by saying they were the ones who had spared the best livestock to use in sacrifice (15:17-21). By this point, Samuel was tired of hearing about those animals being used as sacrifices, and so he said to Saul, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” (15:22).

Then Samuel, in effect, ended Saul’s reign as king even though Saul would continue to occupy the throne several more years. Samuel told him, “Because you have rejected the word of the lord, He has also rejected you from being king” (15:23). Later that day, Samuel had King Agag brought to him and promptly hacked Agag to pieces right there on the spot (15:32-33)! Samuel then departed for Ramah, as Saul returned to his home in Gibeah, and Samuel went to his grave never paying Saul another visit (15:34-35). Talk about a pivotal day in the life of Saul and the history of Israel!

The lesson we should glean from this story is very simple: In God’s eyes, partial obedience amounts to full disobedience. Yes, this is a high standard, but it’s hard to draw any other conclusion from God’s words to Samuel — “(Saul) has not performed My commandments” — and Samuel’s question to Saul — “Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?” Obviously, when God tells us to do something, He will accept no substitutes for obedience to that command, even substitutes that appear to be “religious” in nature (such as offering sacrifices). And so I’ll ask you just one question: Have you left any sheep bleating in your life? If you have, then be warned that God won’t be pleased with you until you fully do what He told you to do.

Posted in Decisions, Disobedience, Doing Good, Dying To Self, Faithfulness, God's Will, God's Work, Obedience, Problems, Submission, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Sir, We Would See Jesus”

Posted on February 27, 2020 by russellmckinney

The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. (John 12:21, K.J.V.)

Word has it that a church in Georgia has an angling stairway the preacher must ascend to get into the pulpit. At one point along the stairway a certain phrase is etched into the stone. The phrase is taken from the last part of John 12:21 and reads: “Sir, we would see Jesus.”

Even more than being etched into stone in a certain church in Georgia, that particular phrase has been used throughout the world to encourage and at times rebuke preachers. For example, an old story is told about a pastor who had lost his faith, a loss that started showing up more and more in his preaching. Finally, one Sunday morning he found an unsigned note on his pulpit Bible. The note read: “Sir, we would see Jesus.”

The note shook the pastor to his core and forced him to reexamine not only his preaching but also his personal beliefs. At the end of that long process, and after quite a bit of wrestling with God over the various issues that had worked to destroy his faith in the first place, the pastor returned to the childlike simplicity of His faith in Jesus Christ. This revival in the pastor’s personal walk with Christ soon manifested itself in his preaching, and it wasn’t hard for his congregation to notice the difference. Not long afterward the pastor found another note on his pulpit Bible one Sunday morning. This note quoted a portion of a different verse, John 20:20, from the same gospel of John. The note read:

…Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.

Do the people of the world need to see Jesus in preachers? Absolutely. But the truth is, they need to see Jesus in every Christian. So, I’ll ask you right now, Christian, how much Jesus can others see in you these days? If (like that pastor) you are currently experiencing a low tide of faith, you need to get alone with the Lord and work through whatever has crippled your faith. And be warned, that’s never an easy, pleasant process if you do it thoroughly. The fact is, however, there are times when it is a necessary one if others are going to truly see Jesus in you.

Posted in Adversity, Anger, Belief, Depression, Disappointment, Discipleship, Doubt, Faith, Joy, Ministry, Preaching, Problems, Service, Trials, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

God’s Enabling

Posted on February 25, 2020 by russellmckinney

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.” (Isaiah 6:6-7, N.K.J.V.)

When God wills for an individual to do something, He enables that individual to do it. The prophet Isaiah found this out by way of an awesome vision from God. That vision provides us with a scene of God’s enabling on grand display.

In the vision, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of God’s robe filled the temple (Isaiah 6:1). There is some debate as to whether this temple was the one in Jerusalem or God’s heavenly temple (Revelation 11:19), but I favor the interpretation that it was God’s heavenly temple. Above God’s throne stood seraph angels, each one having six wings (Isiah 6:2). The angels cried out one to another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:3). The doorposts of the temple shook and the entire place was filled with smoke (Isaiah 6:4).

The incredible scene was enough to cause Isaiah to be overcome with awe, fear, and a sense of his sinfulness. Consequently, he said, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). It was then that one of the seraph angels, holding a hot coal taken off the altar, flew to Isaiah and touched his mouth with the coal. In doing so, the angel said to Isaiah, “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged” (Isaiah 6:7).

While there is a reasonable debate as to whether this was Isaiah’s actual salvation experience, what isn’t debated is that the vision set the stage for God to send Isaiah out to do the prophesying He wanted him to do (Isaiah 6:8-13). The key is found in where the angel placed the hot coal upon Isaiah: the mouth (lips). You see, that’s the body part that gets used in speaking prophecies.

We might say that if God had wanted Isaiah to walk a thousand miles for Him, the angel would have placed the hot coal upon Isaiah’s leg or legs. If God had wanted Isaiah to see visions for Him, the angel would have placed the hot coal upon Isaiah’s eyes. If God had wanted Isaiah to heal the sick for Him, the angel would have placed the hot coal upon Isaiah’s hand (hands). You get the idea.

The lesson is that whenever God desires that a person perform a specific function for Him, He enables that person to perform that function. God doesn’t expect any individual to do something the individual physically can’t do. He doesn’t demand solos from people who aren’t gifted to sing, books from people who aren’t gifted to write, and teaching from people who aren’t gifted to teach. He isn’t a cruel taskmaster.

Let this lesson be a two-fold encouragement to you. First, let it encourage you to decline any job that you simply aren’t capable of doing. Don’t let peer pressure or the old adage “somebody’s got to do it” create a false sense of guilt in you and get you roped into something you honestly can’t handle. And then second, let the lesson encourage you to dive headlong into any job that God has gifted you to do. Listen, the world needs poets, but it also need plumbers. It needs engineers, but it also needs electricians. It needs finance officers, but it also needs factory workers. Isaiah’s role in service to God was that of a prophet. What’s yours?

Posted in Angels, Doing Good, God's Provision, God's Will, God's Work, Individuality, Service, Spiritual Gifts, Talents, Teaching, Work | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Unsung Heroes

Posted on February 22, 2020 by russellmckinney

I live in the state of North Carolina, but when it comes to college basketball I am not a fan of the UNC Tarheels or the Duke Blue Devils. No, my team is the NC State Wolfpack. Do you want to know why? It’s because I was seven years old and just starting to pay attention to college basketball in the winter of 1973-1974, and that just happened to be the winter the NC State basketball team won the ACC regular season championship, the ACC tournament championship, and the NCAA tournament championship. That team finished the season undefeated in the ACC and with an overall record of 30 wins and 1 loss. That one loss came at the hands of the defending national champion UCLA Bruins early in the season, and NC State avenged it by beating the Bruins later in the season in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. That win put an end to the Bruins’ historic run of seven straight national championships.

That NC State team was magical and is still named on short lists of the greatest college basketball teams ever. It featured three All Conference players: 7’2 (listed as 7’4) center Tommy Burleson, 6’4 forward David Thompson, and 5’7 point guard Monte Towe. Thompson was named both the Conference Player of the Year and the National Player of the Year. He’s also mentioned on short lists of the greatest college basketball players ever. Everybody knows about Michael Jordan. Well, growing up, Jordan wanted to be David Thompson and showed his admiration for Thompson by asking him to give the introduction speech for him when Jordan was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009. Thompson himself had been a member of that Hall of Fame since 1996.

A couple of years ago some good friends of mine — UNC Tarheel fans no less — gave me a daily devotion book entitled Daily Devotions for Die-Hard Fans: N.C. State. (By the way, the same publisher has done such books on many other college sports programs, and I recommend the books as gifts.) In the Day 33 devotion of my book, a devotion called “Hero Worship,’ I learned something that I didn’t know about that 1973-74 N.C. State basketball team. I learned that David Thompson has always called 6’7 power forward Tim Stoddard the unsung hero of that team.

I do remember Stoddard being a starting forward on the team, but I have to say that I remember him more for his long career as a Major League baseball player. As a matter of fact, according to the book, he’s actually the only person in history to earn a World Series ring (for his role on the World Series winning 1983 Baltimore Orioles team) and a NCAA basketball championship ring. For Stoddard, that’s a pretty nice thing to have on your resume, and it just adds even more mystique to that legendary N.C. State basketball team.

On the subject of Stoddard, here’s an excerpt from that devotion, “Hero Worship”:

“It was good to have a guy like that who did the dirty work. He was kind of the enforcer,” Thompson said. Stoddard was indeed the muscle man inside. He was a 6’7, 230-pound power forward who came to Raleigh in 1971. He moved into the starting lineup as a junior that championship season and averaged 5.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. “My role has always been a support guy,” he said. “That’s fine with me.”

And now, as my close to this post, let me offer another excerpt from that same devotion. This one drives home the point of the person whom God considers to be a true hero:

A hero is commonly thought of as someone who performs brave and dangerous feats that save or protect someone’s life. Or an athlete who excels. You figure that excludes you. But ask your son about that when you show him how to bait a hook, or your daughter when you show up for her dance recital. Look into the eyes of those Little Leaguers you help coach.

…For God, a hero is a person with the heart of a servant. And if a hero is a servant who acts to save other’s lives, then the greatest hero of all is Jesus Christ.

God seeks heroes today, those who will proclaim the name of their hero — Jesus — proudly and boldly, no matter how others may scoff or ridicule. God knows heroes when he sees them — by what’s in their hearts.

Posted in Character, Christ's Death, Doing Good, Evangelism, Faithfulness, Family, Fatherhood, God's Work, Influence, Leadership, Ministry, Motherhood, Parenting, Personal, Priorities, Service, Sports | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I Got Hacked

Posted on February 20, 2020 by russellmckinney

In late September of 2012, my email got hacked. I know that’s when it happened because I wrote a blog post about it back then. Well, here we are over seven years later and they got me again.

This time it was my own stupidity that hurt me. A few weeks ago I received an email saying that my email account was about to be deleted. Assuming the whole thing to be a scam, I ignored it. A few weeks later I received the same type of email and again ignored it. Okay, so far so good. But a couple days ago I received a similar type of email, except this one said “Your email account has been deleted.”

I’ll admit that pronouncement threw a scare into me, and so I clicked on the link. Supposedly, in order to get back into my email and update it, I had to put in my username and password. Yep, that’s where I messed up. Once they had my password, they sent their chain email to all of my contacts. The email said that I was traveling and that my niece needed some money, so could you please…. You get the idea.

I offer my sincere apologies to anyone who received that email from me. One friend of mine even replied back to me and said, “How much do you need?” God bless him for that. Another dear lady called me on the phone and asked me about the situation. God bless here as well. Other friends either emailed me or texted me with, “I think you’ve been hacked.”

Let me ask you something, what kind of criminal masterminds sit around and cook up these schemes? As my brother Richie said, “They’ll work hard on something like that but won’t go out and get a real job.” I’m telling you it’s sin, pure and simple, nothing but sin.  There’s even a commandment that addresses the matter: Thou shalt not steal. That refers to stealing money, and it also refers to stealing email passwords.

Of course all of this is simply a reminder that we live in a fallen world. Honestly, I don’t know how God puts up with it. I know a thimble full of the evil that goes on in this world, but He knows the entire ocean of it. And yet here we are, still going through the motions of daily life and all the sins that get committed as part of it. Talk about a God who is merciful and longsuffering!

I’m not sure that I have a point to this post other than to vent some of my frustration at the state of society these days. I live in mortal terror of answering a strange number on my cell phone because it might be a telemarketer. As we all know, if you ever answer one of those numbers it won’t be long before you get blitzed with a lot more of them. When I buy anything online I use my credit card rather than my debit card because our bank offers more protection for credit-card scam than it does debit-card scam. Isn’t it sad that there are actually scams for both types of cards? I constantly have to check the spam in my email account because I’ve learned that sometimes comments made to this blog get dumped into my spam rather than my email. But why do I get hit with so much spam anyway? How I long for simpler times when Spam was nothing more than the cousin of Treat, both of them being stuff you could use to make a sandwich, like potted meat or devil’s ham.

Anyway, I guess I’ll close by saying that my recent experience with my email has made me long for heaven just a little bit more. I think we can all rest assured that nobody will get hacked there. But until we get there, Christians, we’d better keep our shields up. The devil is still walking around like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour (1 Peter 5:8), and he’s still finding plenty of volunteers who will gladly do his work. Some of those volunteers hacked my email account this week. I wonder if they’ve ever thought about whose bidding they are doing. The chances are they haven’t, but that doesn’t make their sin any less excusable in God’s eyes.

Posted in Depravity, God's Mercy, Personal, Satan, The Devil | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The God of the Tight Spot

Posted on February 17, 2020 by russellmckinney

Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer. (Psalm 4:1, K.J.V.)

Psalm 4 is a Psalm written by David, and in its opening verse he hits the ground running with a profound thought. He says to God, “You have enlarged me when I was in distress.” Do you know what that statement shows us? It shows us that God does some of His best work for our good when we find ourselves in the tightest spots.

The Hebrew verb translated in the verse as “enlarged” is rachab. It’s a verb that means to broaden, to make room for, or to make wide. It’s the same verb that is used in reference to God enlarging Israel’s borders (Exodus 34:24; Deuteronomy 12:20, 19:8). Even more famously — because of Bruce Wilkinson’s best-selling book — it’s used in the “prayer of Jabez” from 1 Chronicles 4:10:

And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested. (N.K.J.V.)

In contrast, the Hebrew word translated in Psalm 4:1 as “distress” is sar, which refers to a narrow, tight space. It’s the word used to describe the place the Angel of the Lord blocked when the prophet Balaam’s donkey was attempting to pass:

Then the Angel of the Lord went further and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. (Numbers 22:26, N.K.J.V.)

By setting the words rachab and sar alongside one another, we get the point David is making. When he found himself in a narrow place — we might say he was boxed into a corner — God made a way for him to move out into a wide, broad territory. Charles Spurgeon, in his The Treasury of David commentary on the Psalms, illustrates the thought by describing an army that is trapped in a narrow passage and surrounded by the enemy. Just when the army’s situation looks totally hopeless, God dashes down the rocks, thus giving the army room to maneuver out into a larger place.

Perhaps you find yourself in a very tight spot right now. Maybe your own sins and bad choices have brought you to this spot, or maybe you are there through no fault of your own. Either way, your course of action should be to call upon God and ask Him to deliver you to a better place, an enlarged one where your every thought isn’t soaked in worry and fear. Like David, you should ask God to have mercy upon you and hear your prayer.

You might wonder, “But if God loves me why has He allowed me to end up in this tight spot anyway?” The answer is, He knows you are more prone to call upon Him from a tight spot than from a wide, open place wherein you don’t sense your need of Him. That’s the thing about finding yourself in a jam. It will definitely get your attention and readjust your thinking. So, if you are currently in such a place use it as an opportunity to let God show off for you by delivering you into a broad place. And when He does that, make sure that you not only thank Him for helping you but also commit yourself to serving Him all the more.

Posted in Adversity, Encouragement, Faith, Fear, God's Mercy, God's Provision, Mercy, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Problems, Suffering, Thankfulness, Trials, Trusting In God, Worry | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment