March 1st, 2010 - Dependency

Bob had hundreds (actually, it think that it was thousands) of acres of corn at stake when he can to the church for prayer.  We all knew that we were having an exceptionally dry summer and it did’t look like relief was in the picture anytime soon.  But, not being farmers, most of us were probably not too aware as to exactly how critical the conditions were.  Bob’s request made it all too clear when he said that if there was no rain within the next two or three days that he would lose his entire crop--meaning his entire year’s income.  For him, it was a matter of a lot of zeros or just one big zero on his income check that year.  We understood what he was saying and prayed and agreed with him for the rains to be released.  And rain it did--not just a sprinkle, but a drenching rain that soaked deep into the soil and nourished the corn producing full ears with rows of lush, sweet kernels.  It’s been many years, so I don’t remember the exact details; but I believe we had about two inches of rain over the next couple days, after weeks without a single drop.

But the miracle of the story does’t end here.  Although the Bible clearly teaches that the Lord causes it to rain on the just and the unjust alike, it seems that He made an exception this season to prove that He specifically takes care of those who put their dependence upon Him.  The rains stopped at exactly the boundary line of Bob’s farm!  The neighboring farms just across the highway did’t get a drizzle of water except whatever run off there was from Bob’s farm.  Like Isaac who sowed in famine and received one-hundred fold increase while his neighbors got nothing, Bob proved the importance of constantly depending on God.

March 2nd, 2010 - Eager for Word

One of the most humbling experiences in my life came at a conference in Katmandu, Nepal, when I was told that some of the delegates had traveled for eight days to attend the meetings.  Because they lived in very remote areas in the Himalayas, they had to walk for six days to get to the main east-west highway that spans the country.  Once they arrived at the road, they had to sit by the side of the pavement overnight waiting for a bus to pass by.  When they were able to catch the bus, they still faced a thirty-hour ride in the overcrowded vehicle which was hauling goats and chickens as well as human and cargo.  No, it was’t because I was the speaker; they actually did’t know me from Adam’s house cat.  It was just that they were that eager to hear the word of God. 

Possibly, a more startling story comes out of the Congo in central Africa where a young pastor walked two hundred forty miles to copy a few pages of the Bible that he then used as his source for preaching after he walked back to his home village.

When I come across experiences like these around the world, I am shamed to think of the nonchalant attitude we often exhibit to the word that is so readily available to us.  How often do we skip church just because the weather is not exactly right or we are a little tired and would rather sleep in those extra few minutes?  How often do we neglect to study our Bibles simply because we would rather invest our time in some other activity--or, even worse, in no activity at all!

However, every bit of time we invest in reading and learning the Bible is like trying to haul water in basket--even if we may not understand it all, it is still cleansing us. 

March 3rd, 2010 - Ecumenism

         

Just prior to the turn of the millennia, leaders of twenty religions  met at the Vatican to discuss possible collaboration in the new millennium.  More than two hundred clergy and laypeople from almost fifty countries met to discuss discrimination because of race, religion, language, social status, or sex; the wealth of the rich nations in relationship to the poor; injustice toward women and children; AIDS; and drug abuse.

Attendees included Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Mandaeans, Jains, Shintoists, Confucians, Baha'is, practitioners of traditional religions, practitioners of several Japanese religions, Orthodox Christians from the Greek, Armenian, Romanian, and Assyrian traditions, Anglicans, Lutherans, Reformed, Mennonites, and even a few evangelical churches.  The goal was to agree on a joint declaration on the role of religion.

In that their objective was to discuss the role of religion, I suppose that there was no real harm done in such an ecumenical gathering.  After all, religion was all these world leaders had in common.  They had abandoned the gospel in an effort to be politically correct and all-embracing.  As one observer stated it, they had become so open-minded that their brains must have fallen out.  Apparently, they had forgotten that Jesus had said that it was only through Himself that anyone could come to the Father (John 14:6) and that Peter, under the direction of the Holy Spirit proclaimed that there was no salvation in any name other than that of Jesus. (Acts 4:12)    


March 4th, 2010 - Enthusiast or Fanatic

 

We were driving to our church leadership Christmas dinner when I turned to my wife and said, “I hope we don’t have to sit with Brother B----- tonight.  Because the seating at this particular banquet was always pre-assigned, you never knew who would be sharing the meal with you, and the previous year we had found our place tags next to Brother B-----’s seat.  The situation with Brother B----- is that the was one of those old fellows who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.  His problem was that the only topic he could talk about was how bad everything is and how that every one of our political, economic, or social woes is a sign of the end time.  Making things worse, he had no concept of personal space and would get right up into your face--bad breath and all--when he was making his points.  He was a fanatic of almost the same intensity of a Jihadist suicide bomber.  In fact, you could almost say that he was worst because he refused to self-destruct.

We also had another wild-eyed right-wing extremist who would also be at this leadership dinner, Auntie Ruth.  But it was always a joy if we wound up being assigned to her table, even though Auntie was insistent that everything be done and said exactly her way.  I don’t know how many times she corrected me that people are not “slain in the Spirit” because they are not dead; rather, they are “out under the power.”  The difference between the impassioned Auntie Ruth and ornery Brother B----- is that she was an enthusiast rather than a fanatic.   “Enthusiastic” literally means “with the Spirit within.”  If you are going to adamantly share your faith, make sure that your witness is confirmed with the spirit of joy bubbling up from your insides.


March 5th, 2010 - Destiny

Fred Smith, founder of Fed Ex, made a most insightful statements concerning destiny: “Best way to predict the future is to create it.”  Though it may seem a bit humanistic and self-centered,  I think that it is worthy of a bit of Christian reflection. 

Certainly we would have to add to anything that we might want to learn from Fred that it is always God who makes the future.  No matter how well we may plan, it is always God’s final decision whether it will rain on the day we have picked for the parade.  So now that we have decided to give God a little input, we can go on to the next evaluation that God helps those who help themselves.  In other words, once we have done all the hard work and proper planning, He will send the sunshine for the parade but will also send some rain for the farmer who has worked and planned just as diligently as we have.  Now we have a problem--or is it God who has the problem.  Two different people are creating two different futures, which incidentally happen to be mutually exclusive.

Perhaps we might reconsider the idea of God’s help and decide that He helps those who can’t help themselves!  This re-evaluation might be closer to the truth, but we must be careful not to subconsciously substitute the word “don’t” for “can’t.”  I don’t believe that God is in the business of doing what we don’t put forth an effort to do; however, He definitely is in the business of doing what we can’t do if we first ask Him what He has in mind for the future and then actively seek to create it.  Remember that when He raised Lazarus, He had the people move the stone from the grave but He took responsibility for calling the dead man to life. 


March 6th, 2010 - Excellence

The story is told of a man who had spent his life building houses and was ready to retire.  A friend of his came to him and prevailed upon him to build just one more home before he retired.  Having already made up his mind that he was finished with his contracting career, he did a rather poor job on the project.  When he finished the job, he went to the friend to hand him the keys.  To his utter amazement, the friend refused the keys and told him that he had had the house build as a retirement gift for the carpenter.  The poor man had to live the last days of his life with windows that leaked cold air when the wind blew, a roof that dripped water when it rained, doors that didn’t exactly close all the way, stairs the creaked when he walked up them, and cracks in the plaster that showed when the sun shown in at just the right angle.

Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3:22-24)

Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. (Ephesians 6:5-8)


March 7th, 2010 - Random Thoughts about Faith

The pessimist may see the glass as half empty while the optimist views it as half full, but the man of faith will envision it as full to the brim and overflowing.  Psalms 23:5 says that your cup will run over, and Luke 6:38 promises blessings which are pressed down, and shaken together, and running over. 

Did you hear about the man who bought a bulldozer and named it “Faith” because it could move mountains?

Faith is the key that opens doors while works can be seen as a crowbar that you use to try to gain forcible entry.

Real faith requires a backbone, not just a wishbone.

If you keep the faith, your faith will keep you.

Did you ever notice that a turtle has to stick its neck out to go forward?

True faith is a fear extinguisher.

Living by faith is walking so far out on the water that you can’t even see the boat.

The Greek original of Galatians 5:6 says that faith is activated or made effective by love.  In other words, faith and love work together with love as the motivator and faith is the activator.

To believe that God can but question if He will is sin.

Never waste your faith on something that is possible through hard work.

Faith is God’s way of saying, “Have a nice day.”

Remember the pits full of snakes that Indiana Jones always falls into?  Well, we as Christians have the power to tread on more serpents than Indy has ever dreamed of.  Our secret is that we have to keep our focus on Jesus, not snakes.

 

 

      

 

      March 8th, 2010 - Frustrate the Grace of God

In the second chapter of Galatians, Paul tells the story of a confrontation between himself and the Apostle Peter.  A problem arose when Peter, who had been fellowshipping and eating with the Gentile believers at Antioch, suddenly withdrew himself when a delegation of Jewish Christians from the mother church in Jerusalem showed up.  Following his lead, other Christian leaders--including Barnabas, who was instrumental in bringing the gospel to the Gentiles--separated themselves from the non-Jewish brethren.  More than an affront to the shunned brothers, Paul saw Peter’s hypocrisy as an insult to the Lord and a contradiction to the message of the gospel.  He used the occasion as a platform to present a powerful teaching on the transformation we have received through the grace of our Lord.  In verse sixteen, he explained that no one is justified by his actions and that it is only by faith in Christ that we can be brought into right standing before God.  He then adds in the following verses that any action similar to Peter’s attempt to live by Old Testament legalism once he had realized that he was released for it will make us transgressors against the good work that God has done in our lives.  He sums up our new position in Christ in the powerful wording of verse twenty, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”  Then in the concluding verse of the chapter, he uses graphic terminology to illustrate how offensive it is to try to earn our merit by saying that such actions are a frustration to the grace of God.

 

      March 9th, 2010 - Falling from Grace

Each Sunday, there are more Christians at home than in church.  In fact, if everybody in America went to church at one time, there would only be seating for five percent of them.  Over sixteen hundred pastors leave the ministry every month and almost ten thousand churches close their doors each year.  Within five years of graduation from Bible school or seminary, only one percent of the new ministers will be in the ministry.  Approximately one million Americans per year quit going to church.  Seventy-eight percent of the growth in the churches that are increasing is from transfer of members from other congregations.

No, I’m not being negative -- just reporting the facts.  However, I’d like to report an even more powerful fact: God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son that whosoever would believe on Him would have everlasting life.  With such high stakes on the table, I’m sure that He has a keen eye on the game and is just waiting to make his winning move and cash in His chips.  Remember what He did in the first century?  Within just a few decades, the gospel had been fully preached throughout the then-known world and people were responding in such numbers that the idol makers were concerned because their businesses were going bankrupt and there were enough devotees to support the pagan temples.

If He knows how to plan such a good hand early on in the game, just imagine what He’s got up His sleeve for the last hand.  Get ready for a revival like you’ve never even imagined!

      March 10th, 2010- An Important Tip

It’s an old story, evidenced by the prices you’ll see as you read it; but it teaches a great lesson: always bless those who serve you--and always bless those whom you serve.  In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a ten-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.  “How much is an ice cream sundae?” he asked.  “Fifty cents,” replied the waitress.  The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.  “Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?” he inquired.  By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.  “Thirty-five cents,” she harshly replied.  The little boy again counted his coins. “I'll have the plain ice cream,” he said.  The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away.  The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left.  When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table.  There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies.  You see, he couldn’t have the sundae, because he wanted enough left to leave her a tip.

      March 11th, 2010 - Five Things to Guard

Time

Ephesians 5:16--Redeeming the time, because the days are evil

Treasure
Matthew 12:35--A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

Temple
I Corinthians 3:16-17--Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Tongue
James 3:2--For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
Psalms 34:13--Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.
Psalms 35:28--And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.

Talent
Matthew 25:28-30--Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.  For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.  And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

      March 12th, 2010 -Forget-Me-Nots

When her daughter stopped by to check on the flower garden her mom had just planted, the senior lady proudly pointed out what she had put into each section of the flowerbed--except for one small section.  No matter how hard she tried and no matter how many suggestions her daughter made, she could not recall what she had planted there.  Eventually, they resolved that they would have to simply wait until the plants came up to figure out what was there.  Finally, the plants matured enough that they could be identified as--of all things--forget-me-nots!

We all have our moments of forgetfulness when we are sure that we have found proof positive of the black hole theory as our car keys just seem to disappear into thin air.  As we age a bit, we label them our “senior moments,” or begin to feel that we are suffering from “old-timers’ disease.”  Sometimes we begin to feel that we should list our place of residence as the Land of Forgetfulness mentioned in Psalms 88:12.

Forgetting can actually be seen as a diabolic bondage.  Matthew 16:9 tells us that the disciples forgot the miracle of multiplication of the loaves and fish, while Psalms 106:7 describes those who came out of Egypt as having forgotten the miraculous opening of the Red Sea.  This sort of disregard for and forgetfulness concerning what God has done in our lives can literally tie the hands of God from any future help He would desire to render to us and can totally erase His blessings out of our lives. (Deuteronomy 4:9)  This is why Jesus commanded us to frequently receive the communion as a remembrance of His sacrifice for us. (Luke 22:19)


March 13th, 2010 - Leaders

In Hebrews 13:17, we can find four things which we need from those in leadership over us.  “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls (Acceptance), as they that must give account (Accountability), that they may do it with joy, and not with grief (Affirmation): for that is unprofitable for you (Authority).”  If anyone is going to be a genuine leader, he must first show true heart-felt acceptance for those whom he is leading.  To lead simply for the privilege of being the one who gets to be out front without actually accepting the responsibility of watching over the souls of one’s subjects is only an exercise in pride, not true leadership.  Unlike dictators and despots who impoverish their subjects while enriching themselves, true leaders are accountable for the welfare of their subjects.  Whether the human accountability exists within a official accountability structure or in a some informal system, the true leader will realize that his ultimate accountability is to God.  Joyful and ready acceptance of leadership and the responsibilities it entails is an affirmation to the subjects that they are of value.  I heard of a group which appoints its pastors by random selection, forcing them into the role even against their wills.  This practice produces unqualified leadership; it also perpetuates an internal dissatisfaction among the congregants who lack any sense of self-worth knowing that those in authority over them are only fulfilling obligations rather than investing in their lives out of genuine concern.  Having leadership with true authority means that he can legitimately correct any errors or shortcomings in our lives, making them profitable.

 

      March 14th, 2010 - Ideas That Stick

Writers, speakers, communicators of all sort are constantly looking for ways to make what they say stick in the minds of their audience.  In the quest to find the keys to such communication skills, they have identified six simple chrematistics that help make their messages permanent in the minds of their subjects.  These same suggestions came be powerful tools when we share important messages--whether it be communicating our love to our family or the love of Christ with someone we are wanting to win to the kingdom of God.  (1) Simplicity: When witnessing, avoid theological arguments.  You don’t have to disprove all the wrong teaching from their religious background; simply show them how much God loves them and wants them in His family.  (2) Unexpectedness: Of course, your wife expects candy on Valentines Day, your anniversary, and her birthday--but an unexpected gift on a random Tuesday will always stand out.  (3) Concreteness: Your kids know that you love them; after all, you tell them every night when you tuck them in--but the day that you take them to the amusement park rather than finishing up on your work projects will always have a special place in their memory.  (4) Credibility: You’ll never win anyone to Christ unless your own life shows them that it really works.  (5) Emotion: Emotion come from down inside your inner self.  It doesn’t have to be mushy and gushy; it can be a simple beaming smile--but it must show that it really comes form the heart.  (6) Stories: In speeches and in writings, there must be human-interest stories rather than just tables of facts.  In interpersonal relationships, these stories are more likely lived out than recited.

 

     

 

 

      March 15th, 2010 - Confession

Someone once commented, “It’s too bad I’m not as wonderful a person as people say I am, because the world could use a few people like that.”  Don’t we all wish that we could make such a statement -- that others are over-evaluating us.  The truth is that there is one person -- other than our mothers -- who has a really high estimation of us.  That individual is God! 

He repeatedly spoke of the Israelites as the apple of His eye. (Deuteronomy 32:10, Psalms 17:8, Proverbs 7:2, Lamentations 2:18, Zechariah 2:8)  Yet, in Romans chapter eleven, the Apostle Paul tells us that we, as New Testament believers, were grafted into the kingdom of God at the expense of the Jewish people.  If He thinks of the Jewish people as the apple of His eye and then grafts us into the Kingdom at their expense, how highly must He value us.  He does hold us in high regard and He does maintain a  great of an opinion of us.  He sees us worthy of the price he paid for us -- His only begotten Son.  His evaluation of us is that we were worth saving and are certainly worth being blessed, healed, and prospered.   He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

If the very God of the Universe feels that way about us, why should we ever feel unworthy or unloved?  Instead, we should agree with His opinion of us and celebrate in the fact that we are favored of God.  We must learn to always speak in accordance with what God has said about us.  The word “confession” means: to say the same thing that someone else is saying.  Let’s learn to say the same thing God is saying! 

      March 16th, 2010 - Creativity

Someone once said that the beaten path is the safest, but the traffic is terrible.  In other words: dare to think differently, dare to live differently, and dare to be different!

God promised to give us witty inventions--clever ways of doing things.  However, we’ll never know what all these innovations are unless we decide to march to the tune of a different drummer and get a little outside the box.  History is full of men and women who looked a life a bit differently and, therefore, saw a whole new realm of possibilities. Earle Dickenson invented the Band-Aide because his wife cut herself in the kitchen so often.  Post-it-notes were the result of a failed attempt at formulating a new glue.  When anyone else would have tossed to less-than-permanent adhesive, the chemist who was also the church’s choir director realized that his less-than-perfect compound was actually perfect for temporarily attaching markers to his hymnal so that he didn’t lose the little slips of paper as he flipped from selection to selection during the service.  Ivory soap was also the creation of a project gone bad.  When an attendant at the soap factory fell asleep on the job and allowed a batch to stay in the mixer too long, the product whipped up into a froth which then produced bars with tiny air bubbles throughout.  Lacking a quality control department, the bars made it to the market even though they were not standard quality.  When customers came back for their next orders and commented that they liked the fact that the soap floated making it easy to find when dropped in the tub, the manufacturer realized that his mistake was actually a great new discovery.

What new idea is God giving you today?

      March 17th, 2010 - Dreams

The sewing machine is the product of a dream.  No, I don’t mean the Martin Luther King Jr. sort of dream.  I mean a literal dream that came to you while you are sleeping.  It seems that Mr. Singer had spent a good part of his life tinkering with the idea of building a machine to push sewing needles through cloth but was always winding up on dead-end allies.  That is until one night he had a dream that he was captured by a tribe of island natives--grass skirts, bone in their noses, and the whole works.  These cannibals had him surrounded and were viciously accosting him with their spears.  When he awoke from his nightmare to realize that he had not actually been transported to the South Pacific and become prey to headhunters, he remembered one unusual detail about the experience--the spears they were using to attack him all had holes in the tips of their spearheads.  Instantly, he knew that he had solved the riddle that had kept him form his invention--the hole for the thread needed to be in the point of the needle rather than at the top of the shank as in a hand-held sewing needle.

 

An elder in our church was an engineer at a company that built automobile parts.  As a part of his work in development for new and improved systems, he had secured patents for a number of his inventions.  Interestingly, many of these ideas had come to him in dreams at night after long days of study and hard work which yielded no results.  He shared that these dreams only came after he had prayed and asked God to reveal a new secret to him.

God’s willing to speak whenever we get willing to listen--even, or maybe, especially when our minds are quite and our spirits are open while we sleep.

      March 18th, 2010 - Deacons

The pastor announced, “There will be a short deacons’ meeting immediately after service today.”  Then with a sheepish grim, he added, “The tall deacons will meet next Sunday.”

Short or tall, it is vital to any church to have an active deacon board so that the church can function properly.  Deacons don’t run the church; they see that the church runs.  But the truth is that every member in the congregation is a deacon in the true sense of the word.  The Greek term used in the New Testament literally means “errand runner.”  Every individual--from the most recent convert to the apostle--has his own errand to run.  Without each member taking his place and actively fulfilling his role, the church cannot be productive and functional.  Paul likened the church to a human body, saying that each member has something to give and that no one’s input is less significant than that of the next member.  If the hand decided to stop functioning; the whole body would starve to death without the hand’s operation of putting the food into the mouth.  Likewise, the same starvation would set in if the mouth were to go on strike.  Our lives are similarly interdependent.

Another significant truth about the errand runner is that he is not in the place to feel important or significant even though his role is vital to the overall wellbeing of the church.  If the mailman is to deliver a million-dollar check to your house, you will certainly be glad to see him coming but will assuredly know that the postman is not the source of the funds.  Whatever we have to give to the church is only because Christ has chosen us as avenues to deliver His blessing. 

      March 19th, 2010 - Flexible

Having spent almost exactly forty-eight hours in airports and planes coming home from Africa, I was really looking forward to a nice long shower and some quality time going through my mail and emails.  When my wife picked me up at the airport, I was really thrown off guard to find that our youngest son had made a decision that he wanted to change schools and that our interview with the principal at the new school was in exactly one hour.  I had to rush through a quick shower, gobble down a sandwich, and race to the school.  Breathlessly, we slid into the front door of the school exactly on schedule.  After the successful interview, we headed home where I was able to get enough of the necessary mail handled to feel at ease to sleep well that night.  The next day at work, I was eager to get at some of the mail that accumulated during my three-week absence, but that wasn’t exactly the plan my boss had in mind as he called me into his office for a rather lengthy debriefing.  After work, I looked forward to a relaxing evening at home and a chance to catch my favorite TV show which I had missed for about a month now.  Just when we were ready to sit down to dinner, the phone rang.  It was our middle son who was flying into Chicago and then heading home on the bus.  The friend who had taken him to the airport had car trouble and they had missed the flight.  Fortunately, there was a later flight he could catch, but he would miss the last bus to South Bend.  The only option was for me to drive to Chicago to pick him up.  In order to meet the flight, I had to leave right away.

“Blessed are the flexible for they shall not get bent out of shape.” 

      March 20th, 2010 - Flattery

Let’s face it, we live in an egocentric world.  Everyone thinks that he is the center of the universe.  From the moment we are born, we want everything done our way at our time.  Case in point: did you wait for a time when it was convenient for your parents to rush off to the hospital, or did you decide to be born at some unreasonable hour like 2 AM?  Once you arrived on the scene, you continued this nasty habit by demanding to be fed, held, and changed at any time that suited you with absolutely no regard for the time schedule or plans of others.

Flattery is a way of playing up to that basic selfishness innate in all humans; it’s a way of reassuring them that they are actually the centers of their own little universe.  The only time the word appears in the Bible, it is constructed from the feminine form of the word “to divide.”  Now let me rush to explain this statement before I am accused of being a sexist.  Had the term be constructed from a masculine roof it would have carried with it the sense of dividing by brute force.  The feminine nature of the construction gives it the implication of a seductive way to destroy one’s opposition.  A great example can be seen in the life of Samson.  When he was taken by force, the ropes that bond him were powerless against him; however, the seductive word of Delilah soon denuded him of all his power and strength.

There’s one important lesson to remember about flattery.  It’s the same message we see on warning labels of many household products in our kitchen and bathroom cupboards: “Harmful if swallowed.”

    

March 21st, 2010 -  Fifty

It was all in good-natured humor when everyone showed up to work wearing black armbands and we decorated the office with black balloons to celebrate the boss’ fiftieth birthday.  Actually, we weren’t quite as extravagant as we had been when my wife reached her fortieth birthday.  On that occasion, we borrowed all sorts of    health aids from the nursing home, sent a bouquet of dead flowers, and hung a big “over the hill” banner across the living room.  But back to the story about the boss’ birthday--he received all the traditional gag gifts from Geratol to Depends to commemorate the milestone he had passed.  Certainly, we had a lot of fun jokingly acting like we thought that his glass was not just half empty but actually as if he were draining the last dregs out of the bottom of the cup.  Of course we know that we should always look at the glass as half full, but the truly biblical attitude we should have is to see the glass as full and overflowing. 

When we reach fifty, that’s not the finish line; in fact, we’ve only just begun to live.  Biblically fifty is the Jubilee year when we receive unfathomable riches from the Lord: “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof…ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family...for it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you…ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.  In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.” (Leviticus 25:10-13)

 

 

 

       March 22nd, 2010 - Father's Friend

“Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.” (Proverbs 27:10)

 

This passage of Scripture introduces an interesting concept--that of showing loyalty to your father’s friend.  It’s actually a bit of a curious idea when given only a surface reading.  Why would Solomon tell us to make an effort to maintain the relationships which our fathers lived by and enjoyed?  To get an idea, I would suggest that you take a minute to look up the word “generations” in your concordance where you will find over one hundred references to the term.  God is all about consistence and continuity throughout the generations.  He established a covenant with Abraham and saw to it that the blessing was passed down to his direct heirs and eventually to whole of the Jewish people.  When David ascended to the throne in the nation of Israel, the Lord promised that he would become the fountainhead out of which the ruling dynasty in Judah would spring.  You see, God was not interested in simple one-shot deals that ended almost as quickly as they began.  He had no intention of re-inventing the wheel in each generation; rather, He wanted to get the ball rolling and allow it to gain momentum as it advanced from generation to generation. 

 

Because He has given us the divine nature, He expects that we too will treasure long-term relationships which transcend the strata of  generations.  By showing acceptance and respect for previous generations, we can invite their blessing to be perpetuated into ours.   

      March 23nd, 2010 - Forgiveness

I was surprised to see such a mix up of terminology in a book written by a highly acclaimed criminal investigator.  He said that the verdict of the trial was that the defendant was innocent.  In actuality, no judge or jury ever rules that anyone is innocent; the decision is always guilty or not guilty.  In fact, a few years ago the sentence of a man convicted of a heinous crime was overturned simply because the judge used the word “innocent” at some point in the deliberation.  The only ruling that we can ever have declaring us innocent is the moment when our heavenly Father looks at us through the blood of His son Jesus Christ and declares that we are justified (just as if I’d never sinned) and that though our sins have been as scarlet He now sees us as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18).  According to Jeremiah 50:20, God will pardon us so completely that our sins will not be found even though we send out a search party to look for them!  One interpretation of the message in Hebrews 4:16  is that we can boldly come to God for mercy even when we flat-out sinned on purpose.  Wow!  What grace!

 

But it takes real faith to believe that such forgiveness is actually available to us.  On the other side of the coin, we must also administer forgiveness in such an incredible way that it takes real faith to believe that we can actually do it.  When Jesus told His disciple how they were to live a life of forgiveness, their response was, “Lord, increase our faith.” (Luke 17:3-5)  In Mark 11:22-26, Jesus gives His life-changing teaching on having God-like faith but concludes His remarks by insisting that forgiveness is an integral element of true faith.    

 

 

      March 24th, 2010 - Exploits

The old prophet pointed to my wife and me and whispered that he felt that our lives were to be characterized by Daniel 11:32, “…the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.”  He then added that the word “exploits” meant things that had never been done before.  No matter how much as I appreciated his prophetic word and was thrilled by the promise, I still wanted to investigate the verse on my own.  The first thing that I noticed when I flipped to the passage was the rest of the sentence indicated that this promise is couched in context of the end times and the reign of the antichrist.  That wasn’t all that comforting, until I remembered that according to I John 2:18 the church as been dealing with antichrist since day one.  The second thing that I noticed was that “exploits” is in italics, indicating that it is not even in original text.  However, when I looked up the word “do,” I found that it is the same word that is used in the creation story describing all that God made--hence the concept of accomplishing things that had never existed prior.  It is also associated with the power of the seed-yielding fruit, implying unlimited possibilities--remember the old saying that you can always count the seeds in an apple but never calculate the apples in a seed.  One other thing that I realized about the passage was that the word for “know” indicates an intimate personal knowledge.  In other words, the meaning is that we must personally know the Lord, not just have a theological or theoretical concept of Him. 
         

I believe the words of the prophet, but I am also convinced that the verse is not limited to just my wife and me.  Why don’t you accept as yours as well?

 

      March 25th, 2010 - Evangelism

A few years back, I was driving past a Catholic church during the Easter season and noticed a sign advertising a stations of the cross service.  It just happened that the service was to begin in just a few minutes.  Having never been to such a ceremony, I was very curious and really wanted to pull into the parking lot and attend the service.  However, I had no idea what was going to happen in the service and was intimidated by the idea that I might be embarrassed by not knowing what to do or how to act.  With no guarantee that I wasn’t going to make a fool of myself, I opted to stay in my car and keep driving.  As I continued down the road, I thought that I gladly gone inside if only a Catholic friend had  invited me.  Then I realized how many people must feel about all churches.  I suddenly became convinced that many of them probably want to come to church, but they need someone to invite them and make them feel comfortable in an unfamiliar environment.

 

On a similar note, I remembered a story that I learned from a college roommate.  A beautiful young European exchange student in his high school completed her full term of studies without ever having been asked out on a date She later returned to her home country and won the national beauty pageant.  When asked about her experience in America, she replied that she missed the opportunity to experience any social life there.  The reason was that the boys were all intimidated to ask her out, thinking that such a beautiful girl would not want to go out with them.

 

The point of these stories is that we need to stop making up other’s minds for them and simply give them the opportunity to respond for themselves.  

 

      March 26th, 2010 - Eternal Security

Those people who believe in eternal security stress such verses as John 10:28.  Their emphasis is that if you are saved, there is nothing that can get you “unsaved.”  Those on the other end of the argument like to prove their point by citing verses that state that a person can go away from his state of grace after being saved: Proverbs 26:11, Galatians 5:4, Hebrews 6:4-6, Hebrews 10:26, Revelation 3:5, 22:19.  The eternal security folks respond by trying to explain that these people who forsake the Lord actually only seem to be saved.  They interpret certain verses such as I John 2:19 to mean that these people were only pretenders to start with and were only showing their true colors when they went away.  The reply from the other side is that II Peter 2:20-22 explains that these people who abandoned the faith were indeed described as having really known the Lord and having been saved from their sinfulness.  The conclusion of the argument is that the Bible teaches neither eternal security nor eternal insecurity.  It doesn’t teach that a person can live any way he wishes, believe anything wants, or act any way he desires -- and still be saved.  On the other hand, it does not teach that God is ready to erase a believer’s name from the Book of Life at any minor infraction of the rules.  Careful reading of the Hebrews 6 passage and the II Peter 2 passage reveal that the Bible is talking about serious and deliberate rejection of the Lord -- not just accidental sins.  The Hebrews passage uses the Greek word that is the root for the English word “apostasy.”  To commit apostasy is a deliberate rejection of the Lord and the conviction of the Holy Spirit resulting in an irreversible separation for God.

 

 

      March 27th, 2010 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind

It’s interesting that the Bible is full of examples of how God continues to give us three opportunities to respond to His direction--one for each division of our personality: the body, the soul and the spirit.  Balaam’s triple encounter with the angel during his donkey ride recorded in Numbers 22:22-31 shows how he went through an emotional reaction followed by a physical reaction until he finally had a spiritual encounter.  When Matthew 26:69-75 records Peter’s three denials of the Lord before the cock crowed, we see that he moved from a simple denial (body) to an oath (soul) to a curse accompanied with swearing (spirit).  Since Peter had denied Him three times the Lord asked Peter three times to reaffirm his love for Him in John 21:15-17.  Each question used different Greek wording suggesting responses from each aspect of the disciple’s personality.  The three times that Paul besought the Lord to remove the thorn from his flesh in II Corinthians 12:8 suggests his soulical and physical concerns finally answered by the spiritual realization that the grace of God was sufficient.  Samuel’s triple call in I Samuel 3:8 parallels the same scenario.  The description of how sin works in us recorded in James 1:14-15 illustrates that lust in the soul leads to sin in the body which produces death in the spirit man, and the description of things that pull us away from God as described in I John 2:16 lists the lust of eye which occurs in the soulical realm while the lust of flesh is obviously in the body, leaving the pride of life to the spiritual dimension.  Even Jesus had to pass this three-pronged test in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

 

I guess that God’s sort of a baseball umpire who allows us three strikes before he calls us out!

 

 

      March 28th, 2010 -  Edifying

According to Ephesians 4:12, the job description of those in ministry includes edifying of the body of Christ.  To edify means to build a structure upon the foundation which has been put in place.  Interestingly enough, the Apostle Paul has already explained where that foundation came from earlier in the book of Ephesians.  In verse 2:20, he wrote that the foundation was laid by the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the chief corner stone.  According to Acts 2:42 and 6:1-4 Acts, the foundation that the apostles were laying was the ministry of the word and establishment of doctrine.  Romans 15:20 and I Corinthians 3:6-10 explained that the apostles expected that others would build upon the foundation which they had laid.  It seems clear from I Corinthians 2:1-2 and  3:11 that the salvation message of Jesus is the foundation which an apostle lays.  Therefore, the present-day minister’s job is to edify the body of Christ by building upon the foundation which the apostles have laid.  they can’t stop with just the foundational apostolic preaching of salvation.  Pastors who relay salvation sermon every message may produce a massive structure but it will be useless because it is just multiple layers of foundation. (Hebrews 6:1)  Every message must be solidly anchored to the foundation, but should not be a rebuilding of the message.  A true pastor will teach his people about divine health and divine provision, but those messages must be anchored to the salvation message as the solid foundation on which they stand.  He must also follow the pattern of the apostles who laid their foundation by demonstrating with signs following that their message really works.

 

     
      March 29th, 2010 - Dreams Revisited

When I was in college, one of the students from across the hall in the dorm came to me one day with a problem.  He said that he had been having some terrible dreams, filled with lewd and lustful images.  He was very concerned since he had recently been born again and delivered form pornography and a promiscuous lifestyle.  He was concerned since he thought that he was done with these thoughts and images form his old life.  I assured that I would pray with him about these dreams but first I wanted to speak a word of encouragement to him.  Then I startled him by saying that it was a good thing that he was having these dreams.  After I helped him pick up his jaw that dropped to the floor, I explained that this was a good sign because the devil who could previously put any kind of lustful thought into his mind at any time was no longer able to speak to him while he was awake and had to wait until he was asleep to attack him.  Of course, we then prayed that the enemy wouldn’t even have that toehold on his life.  The end of the story is that he was set free and never harassed by the evil dreams again.

 

On the flipside of the coin, even though I have already given one meditation on how God can give us directions through dreams--I’d like to  suggest that this is possibly a bad sign indicating that He can’t speak to us while we are awake.  Maybe our lives and minds are just so cluttered with mundane and natural things that we don’t leave an open crack  in the door wide enough for Him to get in.

 

     
      March 30th, 2010- The “Begat”s

Let’s be honest, even though we know that every word of scripture is divinely inspired (II Peter 1:21, II Timothy 3:16), some parts of it just don’t seem to bear the mark of the breath of God as much as others.  We find those “less anointed passages” more difficult to give our attention to--especially true in some of the sections which recount the historical heritage of Israel by telling the names of everyone in each generation. The “begat”s, these genealogical records which seem to go on ad infinitum, are difficult to read because they contain names which we can’t pronounce and lists of information which seems to be totally irrelevant to anything in our lives today.  It was exactly in one of those lengthy sections of seemingly irrelevant material that I found myself when doing my daily through-the-Bible reading when I decided to just postpone the assigned reading--after all, what difference would it make?  It’s just a list of names.  One day turned into two days, and several days had passed before I eventually came to grips with the fact that I has going to have to “bite the bullet’ and wade through a number of chapters of genealogies and historical records of kings and their failed kingdoms.  I read simply to be able to tick them off on my Bible reading chart and get up-to-date so I could go on to the more interesting parts.  Later that night, I received a call from someone who was going through a terrible demonic torment.  When I prayed for the victim of this attack, he was so easily set free that I was actually amazed at how simple it was.  It was then that I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me that even though it had only been genealogies, the time I had spent in the Word of God had produced faith inside of me. (Romans 10:17)

 

 

      March 31st, 2010- For His Name’s Sake

We can all quote it without even having to stop and think, but maybe that’s actually not such a good thing.  When we don’t stop to think about the Bible verse, we may be just reciting words without comprehending meaning.  Psalm 23:3 reads, “He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.”  But what does the psalmist mean when he says, for his name’s sake”?  When I began to look into this concept, I was surprised at the number of times it kept popping up in both testaments.  So, let’s look at just a handful of the verses to get a feel for what they might be saying.  In Daniel 9:18-19, the prophet declared that revival will come because of God, not us.  It will not come because of our righteousness nor our good deeds, but simply because of God’s name’s sake and in defense of His reputation.  The point which really can so strongly to me was based on these verses  is that the real basis for revival is that God wants a revived people so that they can establish credibility for His reputation!  In the Lord’s Prayer, the term “hallowed be thy name” is in the imperative rather than the declarative case, meaning “let Your name be honored.”  In other words, the prayer really says, “Let me be a good example of His representative and a good reflection of You.  May others see my good works and glorify You.”  Several passages in the book of Ephesians, Paul declares that our lives are to be to “the praise of his glory.” (verses 1:6, 12, 14)  He leads us into paths of righteousness because our godly lives will validate His goodness and holiness and verify His reputation.  Is God saying of you as He did of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”? (Matthew 3:17)