Month: September 2018

Last weekend was a warm one in the Chicago area and on that Friday afternoon the fan on the high ceiling in my living room failed to work. I tried to turn it on several times Saturday to no avail. I replaced the 9 volt battery in the remote control and tried again several times on Sunday, but the fan would not budge. On Monday morning, I reached for the remote once again and these words came to my mind as if someone was whispering them in my ear, “You know that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.” My response as I pushed the buttons on the remote control was, “And the definition of faith is continuing to act with expectation of great blessings from God.” The fan started right up as though there had never been a problem and has worked fine all of this week. I have no idea what the problem was or why it suddenly works again, but it just might be God’s way of teaching me to continue to expect small miracles and great things from Him.

There were times in my younger years when something like that would have caused me to become so frustrated that I would have given up long before Monday and  probably hurled the remote across the room or into the trash can. I don’t think it is age that has mellowed me. I think I am finally beginning to understand what the Holy Spirit has been trying to teach me for decades. I wonder now how many times I have given up when one more try would have done the trick. I pray that you are a much faster learner than I have been, because the peace that comes with faith in Christ and positive expectations is breathtaking.

In this world where it seems most people have little or no expectations and as a result are seldom disappointed, our faith in Jesus Christ allows us to live with great expectations. That is just another way that we are in the world not of the world. Peter wrote, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus from the dead. Now we live with great expectation.” (1 Pete 1:3)

 

We know that Satan is a liar and the “father of lies”, but he likes to mix in just a little bit of truth to make his lies seem reasonable. His favorite tactic is to offer Christians a short cut without following the path God has laid out for us one faithful, weary step at a time. He shows us a super highway that will speed our progress and avoid the hills and obstacles that lie ahead. How do I know it is his favorite tactic? We read in the Bible of him using it time after time, sometimes with great success. The lie is that it will take us to the same destination in which we are headed. Although it appears to be a wide and popular highway that runs parallel to our path, it slowly veers away from God and His plan for us and we would wind up in a very different place.

Satan and Jesus both knew that His destiny in leaving heaven was to eventually rule and judge the world. Satan offered him a shortcut to that reign that would avoid the pain and sacrifice of that path leading to Golgotha. Satan would grant immediate dominion over the entire world if Jesus would simply worship him. Jesus refused that false shortcut to that cheap imitation of the victorious reign lying ahead of Him by quoting and obeying God’s command to worship only Him.

There once was a male quartet that travelled the South singing gospel songs in churches and other gatherings and they blessed all who heard them. They had a unique sound and the enemy told them if they took his shortcut to fame and fortune, they would be able to attain their goal of reaching more people with the message of the gospel and get there quicker. They took that super highway shortcut to become nationally known. They always made sure to include one gospel song from their past at every live performance, but a line from one of their most popular songs signaled how far they had veered from their original calling; “Sometimes I wake in the arms of a lover and I don’t remember her name”. That is hardly an endorsement for sexual purity or marital fidelity and it certainly isn’t the gospel lyrics from the path on which they were traveling before they took the shortcut.

More than once Satan has tempted me to take his popular shortcut around the mountain or storm lying ahead of me. Once, I actually took the on ramp to that wide, smooth super highway before the Holy Spirit prompted me to hit the brakes and turn around. The only way to avoid falling for Satan’s favorite ploy is to follow Jesus’ example; know and obey God’s word and the prompting of His Holy Spirit from within us.

There was a sermon on the radio the other morning that touched my heart and stimulated my mind. I love it when that happens. We tend to think that sin is a result of temptations from the outside to which we respond by giving in or rejecting. But Alistair Begg explained to me that sin – every sin – is an “inside job”. It comes from a hereditary diseased sinful heart full of evil and idolatry . Some people think if they isolate themselves from sinful people and sinful things, they can avoid sin. It doesn’t work that way. Without Christ, you could seal yourself in a space capsule; be projected by a rocket into an orbit around the earth; shut off all communication with those still on earth and sin would be right there in that capsule with you because it is inside of you. With Christ you can pass through this sinful world without sinning.

Psychiatry is an interesting field where the deep dark well of the human psyche is explored. At the bottom of the well is a layer of muck that when stirred can cause a human to do unspeakably evil things. Psychiatry is not an exact science with undeniable laws like physics. It is somewhat dependent on the moral values of the culture in which the person and his or her analyst live. For example, when I was a young boy, homosexuality was classified as a mental illness. As our society began to accept it as normal behavior for some people, it is no longer considered an illness. On the other hand, as our society has become more hostile to Christianity, the concept of sin is now diagnosed by some in that field as a “Christian neurosis”.

There is only one Physician qualified to treat the human body, mind and spirit from the lethal disease of sin. That person is Jesus Christ. When a Pharisee (a group who pride themselves on separation from sinful people and things) named Nicodemus visited Jesus at night, he began with flattery, but Jesus cut right to the heart of the matter – Nicodemus’ heart. Jesus told him that to enter the kingdom of heaven he must be born again. Then Jesus explained to him that it is from within us that the disease of sin exists. We are all born of the flesh, but to enter the kingdom of heaven we must also be born of the spirit. Our sinful nature with a diseased heart produces evil and leads to death. When we believe in Jesus and obediently follow Him, we receive a heart transplant (spiritually speaking). That new heart will give us power over our sinful nature and produce the fruit of God’s spirit instead. That new Spirit within us is not just a new human heart; it is the Spirit of Jesus that raised Him from the dead.  We are born twice so we will only have to die once. (See the third chapter of John)

A stranger staggers into town bruised and bleeding with clothes shredded. A local asks him what happened and he says, “I fell off the mountain road. That road is dangerous. They should put up a warning sign.” The local responds with a southern drawl, “They had a warning sign up for years, but nobody fell off so they took it down.” That is a very old joke from a comedy show on radio when I was a young boy, but you youngsters under 65 may not have heard it before. It illustrates the importance of warning signs and how often they are needed.

Sometimes the sign is still there, but it is confusing or we are just too busy or distracted to pay attention. There is another story that I read much more recently about two pastors from neighboring churches in Louisiana who were putting up a sign. The sign read, “Beware! The end of the road is near! Stop, repent and be saved!” A young man in a new sports car slowed down to read the sign and then yelled, “You old fools” and floored it. They heard the roar of his engine, squealing tires and a big splash. One pastor turned to the other and said, “Maybe the sign should just say, ‘Bridge out ahead!’”

God is a good Father. He warns us whenever there is danger ahead or when we are about to get into trouble. It is up to us to pay attention to His warnings and obey Him. I have found that sometimes the warning comes as a tightening in my gut that signals something isn’t right about this situation. Other times, a verse of scripture comes to mind that shines a light on what is wrong. But most of the time it is the prompting of the Holy Spirit within me with that still small voice (more accurate than Siri) that keeps me on the road to my destination and out of the ditch. God loves us and even his warnings and rebukes are given to us in love.

The key to never missing a warning or instruction from God is to have a continuous and close relationship with Him. Daily prayer time with Him and studying His word are foundational, but the real key is to take Him with you wherever you go all day long and in every circumstance that you face. He will be there by your side to protect you and guide you safely through the many mine fields we confront in this life.

 

While sitting in my car listening to a Christian radio station the other day, I heard someone say, “God is looking for people who are FAT.” I thought to myself, “Here am I, Lord!” Then he explained that FAT stands for Faithful, Available and Teachable. God can use people like that in surprisingly miraculous ways. God isn’t looking for people with all kinds of experience, advanced degrees or specialized training and He certainly isn’t looking for someone who is perfect. When He finds someone who is faithful, available and teachable, He will place them where they need to be and teach them what they need to say or do. I pray that I qualify not only as fat, but as FAT as well.

“God said, ‘Let there be light and there was light.’” (Genesis 1:3)  Jesus said, “But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5) Not only that, He also said we are the light of the world too and we are strategically placed to make the best possible use of our light. Like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden or a lamp on a lamp stand to give light to everyone in the house. (Matthew 5:14-15)

I have written about this experience before, but it is a perfect example of being strategically placed by God. I was starting a new career as a pest control technician at the age of 40 and unsure how God could use me in that capacity. A call came in from an older lady with a pest problem and I was sent to help her. I inspected her home and sat with her at the kitchen table telling her what I planned to do to solve her problem. Then I told her I would need her help with one thing. In order to do a thorough treatment I would need to treat her closets and I needed her to remove the clothes. There was dead silence for what seemed like an eternity as she looked down at the table. When she finally looked up at me, she said, “You are a believer, aren’t you?” I was stunned. I felt kind of like a spy whose cover had just been blown. I responded, “Yes, I am. Why do you ask?” Then she said, “My husband died nearly a year ago and I haven’t been able to make myself take his clothes out of the closet and donate them. When you said that, it was as if God was speaking to me through you telling me that it is time.” I was thinking about treating procedure, but God used my words to give her the encouragement she needed. I will never forget that sweet lady or the lesson I learned about God strategically placing us for the benefit of others. Let us shine our light wherever God has placed us.

 

I’m writing this blog post on the 17^th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. An attack on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a fourth plane that was taken down by passengers before it could reach the White House. That  terrorist attack took the lives of more than 3,000 people (over 400 of them were first responders). Vivid memories come back to me of that quiet Tuesday morning when so many lives were changed forever and our nation was shaken to its very core.

I was at a mall that morning training two new employees in pest control. When we entered a restaurant to provide service before they opened for business, we found all of the employees in front of the big screen TV in the bar. We watched with them as the second plane hit the other tower and the first tower began to collapse. Local news broke in saying the Sears Tower in Chicago was being evacuated and suddenly it all began to hit closer to home. We got back to my office in Chicago as quickly as possible and cut our training session short for the day. The shock and deep sadness I felt that day reminded me so much of when, as a 20 year old Air Force sergeant on leave to get married, I got word of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, my beloved Commander in Chief.

There are two things that stand out in my mind about that day in 2001 and the days that followed. The first is how we were drawn closer together as Americans. As I watched the news on TV with coworkers before we headed home to be with our families, a black friend who was service manager at that office said almost under his breath, “We are all in this together.” That summed up the way political, racial and ethnic divides seem to disappear at least for a while after that tragedy. The second thing that happened is that people began to turn to God for solace, assurance and protection. Churches began to fill again as people were reminded of how fragile life is and how much we need God in this life and in the next.

It is hard for me to imagine that there are teenagers who weren’t even born yet on September 11, 2001. It is even harder for me to grasp that anyone under 55 was not born when that sad news came from Dallas on November 22, 1963. Because so many of us have no memory or have forgotten those events, the things that separate us have widened once more and many people have drifted away from God again. Christians throughout our nation must pray earnestly that it doesn’t take an even greater tragedy to draw us closer to God and to each other once more.

 

Pain is a part of life, especially as we grow older. I am no stranger to pain. People like me who have survived seven and a half decades often say, “If I woke up without any pain at all, I’d think I was dead.” Age brings with it chronic or constant pain that becomes a part of daily life. Thankfully, my pain only activates when I stand and walk. Why do we have to suffer so much pain in this life?

Pain, like so many other things we experience, originated in the Garden of Eden as a result of Adam and Eve’s sin of disobedience. The pain of childbirth was a curse that came as a result of Eve’s disobedience, which she then passed on to her daughters and all of their female descendants. The Bible often likens the pain of childbirth to the great suffering that sometimes comes just before a great blessing. Childbirth is an example of God’s infinite wisdom. If men had to suffer the pain of childbirth, I don’t believe any of us would be here today.

Before the fall, there was no illness, injury or death. After the fall, pain was needed to alert us to serious problems within our body that could eventually kill or cripple us if left untreated. Pain is a very beneficial symptom that can be used to diagnose and treat the source of the problem and thus eventually relieve the pain. Pain definitely gets our attention. We can even find a little humor related to pain. A woman went to her doctor and complained that she felt pain all over her body. She said, “It hurts when I touch my head. It hurts when I touch my arm. It hurts when I touch my leg and it even hurts to touch my toes. What is wrong with me doctor?” Her doctor replied, “You have a broken finger.”

I can testify that chronic pain is no laughing matter. The Psalmist describes it this way, “I am on the verge of collapse, facing constant pain.” (Psalms 38:17) Job described it like this, “At night my bones are filled with pain, which gnaws at me relentlessly.” (Job 30:17)

In addition to physical pain, most of us have experienced mental and emotional pain. Loss, remorse and depression can be just as painful and debilitating as physical pain. Jesus suffered the indescribable physical pain of torture and crucifixion. The term “excruciating pain” comes from the pain of crucifixion. In the Garden of Gethsemane as he faced the pain that awaited him, he also suffered the mental and emotional pain of fear and anxiety. He asked the Father to take that painful experience from him if possible. If not, he would go through it willingly for the will of his Father and the salvation of mankind. Jesus understands all of our pain. His Spirit within us gives us the strength to follow His example and do God’s will in spite of it.

The good news is that as a Christian our pain is temporary. We read in Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” I am sharing this good news with you now, because once my pain is gone forever I will not be able to share that experience with you on my blog.

We pray for lost souls everywhere; in our community, our nation and in mission fields around the world. But often, we begin to think of evangelism as a special calling and the Great Commission as a job Christ has given to church leaders and church organizations. We support the effort with finances and prayers, but fail to roll up our sleeves and get personally involved.

Imagine for a moment that you are the only representative of the Christian faith. You are the only light in a very dark world and an example of what being a child of God is really like. You must give them hope and show them the only way out of the dark is by God’s love, mercy and  grace through the sacrificial life, death and resurrection of His Son. What an overwhelming task and responsibility that would be.

As fantastic as that vision may seem, it really isn’t so far fetched at all. There are people within your sphere of influence to whom you are the only representative of the Christian faith. They have heard all of the lies the enemy has spread about Christians being bigoted, hateful, out of touch and hypocritical. You have the opportunity to show them the love and other spiritual fruit that come when a person is spiritually reborn. As they get to know you, they will see that you don’t fit that negative stereotype. Since you are the only Christian they know, they will assume you must be an exception to the rule. That is when you invite them to church or a smaller group of Christians so they can see that most Christians don’t fit that stereotype.

I love it when a man, woman or young person accepts Christ at the close of a church service. Someone prepared their heart to receive God’s word before the pastor began to speak. Someone invited them to church that morning and someone prayed for them and with them. That someone could be you. I have written before that Christianity is not a religion – it is a relationship with God made possible by the sacrificial life, death and resurrection of His Son. As our relationship with God grows deeper, it is only natural that we would want to introduce him to others. He already knows them, but He longs for them to get to know Him. That is what true evangelism looks like.

My parents taught me at an early age that the problem with telling a little lie is that you will have to tell four or five bigger ones to back it up. We have all heard of the proverbial slippery slope. It begins at the top with a small sin and winds up with us buried in muck at the bottom.

Christian leaders are not exempt; some of them teach that the Bible is like a smorgasbord buffet where you can choose those things you like and ignore the rest as out dated, irrelevant to us or not compatible with popular opinion. There is a self-proclaimed “Progressive Christian pastor” in southern California (his political beliefs obviously come before his spiritual beliefs). I won’t name him or his church because this is not an isolated case. He preaches that Jesus was a “person of color,” who was killed by “white power”. There are a lot of things wrong with that teaching, not the least of which is that no one killed Jesus. He made it clear that no one on earth has the power to take his life. He gave it freely as a sacrifice for our sins. Also, Jesus was a Jew by birth as well as by religion (on his mother’s side of the family). That made him the same ethnicity as the religious leaders and the crowd that demand his crucifixion. If, on the other hand, he is referring to the Romans as white power, Pilot found Jesus innocent and wanted to release him.  This example is one of the most outrageous departures from scripture I have run into, but I’m sure it is not the first time scripture has been ignored or twisted in that particular church. It may have started with a single verse.

By the way, I don’t worship and follow Jesus because of his earthly appearance, which he receives from his mother. I worship and follow Him because of his spiritual deity he receives from his Father. The shade of his skin is totally irrelevant.

The enemy doesn’t come at us all at once. He turns up the heat very slowly and lets us adjust to the change and before you know it, just like the proverbial frog – we find ourselves in boiling water. He uses our ability to adapt against us. I heard a pastor tell that when he was very young his family moved into a house close to a railroad track. The first night there, a train hit its horn at the crossing and he jumped six inches off the bed. The next night he only jumped four inches and eventually he didn’t jump at all. The train would still wake him, but he would go back to sleep. As time passed, he slept soundly through the night. He compared that to the way Satan puts us to sleep in spite of God’s loud warning signals.

Jesus fulfilled the law and prophecies of the Old Testament. He validated the stories of creation, the flood and even compared his three days in the tomb to Jonah in the belly of the fish for three days. The New Testament is the good news account of His birth, ministry, death and resurrection. It also documents the formation of His church and the power of His Holy Spirit within believers. Questioning the validity of a single verse or passage of scripture puts the very deity of Christ Jesus in question as well. We must heed the warning signs and oppose any attempt to discount any portion of the Bible as outdated or irrelevant to us. We must not accept even the slightest attempt to challenge God’s word or deviate from it. The Holy Spirit within us will sound the warning alarm – may we never allow ourselves to become deaf to it.

 

 

D