In Love!
What do you love to do?
What are you passionate about?
A person’s passions will determine their priorities and plans. People live for what they love.
One of the ways to know what someone is passionate about is to pay attention to what they say, what they do, and the commitments they make and keep. Words and actions always reveal what’s in someone’s heart.
As followers of Jesus Christ, our goal is to become more like Him. We not only should learn the lessons Jesus taught, we should also seek to develop a heart like His. We should be passionate about the things He’s passionate about. If our heart is like His heart and our passions are like His passions, our attitudes and actions will be what they ought to be. It’s all about the heart!
One of the passions of God’s heart is giving. God is a Giver. He loves to give. We can truly say that He’s “in love with” giving!
The giving nature of God is seen all through the pages of the Bible. He generously gives provision, wisdom, help, forgiveness, life, healing, restoration, deliverance and answers to prayers. He gave us the greatest gift of all — His very own Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus not only taught about the giving nature of God, He demonstrated it by giving His life for us. He also encouraged and commanded us to develop a giving heart. Take a look at some of His words about giving:
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. — Luke 6:38 (NIV)
… remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” — Acts 20:35 (NIV)
The writer of Proverbs reminded us of God’s passion as a giver and our calling to be passionate about giving:
Some people are always greedy for more, but the godly love to give! — Proverbs 21:26 (NLT)
Here we clearly see that one of the characteristics of God is giving. To be “godly,” we must become “givers” too. Our goal is to “love to give and to live to give!“
What do you love to do? What are you passionate about? Is giving something you are “in love with?“
How do we “fall in love with giving?” Start giving! Stretch your generosity. It’s pleasantly and positively addictive! Jesus said it’s the pathway to a blessed life!
Pastor Dale
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
November 21, 2011
Six Things We Can Learn from the Pilgrims
A Thanksgiving Message from Billy Graham
November 18, 2011 - It is appropriate at this season that we honor "a few stout and earnest" Englishmen—the Pilgrims—who left their native land in search of freedom to worship God.
The Mayflower's voyage to the new world was a "survival test" on a huge scale. The passengers had sold their possessions and had to work for years to pay for their passage. The ship had no heat or plumbing. Storms raged, and a main beam cracked in mid-ocean.
But after more than two months on the Atlantic Ocean, this band of 102 people arrived before Christmas, 1620. William Bradford wrote in his journal, "Being thus arrived at a good harbor, and brought safely to land, they fell on their knees and blessed the God of heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof." What a celebration that must have been!
But just after Christmas a serious sickness broke out, and in the next three months nearly half the Pilgrims died. Hunger and illness stalked them, but they never wavered in their purpose.
Today, if these Pilgrims could observe our troubled world with its disillusioned outlook, its rebelliousness and its erosion of traditional values, they would be not only dismayed but also shocked. However, since their time, certain things have not changed. There is still lust, greed, hatred and prejudice in the human heart. There is still persecution and war in the world.
With all of the world's churches and universities, we would do well to go back to the church and the school of early Plymouth to see what those pioneers can teach us.
(1.) Be Strong in Your Faith
First, the Pilgrims have left us an example of their deep, unwavering religious convictions. What were these convictions? They believed in Christ and in His Kingdom. They found fulfillment in Him. They had purpose in their lives. They had encountered the living Christ and they knew it. They feared neither monarch nor people, only God.
Because they belonged to God, they had a deep faith and confidence in themselves. They believed in their own dignity, were confident that their cause was just, and walked with an uprightness that only fearless and free people can display.
In our day agnosticism, anxiety, emptiness, meaninglessness, have gripped much of our world—and even the Church. People are broad but shallow. Our youth are desperately searching for purpose and meaning and fulfillment in their lives.
By contrast, these Pilgrim forebears stand as shining examples of people who were narrow but deep, certain of what they believed, unswerving in their loyalty, and passionately dedicated to God whom they trusted and for whom they willingly would have died. I sincerely believe that a return to biblical faith and conviction would have a great impact at this hour.
(2.) Practice Discipline
Second, the Pilgrims left us an example of disciplined living. They were Puritans who were ready to order everything—personal life, worship, the church, business affairs, political views, and even recreation—according to the commandments of God. The word "Puritan" itself in the contemporary mind identifies those who followed a strict and closely regulated life.
The ethic of self-mastery and spiritual discipline falls strangely on the ears of today's generation. What a contrast between the conduct of the Pilgrims and the permissiveness and hedonism of today!
(3.) Enjoy Freedom Under the Law
Third, the Pilgrims have left us the example of freedom under law. The Mayflower Compact forged before the Pilgrims left the ship was the wedge that opened the door to a government controlled by the people, a government that has endured in the United States for centuries. Most historians agree that the Mayflower Compact was the forerunner of the Constitution of the United States.
This little band of people searched for an equitable manner of earning a living and for a way of survival. They tried living a communal lifestyle, but, according to Governor Bradford: "This communal system conceived by Plato was found to breed much confusion." When communal living failed, they assigned a parcel of land to every family; with individual enterprise, prosperity came to the colony.
In some parts of the world rebellious young people live, enjoying what they call "absolute freedom." They are free to take narcotics, free to experiment with sex, free to go unwashed, free to dress as they please and do what they like.
They remind me of a man in a hospital who had to be fed through a tube. Having tired of the tube with its discomfort, the man tore the tube from his body and declared that he was free. Free? He was free only to die, because he had removed himself from his hope of life.
The freedom exercised by the Pilgrims didn't degenerate into license. Theirs was a liberty under law. The lawbreakers, malcontents, dissidents and criminals of our day would have been rejected by the Pilgrims. To them freedom under the law meant judgment for the lawless.
(4.) Care about Others
Fourth, the Pilgrims left us an example of a people who had keen social concern. They believed that every person was made in the image of God, that each one was of infinite value and worth in the sight of God. They lived with Native Americans who had a different religion, a different skin color and a different culture.
In March of 1621 Chief Samoset visited the Pilgrims' village and signed a peace treaty that lasted for many years. It was a treaty with high social and ethical content, showing a deep concern for the social, political and spiritual needs of neighbors.
Though the Pilgrims knew that they were citizens of another world, they sought to improve the world they were passing through. The Pilgrims made their new world better, not by tearing down the old, but by constructive toil and fair dealings with their neighbors.
(5.) Share Your Faith
Fifth, the Pilgrims were evangelists who set us an example in sharing their spiritual and material blessings with others. In the Mayflower Compact the Pilgrims committed themselves to the "advancement of the Christian faith."
The Pilgrims at Plymouth were followed by the Puritans at Massachusetts Bay. Together they built churches and schools. In 1636 Harvard College was founded to train men for the ministry. By 1663 the first Bible was printed (the Algonquin Bible) for the Native Americans in their own tongue.
These settlers came to the new world not only to find freedom for themselves but also to tell others of their faith.
(6.) Dream Great Dreams
For "where there is no vision, the people perish," says the Bible. The Pilgrims dreamed great dreams. They dreamed of a haven for themselves and for their children. They dreamed of religious freedom. They dreamed of a world where God would rule the hearts of men.
They lived and died with these hopes. The Pilgrims' strength of spirit was forged by a personal faith in Christ, by tough discipline and by regular habits of devotion.
Today it seems that many of us have neither vision nor hope. But if we so chose, we too could become like the Pilgrims. We could regain hope. We could recover the spiritual and the moral strength that we have lost.
But we would have to be willing to take up the same cross of Christ that they bore. We would have to put our faith in the same Christ that they did. We would have to make the same kind of lifetime commitments that they made. We would have to discipline ourselves as they did.
And, like the Pilgrims, we need to dream great dreams, embrace great principles, renew our hope, and above all, believe in the Christ who alone can give total meaning and an ultimate goal to our lives: "For in him we live, and move, and have our being."
A Thanksgiving Message from Billy Graham
November 18, 2011 - It is appropriate at this season that we honor "a few stout and earnest" Englishmen—the Pilgrims—who left their native land in search of freedom to worship God.
The Mayflower's voyage to the new world was a "survival test" on a huge scale. The passengers had sold their possessions and had to work for years to pay for their passage. The ship had no heat or plumbing. Storms raged, and a main beam cracked in mid-ocean.
But after more than two months on the Atlantic Ocean, this band of 102 people arrived before Christmas, 1620. William Bradford wrote in his journal, "Being thus arrived at a good harbor, and brought safely to land, they fell on their knees and blessed the God of heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof." What a celebration that must have been!
But just after Christmas a serious sickness broke out, and in the next three months nearly half the Pilgrims died. Hunger and illness stalked them, but they never wavered in their purpose.
Today, if these Pilgrims could observe our troubled world with its disillusioned outlook, its rebelliousness and its erosion of traditional values, they would be not only dismayed but also shocked. However, since their time, certain things have not changed. There is still lust, greed, hatred and prejudice in the human heart. There is still persecution and war in the world.
With all of the world's churches and universities, we would do well to go back to the church and the school of early Plymouth to see what those pioneers can teach us.
(1.) Be Strong in Your Faith
First, the Pilgrims have left us an example of their deep, unwavering religious convictions. What were these convictions? They believed in Christ and in His Kingdom. They found fulfillment in Him. They had purpose in their lives. They had encountered the living Christ and they knew it. They feared neither monarch nor people, only God.
Because they belonged to God, they had a deep faith and confidence in themselves. They believed in their own dignity, were confident that their cause was just, and walked with an uprightness that only fearless and free people can display.
In our day agnosticism, anxiety, emptiness, meaninglessness, have gripped much of our world—and even the Church. People are broad but shallow. Our youth are desperately searching for purpose and meaning and fulfillment in their lives.
By contrast, these Pilgrim forebears stand as shining examples of people who were narrow but deep, certain of what they believed, unswerving in their loyalty, and passionately dedicated to God whom they trusted and for whom they willingly would have died. I sincerely believe that a return to biblical faith and conviction would have a great impact at this hour.
(2.) Practice Discipline
Second, the Pilgrims left us an example of disciplined living. They were Puritans who were ready to order everything—personal life, worship, the church, business affairs, political views, and even recreation—according to the commandments of God. The word "Puritan" itself in the contemporary mind identifies those who followed a strict and closely regulated life.
The ethic of self-mastery and spiritual discipline falls strangely on the ears of today's generation. What a contrast between the conduct of the Pilgrims and the permissiveness and hedonism of today!
(3.) Enjoy Freedom Under the Law
Third, the Pilgrims have left us the example of freedom under law. The Mayflower Compact forged before the Pilgrims left the ship was the wedge that opened the door to a government controlled by the people, a government that has endured in the United States for centuries. Most historians agree that the Mayflower Compact was the forerunner of the Constitution of the United States.
This little band of people searched for an equitable manner of earning a living and for a way of survival. They tried living a communal lifestyle, but, according to Governor Bradford: "This communal system conceived by Plato was found to breed much confusion." When communal living failed, they assigned a parcel of land to every family; with individual enterprise, prosperity came to the colony.
In some parts of the world rebellious young people live, enjoying what they call "absolute freedom." They are free to take narcotics, free to experiment with sex, free to go unwashed, free to dress as they please and do what they like.
They remind me of a man in a hospital who had to be fed through a tube. Having tired of the tube with its discomfort, the man tore the tube from his body and declared that he was free. Free? He was free only to die, because he had removed himself from his hope of life.
The freedom exercised by the Pilgrims didn't degenerate into license. Theirs was a liberty under law. The lawbreakers, malcontents, dissidents and criminals of our day would have been rejected by the Pilgrims. To them freedom under the law meant judgment for the lawless.
(4.) Care about Others
Fourth, the Pilgrims left us an example of a people who had keen social concern. They believed that every person was made in the image of God, that each one was of infinite value and worth in the sight of God. They lived with Native Americans who had a different religion, a different skin color and a different culture.
In March of 1621 Chief Samoset visited the Pilgrims' village and signed a peace treaty that lasted for many years. It was a treaty with high social and ethical content, showing a deep concern for the social, political and spiritual needs of neighbors.
Though the Pilgrims knew that they were citizens of another world, they sought to improve the world they were passing through. The Pilgrims made their new world better, not by tearing down the old, but by constructive toil and fair dealings with their neighbors.
(5.) Share Your Faith
Fifth, the Pilgrims were evangelists who set us an example in sharing their spiritual and material blessings with others. In the Mayflower Compact the Pilgrims committed themselves to the "advancement of the Christian faith."
The Pilgrims at Plymouth were followed by the Puritans at Massachusetts Bay. Together they built churches and schools. In 1636 Harvard College was founded to train men for the ministry. By 1663 the first Bible was printed (the Algonquin Bible) for the Native Americans in their own tongue.
These settlers came to the new world not only to find freedom for themselves but also to tell others of their faith.
(6.) Dream Great Dreams
For "where there is no vision, the people perish," says the Bible. The Pilgrims dreamed great dreams. They dreamed of a haven for themselves and for their children. They dreamed of religious freedom. They dreamed of a world where God would rule the hearts of men.
They lived and died with these hopes. The Pilgrims' strength of spirit was forged by a personal faith in Christ, by tough discipline and by regular habits of devotion.
Today it seems that many of us have neither vision nor hope. But if we so chose, we too could become like the Pilgrims. We could regain hope. We could recover the spiritual and the moral strength that we have lost.
But we would have to be willing to take up the same cross of Christ that they bore. We would have to put our faith in the same Christ that they did. We would have to make the same kind of lifetime commitments that they made. We would have to discipline ourselves as they did.
And, like the Pilgrims, we need to dream great dreams, embrace great principles, renew our hope, and above all, believe in the Christ who alone can give total meaning and an ultimate goal to our lives: "For in him we live, and move, and have our being."
Friday, November 18, 2011
November 18, 2011
A Commitment to Truth Means Defending the Oppressed
The story of a man who stood up to intervene for the defenseless. From Barbara Rainey’s new devotional, Growing Together in Truth.
Barbara Rainey
A bully is mean to others for no good reason. Usually the bully is bigger and stronger, or at least likes to think that he is. He acts powerful by saying mean things, pushing and shoving, or even hitting. Typically we think of bullying as something that happens in schools between children, but adults can be bullies too. The hunger for power, seen often in adults through manipulative behavior, is motivated by selfishness. The results are always hurtful.
It was a sad day in 1830 when the United States Congress passed a law forcing the Cherokee Indians and other tribes to move away from the land where they had lived for hundreds of years. The path of their exodus became known as The Trail of Tears.
The Cherokee, and many other tribes—the Creek, the Seminole, the Choctaw, and the Chickasaw—lived in the southeastern portion of the United States. Many of them were farmers and cattle ranchers. They built towns, schools, and churches and published a newspaper. Many of them were Christians. In the early 1800s these Indian communities were not bands of criminals who raided homes and killed innocent people; rather, they were very much like their new white neighbors who were moving south by the thousands to establish their own farms and ranches.
But there were powerful men who wanted the Cherokee land. Some held positions as governors, congressmen, or mayors. They were not content with what God had given them and chose to ignore the Tenth Commandment: “You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:17) and the Golden Rule: “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you” (Luke 6:31). These leaders manipulated laws in order to force the Indians to give them what they wanted. They were bullies.
Jeremiah Evarts, on the other hand, was the champion of the Cherokee. A godly man, Jeremiah, was troubled that these people, made in God’s image just as he was, were being forced to abandon their ancestral homes. The truth of the Bible was his guide, and the Bible spoke clearly about living in harmony with one another. So how could he be silent when the Cherokee were being threatened?
God has children all over the world, and He has a plan for each one. The Bible tells us, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Jeremiah Evarts was created with the gifts and talents to fight for the Cherokee. He was trained as a lawyer, so he understood how to debate using facts and logic. He was a Christian, so he knew God’s truth. And God orchestrated his birth at the right time and in the right place for this work to be accomplished.
Those who live by the truth of the Bible, who do as Jesus would do, will not bully others. They will follow what God has given them to do and find contentment in doing God’s will. They will seek to live in peace with their neighbors, classmates, and family members. That is what Jesus taught.
Sadly, Jeremiah Evarts’ fight to protect the Cherokee failed. The Indian Removal Act, which passed in Congress by only one vote, was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson in 1830, giving him the power to negotiate the Cherokee exodus. The Trail of Tears began in 1838, as the states of Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama gathered militia to force the Indians to move.
Without compassion, without any love for “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40 NKJV), soldiers burned homes and destroyed and looted property. The Cherokee people were then forced to begin walking west. And it was winter. Thousands died from the cold and starvation. Some were murdered.
Though this story does not have a happy ending, faith in God calls us to hope again. Jeremiah Evarts wrote near the end of his life, “At times I am exceedingly cast down as to the result. … It seems a most remarkable Providence that the bill should pass, when a majority present showed themselves to be … opposed to it. This strange state of things should make us stand astonished at the ways of Providence. ... My comfort is that God governs the world.”
The truth of the Bible promises that God will make all things right one day. That is what Jeremiah Evarts believed when his battle to defend the oppressed Cherokee ended in failure. Though the truth does not guarantee success every time, there is a God in heaven who sees all and who is pleased when His children intervene for the defenseless.
Questions about truth
Have you ever been bullied or watched someone else suffer from a bully’s behavior? If so, what did you want to do? If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently?
Think about the Golden Rule—“Treat others the same way you want them to treat you” (Luke 6:31). How does this truth change the way you act toward others?
When God doesn’t make things work out the way we think He should, what are some truths that we can still believe?
Truth in action
Consider specific ways that your family can show compassion for “the least of these” in your community. For example, you could volunteer at a soup kitchen, donate items to a food pantry, or sign up to help at a local charity. Talk to your pastor to find out if you can participate in a church-sponsored mission or community outreach.
Praying together for truth
You have made me as I am, Lord. Every detail of size and intellect and talent matters to You. Nothing was by chance. Even my day of birth, my country, my family were chosen by You—all for reasons I will never fully comprehend. But to know that You ordered it all is enough. As the Artist of my life, may You be pleased with how I use the colors You have given me. For the good of Your kingdom, I pray. Amen.
Excerpted from Growing Together in Truth ©2011 by Barbara Rainey.
The story of a man who stood up to intervene for the defenseless. From Barbara Rainey’s new devotional, Growing Together in Truth.
Barbara Rainey
A bully is mean to others for no good reason. Usually the bully is bigger and stronger, or at least likes to think that he is. He acts powerful by saying mean things, pushing and shoving, or even hitting. Typically we think of bullying as something that happens in schools between children, but adults can be bullies too. The hunger for power, seen often in adults through manipulative behavior, is motivated by selfishness. The results are always hurtful.
It was a sad day in 1830 when the United States Congress passed a law forcing the Cherokee Indians and other tribes to move away from the land where they had lived for hundreds of years. The path of their exodus became known as The Trail of Tears.
The Cherokee, and many other tribes—the Creek, the Seminole, the Choctaw, and the Chickasaw—lived in the southeastern portion of the United States. Many of them were farmers and cattle ranchers. They built towns, schools, and churches and published a newspaper. Many of them were Christians. In the early 1800s these Indian communities were not bands of criminals who raided homes and killed innocent people; rather, they were very much like their new white neighbors who were moving south by the thousands to establish their own farms and ranches.
But there were powerful men who wanted the Cherokee land. Some held positions as governors, congressmen, or mayors. They were not content with what God had given them and chose to ignore the Tenth Commandment: “You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:17) and the Golden Rule: “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you” (Luke 6:31). These leaders manipulated laws in order to force the Indians to give them what they wanted. They were bullies.
Jeremiah Evarts, on the other hand, was the champion of the Cherokee. A godly man, Jeremiah, was troubled that these people, made in God’s image just as he was, were being forced to abandon their ancestral homes. The truth of the Bible was his guide, and the Bible spoke clearly about living in harmony with one another. So how could he be silent when the Cherokee were being threatened?
God has children all over the world, and He has a plan for each one. The Bible tells us, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Jeremiah Evarts was created with the gifts and talents to fight for the Cherokee. He was trained as a lawyer, so he understood how to debate using facts and logic. He was a Christian, so he knew God’s truth. And God orchestrated his birth at the right time and in the right place for this work to be accomplished.
Those who live by the truth of the Bible, who do as Jesus would do, will not bully others. They will follow what God has given them to do and find contentment in doing God’s will. They will seek to live in peace with their neighbors, classmates, and family members. That is what Jesus taught.
Sadly, Jeremiah Evarts’ fight to protect the Cherokee failed. The Indian Removal Act, which passed in Congress by only one vote, was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson in 1830, giving him the power to negotiate the Cherokee exodus. The Trail of Tears began in 1838, as the states of Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama gathered militia to force the Indians to move.
Without compassion, without any love for “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40 NKJV), soldiers burned homes and destroyed and looted property. The Cherokee people were then forced to begin walking west. And it was winter. Thousands died from the cold and starvation. Some were murdered.
Though this story does not have a happy ending, faith in God calls us to hope again. Jeremiah Evarts wrote near the end of his life, “At times I am exceedingly cast down as to the result. … It seems a most remarkable Providence that the bill should pass, when a majority present showed themselves to be … opposed to it. This strange state of things should make us stand astonished at the ways of Providence. ... My comfort is that God governs the world.”
The truth of the Bible promises that God will make all things right one day. That is what Jeremiah Evarts believed when his battle to defend the oppressed Cherokee ended in failure. Though the truth does not guarantee success every time, there is a God in heaven who sees all and who is pleased when His children intervene for the defenseless.
Questions about truth
Have you ever been bullied or watched someone else suffer from a bully’s behavior? If so, what did you want to do? If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently?
Think about the Golden Rule—“Treat others the same way you want them to treat you” (Luke 6:31). How does this truth change the way you act toward others?
When God doesn’t make things work out the way we think He should, what are some truths that we can still believe?
Truth in action
Consider specific ways that your family can show compassion for “the least of these” in your community. For example, you could volunteer at a soup kitchen, donate items to a food pantry, or sign up to help at a local charity. Talk to your pastor to find out if you can participate in a church-sponsored mission or community outreach.
Praying together for truth
You have made me as I am, Lord. Every detail of size and intellect and talent matters to You. Nothing was by chance. Even my day of birth, my country, my family were chosen by You—all for reasons I will never fully comprehend. But to know that You ordered it all is enough. As the Artist of my life, may You be pleased with how I use the colors You have given me. For the good of Your kingdom, I pray. Amen.
Excerpted from Growing Together in Truth ©2011 by Barbara Rainey.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
November 17, 2011
THE REGENERATE MAN IS A HOLY MAN
by J. C. Ryle
He endeavors to live according to God's will, to do the things that please God, to avoid the things that God hates. His aim and desire is to love God with heart and soul, and mind and strength, and to love his neighbor as himself. His wish is to be continually looking to Christ as his example as well as his Savior, and to show himself Christ's friend by doing whatever Christ commands. No doubt he is not perfect. None will tell you that sooner than himself. He groans under the burden of indwelling corruption cleaving to him. He finds an evil principle within him constantly warring against grace, and trying to draw him away from God. But he does not consent to it, though he cannot prevent its presence.
In spite of all short-comings, the average bent and bias of his ways is holy-his doings holy-his tastes holy-and his habits holy. In spite of all his swerving and turning aside, like a ship going against a contrary wind, the general course of his life is in one direction-toward God and for God. And though he may sometimes feel so low that he questions whether he is a Christian at all, in his calmer moments he will generally be able to say, with old John Newton, "I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world-but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am."
~ J.C. Ryle
by J. C. Ryle
He endeavors to live according to God's will, to do the things that please God, to avoid the things that God hates. His aim and desire is to love God with heart and soul, and mind and strength, and to love his neighbor as himself. His wish is to be continually looking to Christ as his example as well as his Savior, and to show himself Christ's friend by doing whatever Christ commands. No doubt he is not perfect. None will tell you that sooner than himself. He groans under the burden of indwelling corruption cleaving to him. He finds an evil principle within him constantly warring against grace, and trying to draw him away from God. But he does not consent to it, though he cannot prevent its presence.
In spite of all short-comings, the average bent and bias of his ways is holy-his doings holy-his tastes holy-and his habits holy. In spite of all his swerving and turning aside, like a ship going against a contrary wind, the general course of his life is in one direction-toward God and for God. And though he may sometimes feel so low that he questions whether he is a Christian at all, in his calmer moments he will generally be able to say, with old John Newton, "I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world-but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am."
~ J.C. Ryle
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
November 16, 2011
Junking Your Junk
A few weeks ago, I stopped at a shopping center to pick up a couple of items. When I got out of my vehicle, something immediately caught my attention. I noticed a late model car next to me that was a major mess; not outside, but inside. It looked like the owner had been using his automobile as a combination garbage container and junk closet. A quick glance revealed discarded food wrappers, empty soft drink cans, half-eaten food, old newspapers, books and dirty clothes. I could only imagine the stench inside. Just seeing it made me sad.
One of the sad things about the sight was knowing that the owner had likely become desensitized to the situation. Chances are, this person had lost touch with the environment they had created. They were traveling through life surrounded by filth and junk, and probably didn’t even notice it.
This experience made me think about all of the folks who face a similar reality in their personal lives. Think about your life.
If we could look through a window into our own soul, how many of us would be appalled at what we see inside? How many of us are traveling through life with an accumulation of junk from the past — leftovers of hurt from former relationships, emotional wrappers of resentment and regret from old disappointments, dirty clothes of jealousy, anger, guilt and shame that linger with us?
All of these things limit our life view, crowd out our life potential, restrict growth in our relationships and leave a certain “stench” around us. They hinder us and make us unattractive, spiritually and emotionally.
The Bible speaks to this situation:
… Dear friends, let’s make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let’s make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God. — 2 Corinthians 7:1 (Msg)
The psalmist prayed:
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. — Psalm 19:12 (NLT)
These passages remind us that we need to regularly clean out the trash in our hearts. They call us to “junk the junk” we accumulate inside of us.
What does your soul look like? Is it clean, orderly and healthy, or filled with ugly, trashy things you have accumulated over time?
Make a decision today that, with God’s help, you’re going to “junk your junk!”
Pastor Dale
A few weeks ago, I stopped at a shopping center to pick up a couple of items. When I got out of my vehicle, something immediately caught my attention. I noticed a late model car next to me that was a major mess; not outside, but inside. It looked like the owner had been using his automobile as a combination garbage container and junk closet. A quick glance revealed discarded food wrappers, empty soft drink cans, half-eaten food, old newspapers, books and dirty clothes. I could only imagine the stench inside. Just seeing it made me sad.
One of the sad things about the sight was knowing that the owner had likely become desensitized to the situation. Chances are, this person had lost touch with the environment they had created. They were traveling through life surrounded by filth and junk, and probably didn’t even notice it.
This experience made me think about all of the folks who face a similar reality in their personal lives. Think about your life.
If we could look through a window into our own soul, how many of us would be appalled at what we see inside? How many of us are traveling through life with an accumulation of junk from the past — leftovers of hurt from former relationships, emotional wrappers of resentment and regret from old disappointments, dirty clothes of jealousy, anger, guilt and shame that linger with us?
All of these things limit our life view, crowd out our life potential, restrict growth in our relationships and leave a certain “stench” around us. They hinder us and make us unattractive, spiritually and emotionally.
The Bible speaks to this situation:
… Dear friends, let’s make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let’s make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God. — 2 Corinthians 7:1 (Msg)
The psalmist prayed:
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. — Psalm 19:12 (NLT)
These passages remind us that we need to regularly clean out the trash in our hearts. They call us to “junk the junk” we accumulate inside of us.
What does your soul look like? Is it clean, orderly and healthy, or filled with ugly, trashy things you have accumulated over time?
Make a decision today that, with God’s help, you’re going to “junk your junk!”
Pastor Dale
Monday, November 14, 2011
November 14, 2011
Passing Your Tests
Tests are a part of education. We don’t know what we’ve learned until we take a test. Great teachers know how to create great tests. A great test reveals a student’s true progress in a skill or real understanding of a subject.
God is a great teacher. He designs certain tests for us that help us see where we really are in our spiritual growth and understanding.
In the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminded God’s people about some of the tests the Lord had given them in their 40 years of wilderness wandering. He also told them why God had given them these tests:
Remember how the Lord you God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. — Deuteronomy 8:2 (NIV)
How God’s people handled their tests told the Lord a lot about them. It showed them something about themselves too.
To pass God’s tests we must be prepared. To prepare well, we need to know as much as we can about the qualities that matter most to Him, and the kind of tests He gives.
Pastor Dale
Tests are a part of education. We don’t know what we’ve learned until we take a test. Great teachers know how to create great tests. A great test reveals a student’s true progress in a skill or real understanding of a subject.
God is a great teacher. He designs certain tests for us that help us see where we really are in our spiritual growth and understanding.
In the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminded God’s people about some of the tests the Lord had given them in their 40 years of wilderness wandering. He also told them why God had given them these tests:
Remember how the Lord you God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. — Deuteronomy 8:2 (NIV)
How God’s people handled their tests told the Lord a lot about them. It showed them something about themselves too.
To pass God’s tests we must be prepared. To prepare well, we need to know as much as we can about the qualities that matter most to Him, and the kind of tests He gives.
Pastor Dale
November 10, 2011
Loose Lips Sink Ships
Loose lips sink ships. This old saying that warns about the destructive power of uncontrolled words remains true in our day. This warning is of particular worth to leaders. We are inundated with news stories of leaders in all spheres in society that have reacted to quickly, shared too much, spoke to harshly, and in doing so did great harm to themselves and their organizations. How should leaders control their tongues? Christian leaders from all generations counsel us that the discipline of silence is pivotal in the quest to tame our loose lips.
The Scriptural witness is clear: Silence is an important part of worship, devotion and prayer. The Psalmist instructs us to “be still, and know” that He is God (Psalm 46, 10, ESV). Jeremiah counsels us to respond to the discipline of the Lord with silence, when he writes “it is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:2, ESV). Even Job, at the end of all his struggles and God’s revealing of Himself, understood that the wisest response to suffering and God is often to lay our hands over our mouths (Job 40:4-5). Jesus warned about the misguided belief that many words make good prayers: “and when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7, ESV) .The Apostle John described a period of appropriate silence in Heaven in response to the final judgment of God on the world (Revelation 8:1).
The Christian witness of the ages gives echo to the Scriptural call to wait for God in silence (see Psalm 62:1). The early Christian Desert Father, Diadochos of Photiki (fifth century AD) gave the following advice concerning prayer and silence: “spiritual knowledge comes through prayer, deep stillness, and complete detachment, while wisdom comes through humble meditation on Holy Scripture and above all, through grace given by God.” The Byzantine Christian Leader, Simeon the New Theologian (949-1022 AD) instructed his followers to “sit down alone and in silence” when they pray. The famous missionary to India, Mother Teresa (1910-1997 AD) valued silence as necessary to hear the voice of God. She wrote: “silence gives us a new outlook on everything. We need silence to be able to touch souls. The essential thing is not what we say but what God says to us and through us. Jesus is always waiting for us in silence. In that silence, He will listen to us; there He will speak to our soul, and there we will hear His voice.“ The wealth of Church History attests to the importance and value of silence in prayer.
There are many reasons why the prayer of silence is of importance to our prayer life. Here are a few Biblical reminders of the purpose of this God-given exercise of stillness:
1. Silence provides us with perspective and balance. When we are silent, we provide God with an opportunity to help us see the bigger picture. One of the best examples of the power of this God-drenched silence is found in the advice that David gives when things do not go our way: “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.” (Psalm 4:4, ESV).
2. Silence allows us to place our complete trust on God. When the children of Israel faced certain destruction with the uncrossable Red Sea in front of them and the armies of Pharaoh behind them, Moses encouraged them that “the Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent” (Exodus 14:14, ESV). There is nothing more powerful than a firm, silent stand on God’s promise to save.
3. Silence can be a form of intercession. When words fail us, when can stand before God in silence knowing that He knows and that He is intimately involved in the unfolding of this world. The Old Testament prophet Amos, when experiencing the ultimate betrayal of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, declared: “he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time“ (Amos 5:13, ESV).
4. Silence is at times the appropriate response to the presence of God. I have often experienced this kind of “holy silence” when a sacred, hushed presence of the Lord is manifested in a worshipping congregation. This act of standing, kneeling, sitting in silence reminds us of the wonderful exhortation in the Old Testament book of Zephaniah: “Be silent all flesh, before the Lord, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling” (Zephaniah 2:13, ESV).
How does one practice the prayer of silence? As always, the sacred Scriptures point the way:
A. Find a secluded place where you will not be disturbed. Like Jesus, you might need to rise early: “and rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed” (Mark 1:35, ESV).
B. Settle in a relaxed posture that will help you stay in silence. For most of us this will simply mean, as Isaiah puts it, to “sit in silence” (Isaiah 47:5, ESV).
C. Place all your cares on Him and rest in His love. It is precisely because of His great concern and love that we can find true peace and calm: “He will quiet you by his love” (Zephaniah 3:17, ESV).
D. Listen for His voice. Like Elijah we will learn that He often speaks with the “sound of a low whisper” (1 Kings 19:12, ESV). Make the firm decision to obey His voice.
E. Offer your silence as worship to Him. As Habakkuk declares; “the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (Habakkuk 2:20, ESV).
The prayer of silence does not replace all the other forms of Biblical prayer. But in times of trouble, this form of silent trust is one of the most powerful ways that leaders can find perspectives, control their tongues and regain their strength. May we once again heed the Word of God: “in returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15, ESV).
Leadership Beyond Influence
Dr. Corné Bekker is an associate professor in the Regent University School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship and an ordained minister. He previously served as the Assistant-Dean of Rhema Bible College in Johannesburg , South Africa.
Loose lips sink ships. This old saying that warns about the destructive power of uncontrolled words remains true in our day. This warning is of particular worth to leaders. We are inundated with news stories of leaders in all spheres in society that have reacted to quickly, shared too much, spoke to harshly, and in doing so did great harm to themselves and their organizations. How should leaders control their tongues? Christian leaders from all generations counsel us that the discipline of silence is pivotal in the quest to tame our loose lips.
The Scriptural witness is clear: Silence is an important part of worship, devotion and prayer. The Psalmist instructs us to “be still, and know” that He is God (Psalm 46, 10, ESV). Jeremiah counsels us to respond to the discipline of the Lord with silence, when he writes “it is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:2, ESV). Even Job, at the end of all his struggles and God’s revealing of Himself, understood that the wisest response to suffering and God is often to lay our hands over our mouths (Job 40:4-5). Jesus warned about the misguided belief that many words make good prayers: “and when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7, ESV) .The Apostle John described a period of appropriate silence in Heaven in response to the final judgment of God on the world (Revelation 8:1).
The Christian witness of the ages gives echo to the Scriptural call to wait for God in silence (see Psalm 62:1). The early Christian Desert Father, Diadochos of Photiki (fifth century AD) gave the following advice concerning prayer and silence: “spiritual knowledge comes through prayer, deep stillness, and complete detachment, while wisdom comes through humble meditation on Holy Scripture and above all, through grace given by God.” The Byzantine Christian Leader, Simeon the New Theologian (949-1022 AD) instructed his followers to “sit down alone and in silence” when they pray. The famous missionary to India, Mother Teresa (1910-1997 AD) valued silence as necessary to hear the voice of God. She wrote: “silence gives us a new outlook on everything. We need silence to be able to touch souls. The essential thing is not what we say but what God says to us and through us. Jesus is always waiting for us in silence. In that silence, He will listen to us; there He will speak to our soul, and there we will hear His voice.“ The wealth of Church History attests to the importance and value of silence in prayer.
There are many reasons why the prayer of silence is of importance to our prayer life. Here are a few Biblical reminders of the purpose of this God-given exercise of stillness:
1. Silence provides us with perspective and balance. When we are silent, we provide God with an opportunity to help us see the bigger picture. One of the best examples of the power of this God-drenched silence is found in the advice that David gives when things do not go our way: “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.” (Psalm 4:4, ESV).
2. Silence allows us to place our complete trust on God. When the children of Israel faced certain destruction with the uncrossable Red Sea in front of them and the armies of Pharaoh behind them, Moses encouraged them that “the Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent” (Exodus 14:14, ESV). There is nothing more powerful than a firm, silent stand on God’s promise to save.
3. Silence can be a form of intercession. When words fail us, when can stand before God in silence knowing that He knows and that He is intimately involved in the unfolding of this world. The Old Testament prophet Amos, when experiencing the ultimate betrayal of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, declared: “he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time“ (Amos 5:13, ESV).
4. Silence is at times the appropriate response to the presence of God. I have often experienced this kind of “holy silence” when a sacred, hushed presence of the Lord is manifested in a worshipping congregation. This act of standing, kneeling, sitting in silence reminds us of the wonderful exhortation in the Old Testament book of Zephaniah: “Be silent all flesh, before the Lord, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling” (Zephaniah 2:13, ESV).
How does one practice the prayer of silence? As always, the sacred Scriptures point the way:
A. Find a secluded place where you will not be disturbed. Like Jesus, you might need to rise early: “and rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed” (Mark 1:35, ESV).
B. Settle in a relaxed posture that will help you stay in silence. For most of us this will simply mean, as Isaiah puts it, to “sit in silence” (Isaiah 47:5, ESV).
C. Place all your cares on Him and rest in His love. It is precisely because of His great concern and love that we can find true peace and calm: “He will quiet you by his love” (Zephaniah 3:17, ESV).
D. Listen for His voice. Like Elijah we will learn that He often speaks with the “sound of a low whisper” (1 Kings 19:12, ESV). Make the firm decision to obey His voice.
E. Offer your silence as worship to Him. As Habakkuk declares; “the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (Habakkuk 2:20, ESV).
The prayer of silence does not replace all the other forms of Biblical prayer. But in times of trouble, this form of silent trust is one of the most powerful ways that leaders can find perspectives, control their tongues and regain their strength. May we once again heed the Word of God: “in returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15, ESV).
Leadership Beyond Influence
Dr. Corné Bekker is an associate professor in the Regent University School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship and an ordained minister. He previously served as the Assistant-Dean of Rhema Bible College in Johannesburg , South Africa.
November 9, 2011
AP Mobile News story - Wis. woman who saved good Samaritan: God helped
Stranger's kindness is repaid by a fellow motorist
MILWAUKEE (AP) - One good turn deserves another: A stranger stopped to help Sara Berg change a blown tire. Then, minutes later and a quarter-mile down the road, Berg and her cousin repaid the kindness, using CPR to help save the stranger's life when he went into cardiac arrest.
Victor Giesbrecht, 61, was listed in serious but stable condition Tuesday.
Giesbrecht and his wife, Ann, of Winnipeg, Canada, were driving Saturday evening on Interstate 94 outside of Menomonie, about 70 miles east of Minneapolis, when they pulled over to help Berg and her cousin, Lisa Meier, with a flat. After about 15 minutes, he and his wife were done, and everyone shook hands.
"He said, 'Someone up above put me in the right place at the right time,' and I said, 'Thank God for you,'" Berg, a 40-year-old nursing assistant in the Eau Claire area, recalled Tuesday.
Giesbrecht seemed fine as he drove off, Berg said. She and her cousin followed behind, talking about how thankful they were for the couple's help, when they saw the Giesbrechts' pickup along the side of the road, Giesbrecht's wife waving her hands. He had gone into cardiac arrest, and his wife had helped bring their truck to a stop.
Berg and Meier administered CPR until emergency personnel arrived. A sheriff's deputy used an automated external defibrillator to help Giesbrecht regain a pulse and resume breathing.
"I 100 percent believe God had a huge hand in it and that God did put me and Lisa and all those people in the right place at the right time," Berg said. "I'm grateful for that."
Berg said she and her cousin felt guilty, afraid that the rigors of changing the tire contributed to Giesbrecht's heart trouble. But she said his wife assured her of just the opposite: Berg saved his life.
"We'll forever be in their debt," Ann Giesbrecht said in a statement.
She said her husband always wants to stop when he sees stranded motorists: "He's the type of person who gives you 100 percent and worries about himself later."
"There needs to be more people like that in the world," Berg said. "If everyone helped each other out more, just think, our world would be better place."
Stranger's kindness is repaid by a fellow motorist
MILWAUKEE (AP) - One good turn deserves another: A stranger stopped to help Sara Berg change a blown tire. Then, minutes later and a quarter-mile down the road, Berg and her cousin repaid the kindness, using CPR to help save the stranger's life when he went into cardiac arrest.
Victor Giesbrecht, 61, was listed in serious but stable condition Tuesday.
Giesbrecht and his wife, Ann, of Winnipeg, Canada, were driving Saturday evening on Interstate 94 outside of Menomonie, about 70 miles east of Minneapolis, when they pulled over to help Berg and her cousin, Lisa Meier, with a flat. After about 15 minutes, he and his wife were done, and everyone shook hands.
"He said, 'Someone up above put me in the right place at the right time,' and I said, 'Thank God for you,'" Berg, a 40-year-old nursing assistant in the Eau Claire area, recalled Tuesday.
Giesbrecht seemed fine as he drove off, Berg said. She and her cousin followed behind, talking about how thankful they were for the couple's help, when they saw the Giesbrechts' pickup along the side of the road, Giesbrecht's wife waving her hands. He had gone into cardiac arrest, and his wife had helped bring their truck to a stop.
Berg and Meier administered CPR until emergency personnel arrived. A sheriff's deputy used an automated external defibrillator to help Giesbrecht regain a pulse and resume breathing.
"I 100 percent believe God had a huge hand in it and that God did put me and Lisa and all those people in the right place at the right time," Berg said. "I'm grateful for that."
Berg said she and her cousin felt guilty, afraid that the rigors of changing the tire contributed to Giesbrecht's heart trouble. But she said his wife assured her of just the opposite: Berg saved his life.
"We'll forever be in their debt," Ann Giesbrecht said in a statement.
She said her husband always wants to stop when he sees stranded motorists: "He's the type of person who gives you 100 percent and worries about himself later."
"There needs to be more people like that in the world," Berg said. "If everyone helped each other out more, just think, our world would be better place."
November 8, 2011
“I can!” ____ , “I can’t!” ___ ?
Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you’re usually right.” Ford identified the power of a little statement, but significantly different attitude. He helped us understand the consequences of ”I can” and “I can’t” thinking.
One of the most limiting and destructive words in the English vocabulary is “can’t.” This contraction combines two opposite ideas — “can” and “not.” It negates possibilities, potential and ability. This is especially true when it’s combined with the personal pronoun, “I” — “I can’t!” How many folks are robbed of incredible possibilities, great potential and the development of phenomenal abilities because they bought into the “I can’t” mindset?
“I can’t” really is more of an attitude we hold than a statement we make. It’s a belief in the heart that eventually works it’s way out of our mouths. We say it because we think it about ourselves and about the circumstances we find ourselves in. It’s like a big bully that shows up when we are about to try something new, challenging or difficult. This threatening inner voice berates and intimidates. The result is, we usually give up before we even start.
This dark monster in our heads can often be traced back to things people have said to us or about us. Somewhere and sometime in the past, someone significant labeled us as dumb, inadequate, inferior or insignificant. And their opinion of us continues to rule us now. The “I can’t” mindset sometimes reflects the atmosphere we were raised in or the ugly, painful experiences we’ve had in life. Our soul has accepted a verdict — a curse — a self-fulfilling prophecy — that keeps us in bondage today.
In the Old Testament we find the story of a man who suffered with the “I can’t” complex. His name is Gideon. Gideon lived during a time of trouble in Israel. Because of sin and idolatry, God’s people were oppressed by the Midianites. Life for the Hebrews was a daily vigil and a constant struggle. They never knew when the next attack would come. They lived in fear.
One day, in answer to the prayers of God’s people, the Lord appeared to Gideon. God wanted to use this man to make a difference in his nation. He came and called Gideon into action — into active duty — to lead Israel to victory over her oppressors. God’s opinion was that Gideon was the man for the job.
But Gideon had another opinion. He shuddered at the thought of being a leader. He immediately told God how inadequate he was for such a task. The “I can’t do it” attitude kicked in big time for Gideon. Take a look at his response to the Lord:
“But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest … and I am the least in my family.” – Judges 6:15 (NIV)
Notice how Gideon discounted and disqualified himself when God spoke to him. Gideon was convinced that God was making a mistake in calling him. He didn’t see what God saw. He saw all that he wasn’t, all that he couldn’t be or do, but God saw who Gideon was and what he could be. The Lord saw the great potential He had placed in him. That day, the Lord confronted the “I can’t” in Gideon, and helped him become an “I can” man!
Gideon’s rise from the “I can’t” to the “I can” was based on a important truth. He could do what God wanted him to do, because God promised Gideon His presence and help. As Gideon humbly trusted God, the Lord assured him that great things could and would be done through his life:
The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” – Judges 6:16 (NIV)
Do you suffer from the “I can’t” complex? Does negativity rule you? Do you allow yourself to be limited by the bullying voices or painful memories of the past? Are you restricting what God wants to do in and through your life by self-discounting and self-disqualifying? Are you responding to God with the “But Lord …“ argument?
Start changing the way you think! Your weakness is an opportunity for God to demonstrate His strength. Your inabilities are great opportunities for God to show His abilities. Remember the words of the Apostle Paul who had to learn this important lesson too:
I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. – Philippians 4:13 (NIV)
Know that with and through Him, you can!
Pastor Dale
Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you’re usually right.” Ford identified the power of a little statement, but significantly different attitude. He helped us understand the consequences of ”I can” and “I can’t” thinking.
One of the most limiting and destructive words in the English vocabulary is “can’t.” This contraction combines two opposite ideas — “can” and “not.” It negates possibilities, potential and ability. This is especially true when it’s combined with the personal pronoun, “I” — “I can’t!” How many folks are robbed of incredible possibilities, great potential and the development of phenomenal abilities because they bought into the “I can’t” mindset?
“I can’t” really is more of an attitude we hold than a statement we make. It’s a belief in the heart that eventually works it’s way out of our mouths. We say it because we think it about ourselves and about the circumstances we find ourselves in. It’s like a big bully that shows up when we are about to try something new, challenging or difficult. This threatening inner voice berates and intimidates. The result is, we usually give up before we even start.
This dark monster in our heads can often be traced back to things people have said to us or about us. Somewhere and sometime in the past, someone significant labeled us as dumb, inadequate, inferior or insignificant. And their opinion of us continues to rule us now. The “I can’t” mindset sometimes reflects the atmosphere we were raised in or the ugly, painful experiences we’ve had in life. Our soul has accepted a verdict — a curse — a self-fulfilling prophecy — that keeps us in bondage today.
In the Old Testament we find the story of a man who suffered with the “I can’t” complex. His name is Gideon. Gideon lived during a time of trouble in Israel. Because of sin and idolatry, God’s people were oppressed by the Midianites. Life for the Hebrews was a daily vigil and a constant struggle. They never knew when the next attack would come. They lived in fear.
One day, in answer to the prayers of God’s people, the Lord appeared to Gideon. God wanted to use this man to make a difference in his nation. He came and called Gideon into action — into active duty — to lead Israel to victory over her oppressors. God’s opinion was that Gideon was the man for the job.
But Gideon had another opinion. He shuddered at the thought of being a leader. He immediately told God how inadequate he was for such a task. The “I can’t do it” attitude kicked in big time for Gideon. Take a look at his response to the Lord:
“But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest … and I am the least in my family.” – Judges 6:15 (NIV)
Notice how Gideon discounted and disqualified himself when God spoke to him. Gideon was convinced that God was making a mistake in calling him. He didn’t see what God saw. He saw all that he wasn’t, all that he couldn’t be or do, but God saw who Gideon was and what he could be. The Lord saw the great potential He had placed in him. That day, the Lord confronted the “I can’t” in Gideon, and helped him become an “I can” man!
Gideon’s rise from the “I can’t” to the “I can” was based on a important truth. He could do what God wanted him to do, because God promised Gideon His presence and help. As Gideon humbly trusted God, the Lord assured him that great things could and would be done through his life:
The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” – Judges 6:16 (NIV)
Do you suffer from the “I can’t” complex? Does negativity rule you? Do you allow yourself to be limited by the bullying voices or painful memories of the past? Are you restricting what God wants to do in and through your life by self-discounting and self-disqualifying? Are you responding to God with the “But Lord …“ argument?
Start changing the way you think! Your weakness is an opportunity for God to demonstrate His strength. Your inabilities are great opportunities for God to show His abilities. Remember the words of the Apostle Paul who had to learn this important lesson too:
I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. – Philippians 4:13 (NIV)
Know that with and through Him, you can!
Pastor Dale
Monday, November 7, 2011
November 7, 2011
Two lessons from Luke Chapter 6:
a. Love Your Enemies
b. Do Not Judge
"But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. "But if you love those who love you, what credit isthat to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. "Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will begiven to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you."
a. Love Your Enemies
b. Do Not Judge
"But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. "But if you love those who love you, what credit isthat to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. "Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will begiven to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you."
Friday, November 4, 2011
November 4, 2011
Unwanted Help
Can Helping Your Spouse Be a Sign of Disrespect?
Karen O'Connor | posted 11/02/2011
Sitting with my husband at a seminar on love and respect in marriage, I squirmed. Some of what I was hearing hit close to home. It seemed that what one spouse sees as "helpful," the other might consider disrespectful. I turned to Charles, wondering what he was thinking as he listened to the same message. The more I heard from the presenter, the clearer it became that I had some work to do.
For example, that very week I had laid out his vitamins and prescription meds at breakfast every morning even though he's perfectly capable of doing this himself. In fact, he knows the routine better than I do. After all, they're his pills, not mine. But I assumed that unless I took charge he'd ignore or forget them. I also "suggested" what foods would help him lose weight and coaxed him into eating a salad each day. And I took over researching some facts he needed for a speech he was writing because it would be faster if I did it myself.
Taking Care or Taking Charge?
Some might see these actions as helpful, even loving things to do for one's mate. But in my case, they weren't about help or love—or respect. They were about control, my trying to manage and direct my husband in matters that are his business. I thought my way was better, so I imposed it without giving thought to how it might affect him.
One time when I offered my point of view (without being asked) on a dilemma he faced with one of his grown children, Charles said in a firm tone, "You're treating me like a 5-year-old. Please back off."
I was stunned—and hurt—until I realized he was right. He rarely steps into my space and takes over. He doesn't lay out my vitamins, tell me what to eat, or impose his will on my relationship with my children. In fact, he respects my abilities and often tells me how much he admires what I accomplish.
We returned home after the seminar, equipped with a book, pages of notes, and a commitment to talk about what it means to each of us to love and respect the other. That event occurred ten years ago. Our relationship has changed considerably since then—for the better.
Charles now has a vitamin case and takes care of filling it or neglecting to do so, and I stay out of it. He voices his food choices. And when issues arise about his kids, I listen with interest but comment only if he asks for my opinion. Of course I slip now and again, but mostly I show love and gratitude for who he is and what he does, and my life (our life together) is so much happier, easier, and pleasant because of this.
When You Get Off Track
It's one thing to learn a new way to behave. It's quite another to practice it. Following the seminar, we joined six other couples once a month for prayer, discussions on topics related to marriage, and refreshments. These meetings made a huge difference to all of us. When things got rough at home, we knew we had a safe place to go where people would hear, love, and support us. Here are some of the challenges couples encountered and the changes we made.
Old Behavior: Answering a question directed at our spouse.
New Behavior: Remaining silent while our mate replies and learning something new about him or her.
Old Behavior: Giving advice without being asked.
New Behavior: Listening with interest, trusting our mate to find his or her solution, and supporting that discovery.
Old Behavior: Explaining our partner's point of view for him or her.
New Behavior: Waiting eagerly to hear his or her viewpoint and encouraging it.
Old Behavior: Making financial decisions without consulting our mate.
New Behavior: Presenting investment opportunities and talking them over as a couple.
Both husbands and wives admitted to feeling embarrassed, judged, put down, and angry when their spouses stepped into their zone and answered or made decisions without asking them.
One man I know quite well does everything for his wife, from driving to shopping to cooking, and then complains that she's not much of a partner. How can she be? The moment she lifts a finger, he steps in and tells her to relax; he'll take care of it. None of us deliberately sets out to diminish our husbands and wives, but this effect occurs over time when we keep our eyes focused on what they don't do well or fast enough to please us. Then to make ourselves feel better, we claim we were "just trying to help."
The Difference Between Authentic Help and Manipulation
Everyone needs real help at times. If you're sick, you welcome a cup of hot soup and someone to fluff your pillow. If you're behind on a deadline at work, you could use a hand with typing or filing or mailing. If you have to be in two places at the same time, it's nice to know your spouse can step in and cover for you.
That kind of help goes with the territory of being married and is something we all treasure. But crashing our mates' boundaries and manipulating the outcome to our satisfaction in order to look good, deal with our emotions, or gain favor is something else. When we are anxious or uncertain about when to step in and when to step aside, we can pray for instant guidance. "For the LORD grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding" (Proverbs 2:6 ).
True help includes humility and respect:
* Allowing our spouses to be who they are—created by God—flaws and all. My elderly friend Mabel told me years ago to bring my hurts and feelings to God first, then "ask him to minister to both of you before you hurt one another with damaging words or regrettable actions." I have treasured that advice.
* Respecting their opinions even if different from ours. Barbara Jean told me she was married for nearly 50 years before she realized that her husband's point of view is as valid as hers. "At that moment I gave up my right to be right," she quipped.
* Permitting our mates to make mistakes without our interference. Hank and Joan agreed that a sense of humor has led to healthy respect even when one of them messed up. They laugh and forgive rather than punish and sulk.
The next time you wander into your spouse's territory, ask yourself if you are helping or hindering, respecting or disrespecting. And if you're not sure, ask. Your husband or wife may be more than happy to tell you.
Karen O'Connor is a freelance writer and writing mentor from Watsonville, California. You can reach her through her web site: http://www.karenoconnor.com/
Can Helping Your Spouse Be a Sign of Disrespect?
Karen O'Connor | posted 11/02/2011
Sitting with my husband at a seminar on love and respect in marriage, I squirmed. Some of what I was hearing hit close to home. It seemed that what one spouse sees as "helpful," the other might consider disrespectful. I turned to Charles, wondering what he was thinking as he listened to the same message. The more I heard from the presenter, the clearer it became that I had some work to do.
For example, that very week I had laid out his vitamins and prescription meds at breakfast every morning even though he's perfectly capable of doing this himself. In fact, he knows the routine better than I do. After all, they're his pills, not mine. But I assumed that unless I took charge he'd ignore or forget them. I also "suggested" what foods would help him lose weight and coaxed him into eating a salad each day. And I took over researching some facts he needed for a speech he was writing because it would be faster if I did it myself.
Taking Care or Taking Charge?
Some might see these actions as helpful, even loving things to do for one's mate. But in my case, they weren't about help or love—or respect. They were about control, my trying to manage and direct my husband in matters that are his business. I thought my way was better, so I imposed it without giving thought to how it might affect him.
One time when I offered my point of view (without being asked) on a dilemma he faced with one of his grown children, Charles said in a firm tone, "You're treating me like a 5-year-old. Please back off."
I was stunned—and hurt—until I realized he was right. He rarely steps into my space and takes over. He doesn't lay out my vitamins, tell me what to eat, or impose his will on my relationship with my children. In fact, he respects my abilities and often tells me how much he admires what I accomplish.
We returned home after the seminar, equipped with a book, pages of notes, and a commitment to talk about what it means to each of us to love and respect the other. That event occurred ten years ago. Our relationship has changed considerably since then—for the better.
Charles now has a vitamin case and takes care of filling it or neglecting to do so, and I stay out of it. He voices his food choices. And when issues arise about his kids, I listen with interest but comment only if he asks for my opinion. Of course I slip now and again, but mostly I show love and gratitude for who he is and what he does, and my life (our life together) is so much happier, easier, and pleasant because of this.
When You Get Off Track
It's one thing to learn a new way to behave. It's quite another to practice it. Following the seminar, we joined six other couples once a month for prayer, discussions on topics related to marriage, and refreshments. These meetings made a huge difference to all of us. When things got rough at home, we knew we had a safe place to go where people would hear, love, and support us. Here are some of the challenges couples encountered and the changes we made.
Old Behavior: Answering a question directed at our spouse.
New Behavior: Remaining silent while our mate replies and learning something new about him or her.
Old Behavior: Giving advice without being asked.
New Behavior: Listening with interest, trusting our mate to find his or her solution, and supporting that discovery.
Old Behavior: Explaining our partner's point of view for him or her.
New Behavior: Waiting eagerly to hear his or her viewpoint and encouraging it.
Old Behavior: Making financial decisions without consulting our mate.
New Behavior: Presenting investment opportunities and talking them over as a couple.
Both husbands and wives admitted to feeling embarrassed, judged, put down, and angry when their spouses stepped into their zone and answered or made decisions without asking them.
One man I know quite well does everything for his wife, from driving to shopping to cooking, and then complains that she's not much of a partner. How can she be? The moment she lifts a finger, he steps in and tells her to relax; he'll take care of it. None of us deliberately sets out to diminish our husbands and wives, but this effect occurs over time when we keep our eyes focused on what they don't do well or fast enough to please us. Then to make ourselves feel better, we claim we were "just trying to help."
The Difference Between Authentic Help and Manipulation
Everyone needs real help at times. If you're sick, you welcome a cup of hot soup and someone to fluff your pillow. If you're behind on a deadline at work, you could use a hand with typing or filing or mailing. If you have to be in two places at the same time, it's nice to know your spouse can step in and cover for you.
That kind of help goes with the territory of being married and is something we all treasure. But crashing our mates' boundaries and manipulating the outcome to our satisfaction in order to look good, deal with our emotions, or gain favor is something else. When we are anxious or uncertain about when to step in and when to step aside, we can pray for instant guidance. "For the LORD grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding" (Proverbs 2:6
True help includes humility and respect:
* Allowing our spouses to be who they are—created by God—flaws and all. My elderly friend Mabel told me years ago to bring my hurts and feelings to God first, then "ask him to minister to both of you before you hurt one another with damaging words or regrettable actions." I have treasured that advice.
* Respecting their opinions even if different from ours. Barbara Jean told me she was married for nearly 50 years before she realized that her husband's point of view is as valid as hers. "At that moment I gave up my right to be right," she quipped.
* Permitting our mates to make mistakes without our interference. Hank and Joan agreed that a sense of humor has led to healthy respect even when one of them messed up. They laugh and forgive rather than punish and sulk.
The next time you wander into your spouse's territory, ask yourself if you are helping or hindering, respecting or disrespecting. And if you're not sure, ask. Your husband or wife may be more than happy to tell you.
Karen O'Connor is a freelance writer and writing mentor from Watsonville, California. You can reach her through her web site: http://www.karenoconnor.com/
Thursday, November 3, 2011
November 3, 2011
November: Spiritual Warfare and Sin
To be entirely safe from the devil's snares the man of God must be completely obedient to the Word of the Lord. The driver on the highway is safe, not when he reads the signs but when he obeys them.
That Incredible Christian, 51.
________________________________
November 3
Spiritual Warfare and Sin: Satan's Strategy
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
--Ephesians 6:13
Now I do not think that Satan much cares to destroy us Christians physically. The soldier dead in battle who died performing some deed of heroism is not a great loss to the army but may rather be an object of pride to his country. On the other hand the soldier who cannot or will not fight but runs away at the sound of the first enemy gun is a shame to his family and a disgrace to his nation. So a Christian who dies in the faith represents no irreparable loss to the forces of righteousness on earth and certainly no victory for the devil. But when whole regiments of professed believers are too timid to fight and too smug to be ashamed, surely it must bring an astringent smile to the face of the enemy; and it should bring a blush to the cheeks of the whole Church of Christ.
The devil's master strategy for us Christians then is not to kill us physically (though there may be some special situations where physical death fits into his plan better), but to destroy our power to wage spiritual warfare. And how well he has succeeded. The average Christian these days is a harmless enough thing. God knows.
He is a child wearing with considerable self-consciousness the harness of the warrior; he is a sick eaglet that can never mount up with wings; he is a spent pilgrim who has given up the journey and sits with a waxy smile trying to get what pleasure he can from sniffing the wilted flowers he has plucked by the way. That Incredible Christian, 72.
"Oh God, may I never be 'a harmless enough thing,' 'a child wearing...the harness of the warrior,' 'a sick eaglet,' 'a spent pilgrim.' Give me grace to fight valiantly. Amen."
To be entirely safe from the devil's snares the man of God must be completely obedient to the Word of the Lord. The driver on the highway is safe, not when he reads the signs but when he obeys them.
That Incredible Christian, 51.
________________________________
November 3
Spiritual Warfare and Sin: Satan's Strategy
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
--Ephesians 6:13
Now I do not think that Satan much cares to destroy us Christians physically. The soldier dead in battle who died performing some deed of heroism is not a great loss to the army but may rather be an object of pride to his country. On the other hand the soldier who cannot or will not fight but runs away at the sound of the first enemy gun is a shame to his family and a disgrace to his nation. So a Christian who dies in the faith represents no irreparable loss to the forces of righteousness on earth and certainly no victory for the devil. But when whole regiments of professed believers are too timid to fight and too smug to be ashamed, surely it must bring an astringent smile to the face of the enemy; and it should bring a blush to the cheeks of the whole Church of Christ.
The devil's master strategy for us Christians then is not to kill us physically (though there may be some special situations where physical death fits into his plan better), but to destroy our power to wage spiritual warfare. And how well he has succeeded. The average Christian these days is a harmless enough thing. God knows.
He is a child wearing with considerable self-consciousness the harness of the warrior; he is a sick eaglet that can never mount up with wings; he is a spent pilgrim who has given up the journey and sits with a waxy smile trying to get what pleasure he can from sniffing the wilted flowers he has plucked by the way. That Incredible Christian, 72.
"Oh God, may I never be 'a harmless enough thing,' 'a child wearing...the harness of the warrior,' 'a sick eaglet,' 'a spent pilgrim.' Give me grace to fight valiantly. Amen."
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
November 2, 2011
What Robs Men of Courage?
Men today need to step up to their responsibilities as husbands and fathers.
By Dennis Rainey
In 2003, Hurricane Isabel slammed into the East Coast of the United States, lashing North Carolina and Virginia, then moving northward all the way to Canada, leaving 16 dead and cutting power to six million homes. The edges of the hurricane passed through Washington, D.C., prompting the president and members of Congress to find safer quarters.
That was not the case at Arlington National Cemetery, where guards have relentlessly stood vigil at the Tomb of the Unknowns every hour of every day since July 1, 1937. When the hurricane hit, the soldiers remained at their posts even though they were given permission to seek shelter.
That’s what a soldier does. He acknowledges the storm, but he doesn’t give in to it. He stands firm. As a friend told me, “If these men can stand guard over the dead, how much more important is it that I stand guard over the living—my wife and children?”
Like these soldiers, we are called to stand and do our duty while staring down the very storms that seek to rob us of courage, taunting and tempting us to neglect our duty and abandon our posts. These storms are packing some power.
Storm number one: damnable training by fathers
I once met a man who grew up in a remote section of our country. He admitted that the only advice he received as a boy from his father about women was, “Get ’em young. Treat ’em rough. Tell ’em nothing.”
I wonder how that advice worked for him in his marriage.
You could say this is a legacy of the “strong, silent, tough man” image often passed down from father to son. This is the type of misguided training in manhood that has corrupted so many men as the leaders in their homes—selfish men who control their wives and children so that their own needs are met.
And that’s just one part of the problem. Many boys grow up with fathers who are distant and passive. Fathers who rarely engage their families, and when they do, their half-hearted attempts to train their sons may promote irresponsible, or even immoral, behavior. Like the father whose idea of sex education for his 12-year-old son was to take him to a strip joint. There they sat for three hours as the women did their thing onstage. No words were spoken. When they arrived home later that night, the dad told his wife, “There, I did it! Now I’m going to bed.”
Too many men today were raised by fathers who didn’t step up to their responsibilities. Is it any wonder we have a generation of men who feel lost and aimless, not knowing how to face their fears or think rightly about themselves, women, and their own passions?
Storm number two: fatherless families
The relentless, howling winds of a culture of divorce have uprooted the family tree, and with it at least two generations of men. With our high divorce rates and the increasing number of births to single women, the number of children in the United States who live in a single-parent household has more than doubled since 1978.
Children are the innocent victims of this raging storm. The bottom line: Dad is AWOL in far too many homes today. This phenomenon has prompted David Blankenhorn, founder of the Institute for American Values, to pronounce that the fatherless family “is a social invention of the most daring and untested design. It represents a radical departure from virtually all of human history and experience.”
The social implications of fatherless families are endless. For example, the greatest predictor of a child dropping out of high school, committing a crime, and going to prison is his or her experience of growing up in a home without a dad. Many young people grow up today in areas where the only adult male role models they know are live-in boyfriends or gang leaders. The fallout has only just begun: a crop of weak young men and frustrated women who are looking for real men.
One of the greatest challenges any boy could endure is trying to become a man without a father to show him how. How can a boy know what it looks like to behave as a man, love like a man, and be a man in the battle if the main man in his life has abandoned him?
My friend Crawford Loritts works with young men to build their skills as leaders. In his book, Leadership as an Identity, he writes that the issue of courage keeps coming up in their conversations:
Many of [these young men] grapple with fear. … I think that the dismantling of our families over the past 50 years or so has almost institutionalized fear and uncertainty. Divorce, the rise of single-parent households, and the tragic assortment of abuse and dysfunction in our families have produced a generation with many young people who are afraid of risk, and afraid to make mistakes.
So many of our young men grew up in homes in which they had limited or no contact with their fathers, or they had dads who were detached and didn’t provide any meaningful leadership. We are left with a legacy of men who in varying degrees have been feminized. They are uncertain about who and what a man is, and how a man acts and behaves. They are fearful of assuming responsibility and taking the initiative in charting direction.
Storm number three: a culture of confusion
My son came home one weekend from his university—a large southern school not exactly known for being the center for liberal thought—and shared with me that he had been taught in class that there weren’t two sexes but five: male, female, homosexual male, homosexual female, and transgender. No wonder young men are confused and young women are left wondering where the real men are! We’re living in a multiple-choice culture: Are you an A, B, C, D, or E? Male sexuality and identity have become a bewildering array of options.
Think of what it must be like for young boys growing up today. Media outlets and educational elites attack the traditional roles of men and claim that a man who seeks to be a leader in his family is actually oppressing his wife and children. Our culture is permeated with sexuality, where children are exposed to explicit messages and distorted images at a far younger age than their parents were. The educational system doesn’t seem to know how to teach boys, and as a result, girls are leaping ahead in test scores, college enrollment, and graduation rates. Boys are increasingly medicated because their parents don’t know how to channel their masculinity, adventure, and drive.
Is it any wonder that boys grow up so confused?
“I don’t know how to do family”
In the wake of these storms lies a generation of men who don’t know how to be men. They don’t know how to have real relationships—with women, with their children, or with other men. And many grow up with what I call a courage deficit—they have little idea what courage looks like in a man, or what types of courageous choices they need to make as they move through their lives.
One of these men came to my front door one Saturday morning. I’ll never forget him standing sheepishly in the doorway. “Mr. Rainey, in the past couple of years, I’ve gotten married and had two children,” he said, “and I’ve determined that I don’t know how to do marriage. And I don’t know how to do family. Could you help me?”
This young man articulated what millions of young men are feeling today—inadequate, fearful, angry, and in desperate need of manhood training and vision. The Bible tells many stories of good men behaving badly—single men, married men, and fathers gone mild or gone wild through compromise, lust, murder, jealousy, anger, passivity, or cowardice. Scripture paints men as they really are, hiding none of their blemishes or barbaric ways. The honesty of Scripture is one of the reasons I knew that the Bible would be the place to go to learn what a real man should be and do. I began looking through the Scriptures, focusing on passages that talk about men and manhood, and along the way, I discovered five prevailing themes.
1. A man controls his emotions and passions. Whether single or married, a real man tames his passions. He doesn’t abuse women and children; he protects them. He keeps his hands off a woman who is not his wife, and he treats his wife with love, respect, and dignity. He keeps his eyes off pornographic images. He protects a single woman’s virginity and innocence. He’s not a jerk defined by his exploits below the waist. He’s a man with a heart, head, and conscience.
2. A man provides for his family. First Timothy 5:8 exhorts us, “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” These are strident words. When a man doesn’t work and provide for his family, he feels a sense of shame. His self-worth sinks. A man who doesn’t work, who can’t keep a job, who moves from job to job, or who refuses to assume his responsibility creates insecurity in his wife and children. Every man needs to provide for his family.
I find that most men feel a natural sense of responsibility in this area, but many don’t seem to understand that providing for their family means more than meeting physical needs. It also means taking responsibility to provide for emotional and spiritual needs. A father should train his children and prepare them to become responsible adults who know how to negotiate the swift and sometimes evil currents of culture.
3. A man protects his family. To borrow an illustration from John Piper and Wayne Grudem on the essence of masculinity: When you are lying in bed with your wife, and you hear the sound of a window being opened in your kitchen at 3 a.m., do you shake her awake and say, “The last time this occurred, I was the one who took our baseball bat and investigated to see if someone was breaking into our house. Now it’s your turn, Sweetheart. Here’s the bat!”?
No! That’s when the man gets up. But being a protector calls for more than ensuring physical safety. Proverbs 4:10–15 describes a father who protects his son by passing on wisdom, helping him build godly character, and teaching him to reject the lies and temptations of the world. This father is protecting not only his son but also the generations to follow as the wisdom he shares gets passed on and on.
4. A man serves and leads his family. Those two words—serve and lead—may seem like a contradiction, but they are inseparable according to Scripture. While the Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:23 that “the husband is the head of the wife,” he quickly puts to rest any notions that this leadership allows any form of selfish male dominance. He completes the sentence with “as Christ also is the head of the church.” Then the passage goes on to say that husbands should love their wives “just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (verse 25).
This paints a picture of leadership that is contrary to how the world views it. A man is called to be a servant-leader—to take responsibility for his wife and children and to put their needs ahead of his own. He is called to demonstrate selfless, sacrificial love—the type of love we see in God toward his children.
5. A man follows God’s design for true masculinity. Micah 6:8 tells us, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” The core of a man’s life should be his relationship with God. The man who walks humbly with God is motivated and empowered to step up and assume the difficult responsibilities that come his way.
You see, a courageous man is never off duty.
Men today need to step up to their responsibilities as husbands and fathers.
By Dennis Rainey
In 2003, Hurricane Isabel slammed into the East Coast of the United States, lashing North Carolina and Virginia, then moving northward all the way to Canada, leaving 16 dead and cutting power to six million homes. The edges of the hurricane passed through Washington, D.C., prompting the president and members of Congress to find safer quarters.
That was not the case at Arlington National Cemetery, where guards have relentlessly stood vigil at the Tomb of the Unknowns every hour of every day since July 1, 1937. When the hurricane hit, the soldiers remained at their posts even though they were given permission to seek shelter.
That’s what a soldier does. He acknowledges the storm, but he doesn’t give in to it. He stands firm. As a friend told me, “If these men can stand guard over the dead, how much more important is it that I stand guard over the living—my wife and children?”
Like these soldiers, we are called to stand and do our duty while staring down the very storms that seek to rob us of courage, taunting and tempting us to neglect our duty and abandon our posts. These storms are packing some power.
Storm number one: damnable training by fathers
I once met a man who grew up in a remote section of our country. He admitted that the only advice he received as a boy from his father about women was, “Get ’em young. Treat ’em rough. Tell ’em nothing.”
I wonder how that advice worked for him in his marriage.
You could say this is a legacy of the “strong, silent, tough man” image often passed down from father to son. This is the type of misguided training in manhood that has corrupted so many men as the leaders in their homes—selfish men who control their wives and children so that their own needs are met.
And that’s just one part of the problem. Many boys grow up with fathers who are distant and passive. Fathers who rarely engage their families, and when they do, their half-hearted attempts to train their sons may promote irresponsible, or even immoral, behavior. Like the father whose idea of sex education for his 12-year-old son was to take him to a strip joint. There they sat for three hours as the women did their thing onstage. No words were spoken. When they arrived home later that night, the dad told his wife, “There, I did it! Now I’m going to bed.”
Too many men today were raised by fathers who didn’t step up to their responsibilities. Is it any wonder we have a generation of men who feel lost and aimless, not knowing how to face their fears or think rightly about themselves, women, and their own passions?
Storm number two: fatherless families
The relentless, howling winds of a culture of divorce have uprooted the family tree, and with it at least two generations of men. With our high divorce rates and the increasing number of births to single women, the number of children in the United States who live in a single-parent household has more than doubled since 1978.
Children are the innocent victims of this raging storm. The bottom line: Dad is AWOL in far too many homes today. This phenomenon has prompted David Blankenhorn, founder of the Institute for American Values, to pronounce that the fatherless family “is a social invention of the most daring and untested design. It represents a radical departure from virtually all of human history and experience.”
The social implications of fatherless families are endless. For example, the greatest predictor of a child dropping out of high school, committing a crime, and going to prison is his or her experience of growing up in a home without a dad. Many young people grow up today in areas where the only adult male role models they know are live-in boyfriends or gang leaders. The fallout has only just begun: a crop of weak young men and frustrated women who are looking for real men.
One of the greatest challenges any boy could endure is trying to become a man without a father to show him how. How can a boy know what it looks like to behave as a man, love like a man, and be a man in the battle if the main man in his life has abandoned him?
My friend Crawford Loritts works with young men to build their skills as leaders. In his book, Leadership as an Identity, he writes that the issue of courage keeps coming up in their conversations:
Many of [these young men] grapple with fear. … I think that the dismantling of our families over the past 50 years or so has almost institutionalized fear and uncertainty. Divorce, the rise of single-parent households, and the tragic assortment of abuse and dysfunction in our families have produced a generation with many young people who are afraid of risk, and afraid to make mistakes.
So many of our young men grew up in homes in which they had limited or no contact with their fathers, or they had dads who were detached and didn’t provide any meaningful leadership. We are left with a legacy of men who in varying degrees have been feminized. They are uncertain about who and what a man is, and how a man acts and behaves. They are fearful of assuming responsibility and taking the initiative in charting direction.
Storm number three: a culture of confusion
My son came home one weekend from his university—a large southern school not exactly known for being the center for liberal thought—and shared with me that he had been taught in class that there weren’t two sexes but five: male, female, homosexual male, homosexual female, and transgender. No wonder young men are confused and young women are left wondering where the real men are! We’re living in a multiple-choice culture: Are you an A, B, C, D, or E? Male sexuality and identity have become a bewildering array of options.
Think of what it must be like for young boys growing up today. Media outlets and educational elites attack the traditional roles of men and claim that a man who seeks to be a leader in his family is actually oppressing his wife and children. Our culture is permeated with sexuality, where children are exposed to explicit messages and distorted images at a far younger age than their parents were. The educational system doesn’t seem to know how to teach boys, and as a result, girls are leaping ahead in test scores, college enrollment, and graduation rates. Boys are increasingly medicated because their parents don’t know how to channel their masculinity, adventure, and drive.
Is it any wonder that boys grow up so confused?
“I don’t know how to do family”
In the wake of these storms lies a generation of men who don’t know how to be men. They don’t know how to have real relationships—with women, with their children, or with other men. And many grow up with what I call a courage deficit—they have little idea what courage looks like in a man, or what types of courageous choices they need to make as they move through their lives.
One of these men came to my front door one Saturday morning. I’ll never forget him standing sheepishly in the doorway. “Mr. Rainey, in the past couple of years, I’ve gotten married and had two children,” he said, “and I’ve determined that I don’t know how to do marriage. And I don’t know how to do family. Could you help me?”
This young man articulated what millions of young men are feeling today—inadequate, fearful, angry, and in desperate need of manhood training and vision. The Bible tells many stories of good men behaving badly—single men, married men, and fathers gone mild or gone wild through compromise, lust, murder, jealousy, anger, passivity, or cowardice. Scripture paints men as they really are, hiding none of their blemishes or barbaric ways. The honesty of Scripture is one of the reasons I knew that the Bible would be the place to go to learn what a real man should be and do. I began looking through the Scriptures, focusing on passages that talk about men and manhood, and along the way, I discovered five prevailing themes.
1. A man controls his emotions and passions. Whether single or married, a real man tames his passions. He doesn’t abuse women and children; he protects them. He keeps his hands off a woman who is not his wife, and he treats his wife with love, respect, and dignity. He keeps his eyes off pornographic images. He protects a single woman’s virginity and innocence. He’s not a jerk defined by his exploits below the waist. He’s a man with a heart, head, and conscience.
2. A man provides for his family. First Timothy 5:8 exhorts us, “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” These are strident words. When a man doesn’t work and provide for his family, he feels a sense of shame. His self-worth sinks. A man who doesn’t work, who can’t keep a job, who moves from job to job, or who refuses to assume his responsibility creates insecurity in his wife and children. Every man needs to provide for his family.
I find that most men feel a natural sense of responsibility in this area, but many don’t seem to understand that providing for their family means more than meeting physical needs. It also means taking responsibility to provide for emotional and spiritual needs. A father should train his children and prepare them to become responsible adults who know how to negotiate the swift and sometimes evil currents of culture.
3. A man protects his family. To borrow an illustration from John Piper and Wayne Grudem on the essence of masculinity: When you are lying in bed with your wife, and you hear the sound of a window being opened in your kitchen at 3 a.m., do you shake her awake and say, “The last time this occurred, I was the one who took our baseball bat and investigated to see if someone was breaking into our house. Now it’s your turn, Sweetheart. Here’s the bat!”?
No! That’s when the man gets up. But being a protector calls for more than ensuring physical safety. Proverbs 4:10–15 describes a father who protects his son by passing on wisdom, helping him build godly character, and teaching him to reject the lies and temptations of the world. This father is protecting not only his son but also the generations to follow as the wisdom he shares gets passed on and on.
4. A man serves and leads his family. Those two words—serve and lead—may seem like a contradiction, but they are inseparable according to Scripture. While the Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:23 that “the husband is the head of the wife,” he quickly puts to rest any notions that this leadership allows any form of selfish male dominance. He completes the sentence with “as Christ also is the head of the church.” Then the passage goes on to say that husbands should love their wives “just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (verse 25).
This paints a picture of leadership that is contrary to how the world views it. A man is called to be a servant-leader—to take responsibility for his wife and children and to put their needs ahead of his own. He is called to demonstrate selfless, sacrificial love—the type of love we see in God toward his children.
5. A man follows God’s design for true masculinity. Micah 6:8 tells us, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” The core of a man’s life should be his relationship with God. The man who walks humbly with God is motivated and empowered to step up and assume the difficult responsibilities that come his way.
You see, a courageous man is never off duty.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
November 1, 2011
Night Light
Every parent of a child over 2 has likely been awakened in the middle of the night by their little one standing bedside tugging on them, with tears saying, “Mommy — Daddy, I’m afraid!” There’s something about darkness that breeds frightening, monstrous imaginations in a child.
But terror in the night is not proprietary to toddlers. Adults understand it too. How many times have you been robbed of sleep by worry? How often do you find yourself tossing and turning in the darkness, trying to get some relief from the panic you sense in your soul.
Fear is a monster. It can creep up on us slowly or assault us suddenly. When it comes it paints ugly, evil pictures in our minds. It takes the smallest concerns or problems and exaggerates them to irrational, illogical proportions and conclusions. It takes our minds hostage and hijacks our emotions. It paralyzes us with feelings of impotence. It sentences us to inevitable, unavoidable doom. When fear takes over it’s like a fast moving freight train heading for a massive, impenetrable wall. Fear convinces us that there’s no way to stop the crash or the consequences of it.
It’s amazing what a little light will do to dispel fear. Light gets rid of the haunting, monster-like shadows that thrive in the night. Light produces calm and peace. It brings perspective. The glow of a night light often diminishes and sometimes completely drives away the fears that overwhelm us in the darkness.
We find a great example of the power of light to free us from fear in a Bible story describing an experience in the lives of Jesus’ disciples. After Jesus was crucified, His disciples were overtaken with fear. They were sure that, like Jesus, they would be arrested and executed too. Take a look at one of their dark, fearful moments:
That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid … — John 20:19 (NLT)
Following Jesus’ death, the 11 apostles felt very vulnerable to attack. In the darkness of Easter Sunday evening, still questioning the reality of Jesus’ resurrection, they locked themselves in a room, huddling together in fear. They anticipated a future filled with lots of bad things.
The Greek word used for “fear” in this passage is “phobos.” It means “a state of severe distress, aroused by intense concern for impending pain, danger or evil.” These guys were paralyzed, terrorized, and neutralized by the imaginations of the horrible possibilities ahead for them.
But something wonderful happened that night:
… Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! ”Peace be with you,” He said. As He spoke, He showed them the wounds in His hands and His side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again He said, “Peace be with you …” – John 20:19-21 (NLT)
Jesus stepped into the fear-filled room that evening. The One who is “The Light of the World” showed up and declared “Peace!” to His terrorized disciples. He reminded them that He was alive, that He was the “Risen Lord,” and that He was with them. When He entered the room, every demon of fear exited! The men were immediately delivered from their tormenting thoughts. The true “Light” invaded and conquered their fears that night!
Are you battling fear? Do you struggle with ugly, evil monsters of darkness that intimidate and emotionally eviscerate you – depriving you of rest and peace?
Remember, the same Jesus who revealed Himself to a group of fearful men hunkered in a locked room over 2,000 years ago is alive today and He’s available for you. You can call on Him. You can trust Him. He’s the “Light” that will transform your dark night of fear. Let Jesus be your Night Light!
Pastor Dale
Every parent of a child over 2 has likely been awakened in the middle of the night by their little one standing bedside tugging on them, with tears saying, “Mommy — Daddy, I’m afraid!” There’s something about darkness that breeds frightening, monstrous imaginations in a child.
But terror in the night is not proprietary to toddlers. Adults understand it too. How many times have you been robbed of sleep by worry? How often do you find yourself tossing and turning in the darkness, trying to get some relief from the panic you sense in your soul.
Fear is a monster. It can creep up on us slowly or assault us suddenly. When it comes it paints ugly, evil pictures in our minds. It takes the smallest concerns or problems and exaggerates them to irrational, illogical proportions and conclusions. It takes our minds hostage and hijacks our emotions. It paralyzes us with feelings of impotence. It sentences us to inevitable, unavoidable doom. When fear takes over it’s like a fast moving freight train heading for a massive, impenetrable wall. Fear convinces us that there’s no way to stop the crash or the consequences of it.
It’s amazing what a little light will do to dispel fear. Light gets rid of the haunting, monster-like shadows that thrive in the night. Light produces calm and peace. It brings perspective. The glow of a night light often diminishes and sometimes completely drives away the fears that overwhelm us in the darkness.
We find a great example of the power of light to free us from fear in a Bible story describing an experience in the lives of Jesus’ disciples. After Jesus was crucified, His disciples were overtaken with fear. They were sure that, like Jesus, they would be arrested and executed too. Take a look at one of their dark, fearful moments:
That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid … — John 20:19 (NLT)
Following Jesus’ death, the 11 apostles felt very vulnerable to attack. In the darkness of Easter Sunday evening, still questioning the reality of Jesus’ resurrection, they locked themselves in a room, huddling together in fear. They anticipated a future filled with lots of bad things.
The Greek word used for “fear” in this passage is “phobos.” It means “a state of severe distress, aroused by intense concern for impending pain, danger or evil.” These guys were paralyzed, terrorized, and neutralized by the imaginations of the horrible possibilities ahead for them.
But something wonderful happened that night:
… Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! ”Peace be with you,” He said. As He spoke, He showed them the wounds in His hands and His side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again He said, “Peace be with you …” – John 20:19-21 (NLT)
Jesus stepped into the fear-filled room that evening. The One who is “The Light of the World” showed up and declared “Peace!” to His terrorized disciples. He reminded them that He was alive, that He was the “Risen Lord,” and that He was with them. When He entered the room, every demon of fear exited! The men were immediately delivered from their tormenting thoughts. The true “Light” invaded and conquered their fears that night!
Are you battling fear? Do you struggle with ugly, evil monsters of darkness that intimidate and emotionally eviscerate you – depriving you of rest and peace?
Remember, the same Jesus who revealed Himself to a group of fearful men hunkered in a locked room over 2,000 years ago is alive today and He’s available for you. You can call on Him. You can trust Him. He’s the “Light” that will transform your dark night of fear. Let Jesus be your Night Light!
Pastor Dale
October 31, 2011
A. W. Tozer
October: Failure and Success
No man is worthy to succeed until he is willing to fail. No man is morally worthy of success in religious activities until he is willing that the honor of succeeding should go to another if God so wills.
Born After Midnight, 58.
________________________________
October 31
Failure and Success: I Refuse to Compete
So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. --1 Corinthians 3:7-8
"Dear Lord, I refuse henceforth to compete with any of Thy servants. They have congregations larger than mine. So be it. I rejoice in their success. They have greater gifts. Very well. That is not in their power nor in mine. I am humbly grateful for their greater gifts and my smaller ones. I only pray that I may use to Thy glory such modest gifts as I possess. I will not compare myself with any, nor try to build up my self-esteem by noting where I may excel one or another in Thy holy work. I herewith make a blanket disavowal of all intrinsic worth. I am but an unprofitable servant. I gladly go to the foot of the class and own myself the least of Thy people. If I err in myself judgment and actually underestimate myself I do not want to know it. I purpose to pray for others and to rejoice in their prosperity as if it were my own. And indeed it is my own if it is Thine own, for what is Thine is mine, and while one plants and another waters it is Thou alone that giveth the increase." The Price of Neglect, 104-105.
"Amen."
October: Failure and Success
No man is worthy to succeed until he is willing to fail. No man is morally worthy of success in religious activities until he is willing that the honor of succeeding should go to another if God so wills.
Born After Midnight, 58.
________________________________
October 31
Failure and Success: I Refuse to Compete
So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. --1 Corinthians 3:7-8
"Dear Lord, I refuse henceforth to compete with any of Thy servants. They have congregations larger than mine. So be it. I rejoice in their success. They have greater gifts. Very well. That is not in their power nor in mine. I am humbly grateful for their greater gifts and my smaller ones. I only pray that I may use to Thy glory such modest gifts as I possess. I will not compare myself with any, nor try to build up my self-esteem by noting where I may excel one or another in Thy holy work. I herewith make a blanket disavowal of all intrinsic worth. I am but an unprofitable servant. I gladly go to the foot of the class and own myself the least of Thy people. If I err in myself judgment and actually underestimate myself I do not want to know it. I purpose to pray for others and to rejoice in their prosperity as if it were my own. And indeed it is my own if it is Thine own, for what is Thine is mine, and while one plants and another waters it is Thou alone that giveth the increase." The Price of Neglect, 104-105.
"Amen."
Friday, October 28, 2011
October 28, 2011
No turning back
In the face of tragedy, a family's choice to praise God challenges us to do the same | Andrée Seu
Scott and Janet Willis lost six children in a single day when a piece of metal fell off a truck and punctured the gas tank of their minivan. That's the part of the story that is public, so I am not telling tales out of school. The accident unraveled a corruption scandal of bribes for driver's licenses funneled into campaign chests, and ultimately sent a governor of Illinois to prison.
But this is an essay about meeting the Willises 17 years later at a Christian conference, and about Psalm 34, and the triumph of Christendom by that simplest and most elusive of acts—believing God. And it is about the responsibility placed on me by knowing this now. And on you too, if you continue to read.
By the ball of fire that consumed their minivan on Interstate 94, Scott (his face badly burned) said to his wife (her hands badly burned) what she told me are the best words he could have said: "It was very quick. And they're with the Lord now." Then, as he was helped to one ambulance and she to another, he called back to her: "Psalm 34."
Surrounded by emergency responders, Janet kept praying out, "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth," with the accent on "will." I believe it is the same way Jesus must have cried to His Father, "I will put My trust in Him" (Hebrews 2:13), not from a lotus position, but in torment.
Because of the Willises, there is no turning back for me. I can never again countenance childhood trauma as an excuse for present sins.
Gone is my ability ever to say that the Lord does not expect us to praise Him at all times. The oft-heard caveat that in certain sufferings it is impossible to praise the Lord—and uncharitable to expect another to do so—is totally and irreversibly undercut by this testimony.
Gone forever is my ability to engage in ivory tower discussions on the applicability of certain Scriptures to my life. All speculations over whether the Psalms are merely liturgy or are meant to be obeyed are forthwith canceled. The Willises read the words "I will bless the Lord at all times" and came to the astonishing conclusion that it meant they should bless the Lord at all times.
Gone, therefore, is my ability to take Scripture at anything but face value.
No turning back.
Thanks to the Willises, I can never again entertain as a theoretical possibility the notion that a person is unable to keep God's commandments.
Janet Willis chose, in an act of volition stripped bare of any warmth of feeling, to trust in her God.
Blown out of the water is any attempt to come up with a scenario in which I might be excused for abandoning my faith. The Willises robbed me of that luxury when they underwent a testing at the extremities of human experience, and overcame—as the Son of Man with eyes of flame among the lampstands bids us overcome.
Banished are my quid pro quos, the restrictions I put on God's discipline unawares; the time limits I set Him for pulling rescue out of affliction; the lines I would not let Him cross; the right I reserved to judge His justice. The Willises have placed their stake here: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15).
"Sing, O barren one, who did not bear" (Isaiah 54:1). A command to sing at such a time would be cruel counsel if it were not true that in worship we find deliverance. Praise meets trauma where nothing else can reach. Praise in the face of devastation releases blessings obtainable in no other way.
The presence of God is directly related to worship.
Because the Willises chose to praise, I can choose. And because the Willises chose to praise, I must choose. They have upped the ante of my life. Meeting them has increased my obligation, as every testimony of God's deeds increases obligation. I cannot pretend we never made acquaintance.
What a privilege to meet someone to whom the Lord has entrusted so much suffering.
Email: aseu@worldmag.com
In the face of tragedy, a family's choice to praise God challenges us to do the same | Andrée Seu
Scott and Janet Willis lost six children in a single day when a piece of metal fell off a truck and punctured the gas tank of their minivan. That's the part of the story that is public, so I am not telling tales out of school. The accident unraveled a corruption scandal of bribes for driver's licenses funneled into campaign chests, and ultimately sent a governor of Illinois to prison.
But this is an essay about meeting the Willises 17 years later at a Christian conference, and about Psalm 34, and the triumph of Christendom by that simplest and most elusive of acts—believing God. And it is about the responsibility placed on me by knowing this now. And on you too, if you continue to read.
By the ball of fire that consumed their minivan on Interstate 94, Scott (his face badly burned) said to his wife (her hands badly burned) what she told me are the best words he could have said: "It was very quick. And they're with the Lord now." Then, as he was helped to one ambulance and she to another, he called back to her: "Psalm 34."
Surrounded by emergency responders, Janet kept praying out, "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth," with the accent on "will." I believe it is the same way Jesus must have cried to His Father, "I will put My trust in Him" (Hebrews 2:13), not from a lotus position, but in torment.
Because of the Willises, there is no turning back for me. I can never again countenance childhood trauma as an excuse for present sins.
Gone is my ability ever to say that the Lord does not expect us to praise Him at all times. The oft-heard caveat that in certain sufferings it is impossible to praise the Lord—and uncharitable to expect another to do so—is totally and irreversibly undercut by this testimony.
Gone forever is my ability to engage in ivory tower discussions on the applicability of certain Scriptures to my life. All speculations over whether the Psalms are merely liturgy or are meant to be obeyed are forthwith canceled. The Willises read the words "I will bless the Lord at all times" and came to the astonishing conclusion that it meant they should bless the Lord at all times.
Gone, therefore, is my ability to take Scripture at anything but face value.
No turning back.
Thanks to the Willises, I can never again entertain as a theoretical possibility the notion that a person is unable to keep God's commandments.
Janet Willis chose, in an act of volition stripped bare of any warmth of feeling, to trust in her God.
Blown out of the water is any attempt to come up with a scenario in which I might be excused for abandoning my faith. The Willises robbed me of that luxury when they underwent a testing at the extremities of human experience, and overcame—as the Son of Man with eyes of flame among the lampstands bids us overcome.
Banished are my quid pro quos, the restrictions I put on God's discipline unawares; the time limits I set Him for pulling rescue out of affliction; the lines I would not let Him cross; the right I reserved to judge His justice. The Willises have placed their stake here: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15).
"Sing, O barren one, who did not bear" (Isaiah 54:1). A command to sing at such a time would be cruel counsel if it were not true that in worship we find deliverance. Praise meets trauma where nothing else can reach. Praise in the face of devastation releases blessings obtainable in no other way.
The presence of God is directly related to worship.
Because the Willises chose to praise, I can choose. And because the Willises chose to praise, I must choose. They have upped the ante of my life. Meeting them has increased my obligation, as every testimony of God's deeds increases obligation. I cannot pretend we never made acquaintance.
What a privilege to meet someone to whom the Lord has entrusted so much suffering.
Email: aseu@worldmag.com
Thursday, October 27, 2011
October 27, 2011
Hope Again!
How’s your hope? A high level of hope is one of the keys to a healthy and holy life. The loss of hope is a horrible thing. It leads to discouragement, defeat and despair. It makes our souls a breeding ground for all kinds of destructive thoughts and actions.
One of the great themes of the Bible is hope. The Lord regularly reminds us that we have reason to hope in Him. This is clearly seen in Old Testament stories of God’s dealings with His people. Here’s one example:
Therefore this is what the Lord says: “I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,” declares the Lord. – Zechariah 1:16 (NIV)
After 70 years of captivity in Babylon, God was ready to restore His people to their homeland. Although they had put themselves in this bad situation through their continual disobedience to Him, the Lord still had good plans for them. Perpetual punishment and misery was not what God wanted for His people. The 70 years of divine discipline was designed to teach them to love Him and walk in HIs ways, because His ways were best for their lives. In this passage God gave them promises of redemption and restoration. He held out reassurance and hope for their future.
God is merciful and holds out wonderful promises for us too, even for those who have made bad decisions and terrible mistakes in life. He promises to rebuild what our sins have destroyed. He offers us hope — good promises for our future — good promises we can depend on.
The gift of hope is a wonderful gift. Real hope is not fantasy or wishful thinking. It’s something substantial, based in reality; based in promises given by someone with integrity and capacity.
Integrity refers to the character of the one making the promises. They don’t lie. They don’t promise what they have no intention of delivering. Their word can be counted on as reliable and true. Capacity refers to the ability of the one making the promise to bring about or deliver on what is promised. Capacity is all about having the power and resources to do what someone says they’re going to do.
Someone can have great integrity — undeniable, absolute sincerity and unquestionable, good intentions — but inadequate resources to fully deliver on a promise. On the other hand, someone can have great capacity to deliver on a promise, but have no integrity — their word can’t be trusted. For hope to be real, it must be based on the character and promises of someone with both integrity and capacity.
This is our God!
God is a God of integrity. His promises are true, sure and reliable. He is trustworthy.
He’s also a God of capacity. He has the power and resources to do whatever He says He will do, no matter how impossible it looks or gracious it seems to us.
God invites us to grab hold of genuine hope based on His promises. He encourages us to rest in this hope. He asks us to patiently wait for the fulfillment of His promises. He’s a God who never lies and is well-able to do what He says He will do. Go ahead and hope again!
Pastor Dale
How’s your hope? A high level of hope is one of the keys to a healthy and holy life. The loss of hope is a horrible thing. It leads to discouragement, defeat and despair. It makes our souls a breeding ground for all kinds of destructive thoughts and actions.
One of the great themes of the Bible is hope. The Lord regularly reminds us that we have reason to hope in Him. This is clearly seen in Old Testament stories of God’s dealings with His people. Here’s one example:
Therefore this is what the Lord says: “I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,” declares the Lord. – Zechariah 1:16 (NIV)
After 70 years of captivity in Babylon, God was ready to restore His people to their homeland. Although they had put themselves in this bad situation through their continual disobedience to Him, the Lord still had good plans for them. Perpetual punishment and misery was not what God wanted for His people. The 70 years of divine discipline was designed to teach them to love Him and walk in HIs ways, because His ways were best for their lives. In this passage God gave them promises of redemption and restoration. He held out reassurance and hope for their future.
God is merciful and holds out wonderful promises for us too, even for those who have made bad decisions and terrible mistakes in life. He promises to rebuild what our sins have destroyed. He offers us hope — good promises for our future — good promises we can depend on.
The gift of hope is a wonderful gift. Real hope is not fantasy or wishful thinking. It’s something substantial, based in reality; based in promises given by someone with integrity and capacity.
Integrity refers to the character of the one making the promises. They don’t lie. They don’t promise what they have no intention of delivering. Their word can be counted on as reliable and true. Capacity refers to the ability of the one making the promise to bring about or deliver on what is promised. Capacity is all about having the power and resources to do what someone says they’re going to do.
Someone can have great integrity — undeniable, absolute sincerity and unquestionable, good intentions — but inadequate resources to fully deliver on a promise. On the other hand, someone can have great capacity to deliver on a promise, but have no integrity — their word can’t be trusted. For hope to be real, it must be based on the character and promises of someone with both integrity and capacity.
This is our God!
God is a God of integrity. His promises are true, sure and reliable. He is trustworthy.
He’s also a God of capacity. He has the power and resources to do whatever He says He will do, no matter how impossible it looks or gracious it seems to us.
God invites us to grab hold of genuine hope based on His promises. He encourages us to rest in this hope. He asks us to patiently wait for the fulfillment of His promises. He’s a God who never lies and is well-able to do what He says He will do. Go ahead and hope again!
Pastor Dale
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
October 26, 2011
Answers for Unanswered Prayer
Gary E. Yates
Exodus 2:22-23
Chaplain Max Helton prayed beside the car of Dale Earnhardt prior to the start of the 2001 Daytona 500. Earnhardt told Helton, "Just pray that I'll be wise in putting the car at the right place at the right time . . . and be able to drive with wisdom." Holding hands, they prayed for wisdom and safety. In that very race, Earnhardt lost his life in a final lap crash.
We have all had the experience of unanswered prayer. We pray for God's healing for a loved one. We pray for God to bring revival and renewal to our churches. We pray for the suicide bombings to end and for our troops to come home. Why does nothing seem to change when God has promised us, "Ask and you will receive"? Is Jesus being totally truthful when he tells us, "If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it"?
We will never have all the answers to unanswered prayer, but the story of the exodus in the Old Testament provides us with some important perspectives when we are struggling with the silence of heaven. In Exodus 2:23, Israel cries out for God to deliver them from their bondage in Egypt. The people waited for twelve long chapters, a wait that must have seemed like forever, before God completely answered their prayers. What we learn from their waiting will help us the next time we are struggling with unanswered prayer or God's answer is not what we have asked for or expected.
I. We need to remember that God is answering our prayers even before we pray them.
Before the people ever pray for deliverance, God has already begun the process of providing a deliverer. A baby at the beginning of chapter two is the unknown answer to the prayer at the end of chapter two. Even when Moses goes from being a prince in Egypt to a fugitive in Midian, there is a reminder that God has a special purpose for Moses's life. In Midian, Moses drives away a bunch of bullies who are harassing the daughters of Jethro and he waters their sheep. It foreshadows precisely what Moses is going to do for Israel — he's going to confront the biggest bully of all and then spend 40 years of his life taking care of God's sheep.
When you're waiting for an answer to prayer it helps to remember that God already has the answer worked out before we are even aware enough to know our need or articulate the words of our prayers. God knows the beginning, middle, and end of every circumstance and situation. Jesus reminds us that "your Father knows what you need before you ask him." Israel needed a deliverer and the Lord knew about it before Israel even asked.
II. We need to remember God's care and concern even when our prayers are not being answered.
God's complete answer to Israel's prayer in 2:23 doesn't come for twelve long chapters, but notice what follows immediately in verse 24 — a reminder of God's concern for his people. As soon as Israel "groans" and "cries," God "hears." God is immediately touched by the cry of his people.
The name of "Yahweh" is prominent in the book of Exodus. When Moses asks for God's name at the burning bush, God answers that his name is "I AM" (the first-person form of Yahweh) (3:14). What does that name mean? Why does the disclosure of the personal name of the God of the universe sound like the old Abbott and Costello routine "Who's on first?" This name "I am" could mean self-existence; it could mean eternality, but those ideas are really too abstract for what is conveyed in this story. Yahweh is God's covenant name, and it means that He is the ever-present helper who is there for his people. It means that God hears the cry of His people as soon as the cry goes up.
You don't have to use a magic formula to get God's attention. You don't have to build up enough faith to earn his answer. You don't have to weary God into giving in. God is concerned at the very moment we come to him with our needs and requests because we belong to him.
III. We need to remember that when we pray, things may get worse before they ever get better.
In the story of the exodus, the children of Israel prayed and things got a lot worse before they ever started to get better.1 In Exodus 5, Moses tells the Pharaoh, "Let my people go!" The Pharaoh's response was not to say, "Thank you, Moses, for bringing this gross injustice to my attention. I'll start the paperwork to expedite their release right away." His response was to take away the straw that the Hebrews had used to make bricks. Moses's career as a labor union negotiator did not get off to a brilliant start. The Pharaoh became more hard-hearted and oppressive than ever. Right before the ultimate deliverance at the Red Sea, Israel was between a rock and a hard place — the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army behind them. God chose not to answer fully and finally until things were as bad as they could possibly be.
God has the freedom to answer our prayers in ways that we don't anticipate or understand. Jerry Sitser reminds us that prayer does not normally "send an arrow straight to the target" but rather more often than not "shoots an arrow that curves and ricochets and even appears to fall short."2 Because of a recent move, our family has been praying for the home that we own in Ohio to sell for more than a year. Then, we finally received an offer, had a contract, and our prayers were answered. While waiting for the deal to be finalized, a rain storm flooded the lower level of our house and now our house is back on the market.
We can pray for our children to come back to the Lord and they become more determined than ever to go the other way. We can pray for God to deliver a friend from an addiction and observe the addiction grip them more tightly. We can pray for God to meet our needs and watch our bank account get smaller.
We become frustrated or resentful (or perhaps even stop praying) in these situations because we believe that God's promise to answer prayer is our guarantee of a smooth and easy life with no bumps in the road. We trust God and he fills the orders. The reality is that God sometimes responds to prayer by bringing more difficulty into our lives. That adversity deepens character, develops faith, and drives us to more desperately seek God. The difficulty may even become the means by which God answers our prayers, just like it was for the Hebrew slaves down in Egypt.
IV. We need to remember that unanswered prayer is not an indication of God's lack of power.
The delay in Israel's answer to prayer had nothing to do with God experiencing a power outage. God's power is all over the book of Exodus. I like to envision the exodus story as a real-life "smackdown" between God and Pharaoh, not like those of the fake variety that you see watching wrestling on television.
In this contest, there is first of all a battle of dueling words. In Exodus 5:1, Moses goes to Pharaoh and announces, "This is what the Lord says — 'Let my people go.'" Then in 5:10, the slave drivers announce, "This is what the Pharaoh says — "No more straw to make bricks for these lazy Hebrews.'" There's a challenge here — whose word is going to stand?
The next thing we see is a battle of dueling snakes in Exodus 7. Aaron's rod becomes a snake in front of the Pharaoh, but the Pharaoh isn't all that impressed because his magicians perform the same trick. But then, . . . Aaron's snake eats up the Egyptian snakes. What's the point? The cobra was the symbol of the Pharaoh's power, and the Egyptians worshipped cobra-deities that were supposed to protect them. The Pharaoh isn't ready to admit defeat, but Aaron's snake had the first "power lunch" in history.
Then, there is a battle of dueling deities in the story of the plagues in Exodus 7-13. The plagues are not just neat special effects that spice up the story; they are carefully designed polemics to stress the greatness of the Lord over the gods of Egypt. The Egyptians believed that Hapi protected the Nile, and so God turned the Nile into blood. They believed that Re was the god of the sun, and so God turned out the lights. They believed that the Pharaoh was a god incarnate, and so God took the life of his firstborn son.
Finally, at the Red Sea in Exodus 14, there is a battle of dueling warriors, when God the Divine Warrior bares his right arm and destroys the Egyptian army. The most powerful army on earth in that day was no match for the Lord. It was said of the Pharaoh of the exodus, "He will make a ruler of the land whom no one can attack."3 The Pharaoh found out the hard way who had real power.
Unanswered prayer doesn't void the omnipotence of God. There is nothing we can ask God that is beyond his ability to accomplish, but the greatest demonstrations of God's power are often found in his answers to our unanswered prayers. Bob Mitchell prayed for the safety of five young missionaries who went to the jungles of South America in order to share the gospel with the Auca Indians, but Jim Elliott and his four companions were brutally murdered. Years later, Mitchell attended a conference in Europe and met an evangelist who was one of the Auca Indians that had murdered Elliott and the other missionaries.4 Only God could orchestrate that kind of answer to an unanswered prayer.
We see in the exodus that the power of God is not something placed at Israel's disposal with the flip of a switch or the pull of a lever. The how and when of God's answer to prayer is determined by what brings him the greatest amount of glory. When God answered, it was done in a way so that even Pharaoh himself could not deny that Yahweh was God over all. Some of the greatest demonstrations of God's power we will ever experience come in God's answers to our unanswered prayers.
We pray to the same God as these Hebrew slaves. Whether God's answer to our prayers is "Yes," "No," or "Wait," his answers are always the perfect expression of his love and power in our lives.
_______________________
Gary Yates is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, VA.
Gary E. Yates
Exodus 2:22-23
Chaplain Max Helton prayed beside the car of Dale Earnhardt prior to the start of the 2001 Daytona 500. Earnhardt told Helton, "Just pray that I'll be wise in putting the car at the right place at the right time . . . and be able to drive with wisdom." Holding hands, they prayed for wisdom and safety. In that very race, Earnhardt lost his life in a final lap crash.
We have all had the experience of unanswered prayer. We pray for God's healing for a loved one. We pray for God to bring revival and renewal to our churches. We pray for the suicide bombings to end and for our troops to come home. Why does nothing seem to change when God has promised us, "Ask and you will receive"? Is Jesus being totally truthful when he tells us, "If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it"?
We will never have all the answers to unanswered prayer, but the story of the exodus in the Old Testament provides us with some important perspectives when we are struggling with the silence of heaven. In Exodus 2:23, Israel cries out for God to deliver them from their bondage in Egypt. The people waited for twelve long chapters, a wait that must have seemed like forever, before God completely answered their prayers. What we learn from their waiting will help us the next time we are struggling with unanswered prayer or God's answer is not what we have asked for or expected.
I. We need to remember that God is answering our prayers even before we pray them.
Before the people ever pray for deliverance, God has already begun the process of providing a deliverer. A baby at the beginning of chapter two is the unknown answer to the prayer at the end of chapter two. Even when Moses goes from being a prince in Egypt to a fugitive in Midian, there is a reminder that God has a special purpose for Moses's life. In Midian, Moses drives away a bunch of bullies who are harassing the daughters of Jethro and he waters their sheep. It foreshadows precisely what Moses is going to do for Israel — he's going to confront the biggest bully of all and then spend 40 years of his life taking care of God's sheep.
When you're waiting for an answer to prayer it helps to remember that God already has the answer worked out before we are even aware enough to know our need or articulate the words of our prayers. God knows the beginning, middle, and end of every circumstance and situation. Jesus reminds us that "your Father knows what you need before you ask him." Israel needed a deliverer and the Lord knew about it before Israel even asked.
II. We need to remember God's care and concern even when our prayers are not being answered.
God's complete answer to Israel's prayer in 2:23 doesn't come for twelve long chapters, but notice what follows immediately in verse 24 — a reminder of God's concern for his people. As soon as Israel "groans" and "cries," God "hears." God is immediately touched by the cry of his people.
The name of "Yahweh" is prominent in the book of Exodus. When Moses asks for God's name at the burning bush, God answers that his name is "I AM" (the first-person form of Yahweh) (3:14). What does that name mean? Why does the disclosure of the personal name of the God of the universe sound like the old Abbott and Costello routine "Who's on first?" This name "I am" could mean self-existence; it could mean eternality, but those ideas are really too abstract for what is conveyed in this story. Yahweh is God's covenant name, and it means that He is the ever-present helper who is there for his people. It means that God hears the cry of His people as soon as the cry goes up.
You don't have to use a magic formula to get God's attention. You don't have to build up enough faith to earn his answer. You don't have to weary God into giving in. God is concerned at the very moment we come to him with our needs and requests because we belong to him.
III. We need to remember that when we pray, things may get worse before they ever get better.
In the story of the exodus, the children of Israel prayed and things got a lot worse before they ever started to get better.1 In Exodus 5, Moses tells the Pharaoh, "Let my people go!" The Pharaoh's response was not to say, "Thank you, Moses, for bringing this gross injustice to my attention. I'll start the paperwork to expedite their release right away." His response was to take away the straw that the Hebrews had used to make bricks. Moses's career as a labor union negotiator did not get off to a brilliant start. The Pharaoh became more hard-hearted and oppressive than ever. Right before the ultimate deliverance at the Red Sea, Israel was between a rock and a hard place — the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army behind them. God chose not to answer fully and finally until things were as bad as they could possibly be.
God has the freedom to answer our prayers in ways that we don't anticipate or understand. Jerry Sitser reminds us that prayer does not normally "send an arrow straight to the target" but rather more often than not "shoots an arrow that curves and ricochets and even appears to fall short."2 Because of a recent move, our family has been praying for the home that we own in Ohio to sell for more than a year. Then, we finally received an offer, had a contract, and our prayers were answered. While waiting for the deal to be finalized, a rain storm flooded the lower level of our house and now our house is back on the market.
We can pray for our children to come back to the Lord and they become more determined than ever to go the other way. We can pray for God to deliver a friend from an addiction and observe the addiction grip them more tightly. We can pray for God to meet our needs and watch our bank account get smaller.
We become frustrated or resentful (or perhaps even stop praying) in these situations because we believe that God's promise to answer prayer is our guarantee of a smooth and easy life with no bumps in the road. We trust God and he fills the orders. The reality is that God sometimes responds to prayer by bringing more difficulty into our lives. That adversity deepens character, develops faith, and drives us to more desperately seek God. The difficulty may even become the means by which God answers our prayers, just like it was for the Hebrew slaves down in Egypt.
IV. We need to remember that unanswered prayer is not an indication of God's lack of power.
The delay in Israel's answer to prayer had nothing to do with God experiencing a power outage. God's power is all over the book of Exodus. I like to envision the exodus story as a real-life "smackdown" between God and Pharaoh, not like those of the fake variety that you see watching wrestling on television.
In this contest, there is first of all a battle of dueling words. In Exodus 5:1, Moses goes to Pharaoh and announces, "This is what the Lord says — 'Let my people go.'" Then in 5:10, the slave drivers announce, "This is what the Pharaoh says — "No more straw to make bricks for these lazy Hebrews.'" There's a challenge here — whose word is going to stand?
The next thing we see is a battle of dueling snakes in Exodus 7. Aaron's rod becomes a snake in front of the Pharaoh, but the Pharaoh isn't all that impressed because his magicians perform the same trick. But then, . . . Aaron's snake eats up the Egyptian snakes. What's the point? The cobra was the symbol of the Pharaoh's power, and the Egyptians worshipped cobra-deities that were supposed to protect them. The Pharaoh isn't ready to admit defeat, but Aaron's snake had the first "power lunch" in history.
Then, there is a battle of dueling deities in the story of the plagues in Exodus 7-13. The plagues are not just neat special effects that spice up the story; they are carefully designed polemics to stress the greatness of the Lord over the gods of Egypt. The Egyptians believed that Hapi protected the Nile, and so God turned the Nile into blood. They believed that Re was the god of the sun, and so God turned out the lights. They believed that the Pharaoh was a god incarnate, and so God took the life of his firstborn son.
Finally, at the Red Sea in Exodus 14, there is a battle of dueling warriors, when God the Divine Warrior bares his right arm and destroys the Egyptian army. The most powerful army on earth in that day was no match for the Lord. It was said of the Pharaoh of the exodus, "He will make a ruler of the land whom no one can attack."3 The Pharaoh found out the hard way who had real power.
Unanswered prayer doesn't void the omnipotence of God. There is nothing we can ask God that is beyond his ability to accomplish, but the greatest demonstrations of God's power are often found in his answers to our unanswered prayers. Bob Mitchell prayed for the safety of five young missionaries who went to the jungles of South America in order to share the gospel with the Auca Indians, but Jim Elliott and his four companions were brutally murdered. Years later, Mitchell attended a conference in Europe and met an evangelist who was one of the Auca Indians that had murdered Elliott and the other missionaries.4 Only God could orchestrate that kind of answer to an unanswered prayer.
We see in the exodus that the power of God is not something placed at Israel's disposal with the flip of a switch or the pull of a lever. The how and when of God's answer to prayer is determined by what brings him the greatest amount of glory. When God answered, it was done in a way so that even Pharaoh himself could not deny that Yahweh was God over all. Some of the greatest demonstrations of God's power we will ever experience come in God's answers to our unanswered prayers.
We pray to the same God as these Hebrew slaves. Whether God's answer to our prayers is "Yes," "No," or "Wait," his answers are always the perfect expression of his love and power in our lives.
_______________________
Gary Yates is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, VA.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
October 25, 2011
Get Up and Get Going
“Nobody’s perfect!” It’s a phrase we often use and hear. It’s usually thrown out as quick cover for some personal mistake or failure. Without much remorse, and as a kind of justifiable excuse, we frequently lean on the plea that everybody makes mistakes.
The fact is, everybody does make mistakes and “nobody’s perfect.” But this reality shouldn’t make us insensitive to our failures. Sins, mistakes and failures call for an appropriate heart response from us.
What is the right response when we miss the mark in our walk with God? How do we recover from spiritual falls and failures?
Take a look at what the Bible says about this:
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. — 1 John 1:8, 9 (NIV)
This is a wonderful promise from God. It tells us about the pathway to forgiveness and spiritual restoration. Let’s take a look at the road that brings us back from our failures.
Spiritual recovery and restoration involves at least 5 steps:
1. Conviction.
We cannot deal with a sin or failure that we don’t see. The Holy Spirit works in us to show us our sins. He helps us to see where we’re missing the mark with God. Our responsibility is to keep a tender, sensitive heart that is quick to hear and respond to the Holy Spirit’s convicting work when He points out something in us that is wrong.
2. Contrition.
Conviction should lead us to true contrition. To be contrite is to be broken, humbled, genuinely sorry for sin. It is to recognize the ugliness of it, and to have a deep desire to get rid of it. Contrition makes real repentance possible. The Bible describes contrition as “godly sorrow.” (See 2 Corinthians 7:10.)
3. Confession.
Real contrition leads to confession. The original Greek word translated “confession” in the English Bible is “homologeo.” It means “to say the same thing; to speak the same word.” To confess our sins to God is to say the same the same thing about them that God says about them. It is to own up to them. It is to take responsibility for them. It is to refuse to justify, excuse or rationalize them. Confession means that we agree with God and His Word about the wrongness of our words, actions and attitudes.
4. Consideration.
An important part of spiritual restoration is consideration — considering lessons we need to learn from our failures. When we’ve messed up in some way, we need to mine spiritual lessons out of our failures — lessons that will benefit us in the future. Taking time to think about and glean wisdom from mistakes is a key to continued growth and maturity.
5. Confidence.
Failure robs us of confidence. When we’ve missed the mark, made a mistake, or fallen prey to the devil’s traps, we sometimes become our own worst enemy. We ruthlessly beat ourselves mentally and emotionally over the foolish thing we said, thought or did. Even after repenting and confessing our sins sincerely to God, we regularly let unnecessary, destructive guilt eat away at us. Satan eagerly piles on with his harsh accusations and unrelenting condemnation, telling us that God hasn’t forgiven us, that we’re useless, worthless and hopeless. Don’t beat yourself up and don’t buy Satan’s lies. Remember that God is gracious, loving, kind, forgiving and compassionate. He is the God of new opportunities, fresh starts and clean slates. Accept His grace and get going again. Be confident in the forgiveness of God!
Have you failed God and disappointed yourself recently? Don’t stay down. Get on the road to restoration. Get a fresh start with God today. Get up and get going again!
Pastor Dale
“Nobody’s perfect!” It’s a phrase we often use and hear. It’s usually thrown out as quick cover for some personal mistake or failure. Without much remorse, and as a kind of justifiable excuse, we frequently lean on the plea that everybody makes mistakes.
The fact is, everybody does make mistakes and “nobody’s perfect.” But this reality shouldn’t make us insensitive to our failures. Sins, mistakes and failures call for an appropriate heart response from us.
What is the right response when we miss the mark in our walk with God? How do we recover from spiritual falls and failures?
Take a look at what the Bible says about this:
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. — 1 John 1:8, 9 (NIV)
This is a wonderful promise from God. It tells us about the pathway to forgiveness and spiritual restoration. Let’s take a look at the road that brings us back from our failures.
Spiritual recovery and restoration involves at least 5 steps:
1. Conviction.
We cannot deal with a sin or failure that we don’t see. The Holy Spirit works in us to show us our sins. He helps us to see where we’re missing the mark with God. Our responsibility is to keep a tender, sensitive heart that is quick to hear and respond to the Holy Spirit’s convicting work when He points out something in us that is wrong.
2. Contrition.
Conviction should lead us to true contrition. To be contrite is to be broken, humbled, genuinely sorry for sin. It is to recognize the ugliness of it, and to have a deep desire to get rid of it. Contrition makes real repentance possible. The Bible describes contrition as “godly sorrow.” (See 2 Corinthians 7:10.)
3. Confession.
Real contrition leads to confession. The original Greek word translated “confession” in the English Bible is “homologeo.” It means “to say the same thing; to speak the same word.” To confess our sins to God is to say the same the same thing about them that God says about them. It is to own up to them. It is to take responsibility for them. It is to refuse to justify, excuse or rationalize them. Confession means that we agree with God and His Word about the wrongness of our words, actions and attitudes.
4. Consideration.
An important part of spiritual restoration is consideration — considering lessons we need to learn from our failures. When we’ve messed up in some way, we need to mine spiritual lessons out of our failures — lessons that will benefit us in the future. Taking time to think about and glean wisdom from mistakes is a key to continued growth and maturity.
5. Confidence.
Failure robs us of confidence. When we’ve missed the mark, made a mistake, or fallen prey to the devil’s traps, we sometimes become our own worst enemy. We ruthlessly beat ourselves mentally and emotionally over the foolish thing we said, thought or did. Even after repenting and confessing our sins sincerely to God, we regularly let unnecessary, destructive guilt eat away at us. Satan eagerly piles on with his harsh accusations and unrelenting condemnation, telling us that God hasn’t forgiven us, that we’re useless, worthless and hopeless. Don’t beat yourself up and don’t buy Satan’s lies. Remember that God is gracious, loving, kind, forgiving and compassionate. He is the God of new opportunities, fresh starts and clean slates. Accept His grace and get going again. Be confident in the forgiveness of God!
Have you failed God and disappointed yourself recently? Don’t stay down. Get on the road to restoration. Get a fresh start with God today. Get up and get going again!
Pastor Dale
Monday, October 24, 2011
October 24, 2011
Why is Tebow so hated?
Jelisa Castrodale
NBCSports.com contributor
updated 2:10pm ET, Tue. Oct 18, 2011
When I was a kid, I was a seriously picky eater, mashing every home-cooked meal into an unappealing, untouched smudge in the center of my plate. My parents would sigh, give me whatever peanut butter-smeared combination of carbohydrates I'd accept, and hope that I'd eventually try foods that didn't have a 10-year shelf life. I lived on JIF and grape jelly until until my mother noticed the laundry-faded Los Angeles Rams jersey I wore every day and said, "Jim Everett eats his vegetables. He wants you to eat yours." She was close - most of the NFC fed him a steady diet of Anaheim Stadium grass that season - but it worked.
I imagine that somewhere in the Colorado suburbs, a harried mother is lifting a fork toward a reluctant elementary schooler, hissing through clenched teeth, "C'mon. Tim Tebow wants you to eat your vegetables." And I'm sure he does. If asked politely, he'd probably make an appearance in their kitchen with a glass of milk, an orthodontically enhanced smile and a passage from Corinthians. After everyone's plates were cleaner than his reputation, he'd politely excuse himself, returning home to spend the evening hand-carving a set of wooden prosthetics for a limbless orphan.
I'm only half-kidding. He'd probably opt for Galatians instead. But the very real possibility of that scenario is why Tebow has spent the past two seasons as the NFL's most intensely scrutinized, incessantly criticized second-string quarterback ... and now he can be the most incessantly criticized starter.
It should be impossible for anyone to dislike Tebow, the person. He tweets individual fans to thank them for coming to his book signings, he takes Special Olympics participants to rock concerts, and is deeply involved with the foundation that wears his name, the one that raises money for orphanages and pediatric cancer centers.
So what does he get in return? A @WhyTebowSucks twitter account, infrequently updated websites such as TebowHaters.com and TimmyTebowSucks.com and an Official "I Hate Tim Tebow" Facebook page. There was an ESPN "Outside the Lines" piece that spent 10 minutes reminding everyone how polarizing he is. Even Hulk Hogan took an afternoon away from taping an episode of his wrestling dwarf reality show to bash Tebow on "SportsNation."
Tebow is, obviously, a good guy. A great guy. But he's also been propped up as the personification of virtue, spending the past five years as an archetype more than an athlete. That's not to diminish Tebow's athletic abilities - he's a first-round draft pick who's built like a bomb shelter - but he's been put in a position to attract additional criticism, a different, darker kind of denunciation than he'd get if we knew nothing of his life beyond those mile-high sidelines.
The NFL's other backup-turned-starters don't generate this type of negativity. There's never this kind of eye-rolling reaction to, say, Minnesota's Christian Ponder, so we're left to - and you know EXACTLY what I'm going to say here - ponder the Christian.
The personal attacks and angry facial expressions that follow Tebow seem to have less to do with Denver's 1-4 record than they do with Romans 1:16, which reads "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ." That's one of the verses Tebow inked beneath his eyes at Florida, during that season when his eyeblack had more Scripture than the bedside table at an airport Sheraton.
I'd be exaggerating if I described myself as a Tim Tebow fan. Despite the St. Christopher medal suffocating in the back of my glove box, I don't consider myself religious; the closest I get to Jesus is a middle-of-the-night airing of "The Big Lebowski." But I do sympathize with Tebow for the slings and arrows he endures, including the endless examination of his beliefs.
Want an example? At the 2009 SEC Media Day, Tebow had to respond to inquiries about his sex life, respectfully fielding the kind of questions Ben Roethlisberger hired a lawyer to avoid.
Although Tebow doesn't invoke the apostles in interviews often as he did in college, his detractors often cite the fact that he "forces" his Christianity on them. That isn't the case at all; he simply is his faith and, at this point, anyone who follows his Twitter feed, attends his public appearances or listens to his testimonials shouldn't be surprised when they don't involve his version of "The Aristocrats".
Then there are those who sit with their hands hovering expectantly over their keyboards, just waiting for what they'll see as his inevitable misstep. They want to catch him sneaking into The Human Centipede or illegally downloading The Human Centipede or actually building a Human Centipede. They want him to be exposed as a phony, a fraud or - to borrow a word from the New Testament - a hypocrite. I don't see that happening. Just because Tebow has character doesn't mean he's playing one.
But yeah, sometimes he comes across as the Gallant side of every Highlights magazine cartoon ever. Yeah, the constant platitudes for his teammates and pledges to work harder and cloyingly positive attitude can make you shout "CAN IT, DUDLEY DO-RIGHT" at your television screen, assuming you're old enough to remember either Bullwinkle or Brendan Frasier's career.
Maybe it's hard to like Tebow because he makes us feel worse about our lives. Not in an MTV Cribs "I'll never have a pair of solid gold pants" kind of way, but because he's held himself to a standard that we know we can't reach. When we ask ourselves "What would Tim Tebow do?", the answer - at least for me - is "Not this." He wouldn't pocket the stack of change from Exxon's Take A Penny jar. He wouldn't ignore the elderly woman struggling to push her groceries to her car. He wouldn't make snap judgments about NFL sophomores who play two time zones to the left.
Maybe that's why it's easier to embrace a me-first NBA player who calls himself "King James" than to accept the humble NFL-er who quotes King James. Maybe that's why Tebow's around-the-clock commitment to Christ is a tougher sell than the empty gestures airmailed from the end zone, why we no longer notice when every third-down back high-fives the Almighty after a garbage-time touchdown.
Speaking of garbage, the Denver Broncos finished with a franchise worst 4-12 record last season and have sputtered to a 1-4 start, thanks in part to Kyle Orton's 58.7 completion percentage. Other players would've turned water to whine by now, speaking out of turn, criticizing the coaching strategy or strongly suggesting that they get a chance to start. Not Tebow, who stood supportively on the sidelines, ears tucked beneath a mesh-backed hat as he reminded himself that thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's playing time.
But apparently the meek shall inherit the turf, and there couldn't be a better set of circumstances for Tebow's first 2011 start. Denver's opponent, the still-winless Miami Dolphins are - inexplicably -hosting Florida Gator Dayto celebrate the team's 2008 BCS championship. Tebow will be honored before the game and cheered by a crowd that will probably look as orange and blue as the INVESCO Field stands. Tebow had one college start at the Dolphins' stadium, when he and the Gators collected that championship over Sam Bradford's Oklahoma Sooners. Tebow completed 18 of 30 passes for 231 yards, and Noah-approved pairs of TDs and INTs. He also rushed for 109 yards.
"I'm honored to get this opportunity," Tebow said of his upcoming start. "I'm very excited. I just know that every day I'm going to come out here and practice."
Listen to him! He's like Ned Flanders in a football uniform! How will he fare on the field? I'm not sure it matters. Tebow has been rotisseried since training camp, with most of the analysts serving their feelings beside criticism of his unorthodox throwing motion. His mechanics will be dissected from the pregame show until the studio lights dim for the night. If Tebow succeeds, it's in spite of his technique; if he fails, it's because of it.
John Elway, Denver's chief of football operations, will be keeping one icy blue eye on Tebow and one on fellow Stanford QB Andrew Luck. First-year coach John Fox will just be relieved not to see the words "Jake Delhomme" on his depth chart. And Kyle Orton will sit sullenly on the bench, ignoring Tebow's worn copy of Chicken Soup for the Second Stringer's Soul.
Tebow has been silent since being named the starter. He hasn't Tweeted since typing "Philippians 2:3" ("Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit") on the day he led Denver to an emotionally charged almost-comeback over the Chargers. He closed his post with "GB²", his acronym that stands for "God Bless, Go Broncos." That's as perfect a summary of Tebow as you can get: He's a Christian first, a football player second.
That won't change whether Tebow wins or loses, whether he starts or stands, whether you love him or hate him. He is who he is, and I'll always respect him for that. I might even eat my vegetables.
Jelisa Castrodale has learned a lot about life by making a mess of her own. Read more at jelisacastrodale.com
Jelisa Castrodale
NBCSports.com contributor
updated 2:10pm ET, Tue. Oct 18, 2011
When I was a kid, I was a seriously picky eater, mashing every home-cooked meal into an unappealing, untouched smudge in the center of my plate. My parents would sigh, give me whatever peanut butter-smeared combination of carbohydrates I'd accept, and hope that I'd eventually try foods that didn't have a 10-year shelf life. I lived on JIF and grape jelly until until my mother noticed the laundry-faded Los Angeles Rams jersey I wore every day and said, "Jim Everett eats his vegetables. He wants you to eat yours." She was close - most of the NFC fed him a steady diet of Anaheim Stadium grass that season - but it worked.
I imagine that somewhere in the Colorado suburbs, a harried mother is lifting a fork toward a reluctant elementary schooler, hissing through clenched teeth, "C'mon. Tim Tebow wants you to eat your vegetables." And I'm sure he does. If asked politely, he'd probably make an appearance in their kitchen with a glass of milk, an orthodontically enhanced smile and a passage from Corinthians. After everyone's plates were cleaner than his reputation, he'd politely excuse himself, returning home to spend the evening hand-carving a set of wooden prosthetics for a limbless orphan.
I'm only half-kidding. He'd probably opt for Galatians instead. But the very real possibility of that scenario is why Tebow has spent the past two seasons as the NFL's most intensely scrutinized, incessantly criticized second-string quarterback ... and now he can be the most incessantly criticized starter.
It should be impossible for anyone to dislike Tebow, the person. He tweets individual fans to thank them for coming to his book signings, he takes Special Olympics participants to rock concerts, and is deeply involved with the foundation that wears his name, the one that raises money for orphanages and pediatric cancer centers.
So what does he get in return? A @WhyTebowSucks twitter account, infrequently updated websites such as TebowHaters.com and TimmyTebowSucks.com and an Official "I Hate Tim Tebow" Facebook page. There was an ESPN "Outside the Lines" piece that spent 10 minutes reminding everyone how polarizing he is. Even Hulk Hogan took an afternoon away from taping an episode of his wrestling dwarf reality show to bash Tebow on "SportsNation."
Tebow is, obviously, a good guy. A great guy. But he's also been propped up as the personification of virtue, spending the past five years as an archetype more than an athlete. That's not to diminish Tebow's athletic abilities - he's a first-round draft pick who's built like a bomb shelter - but he's been put in a position to attract additional criticism, a different, darker kind of denunciation than he'd get if we knew nothing of his life beyond those mile-high sidelines.
The NFL's other backup-turned-starters don't generate this type of negativity. There's never this kind of eye-rolling reaction to, say, Minnesota's Christian Ponder, so we're left to - and you know EXACTLY what I'm going to say here - ponder the Christian.
The personal attacks and angry facial expressions that follow Tebow seem to have less to do with Denver's 1-4 record than they do with Romans 1:16, which reads "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ." That's one of the verses Tebow inked beneath his eyes at Florida, during that season when his eyeblack had more Scripture than the bedside table at an airport Sheraton.
I'd be exaggerating if I described myself as a Tim Tebow fan. Despite the St. Christopher medal suffocating in the back of my glove box, I don't consider myself religious; the closest I get to Jesus is a middle-of-the-night airing of "The Big Lebowski." But I do sympathize with Tebow for the slings and arrows he endures, including the endless examination of his beliefs.
Want an example? At the 2009 SEC Media Day, Tebow had to respond to inquiries about his sex life, respectfully fielding the kind of questions Ben Roethlisberger hired a lawyer to avoid.
Although Tebow doesn't invoke the apostles in interviews often as he did in college, his detractors often cite the fact that he "forces" his Christianity on them. That isn't the case at all; he simply is his faith and, at this point, anyone who follows his Twitter feed, attends his public appearances or listens to his testimonials shouldn't be surprised when they don't involve his version of "The Aristocrats".
Then there are those who sit with their hands hovering expectantly over their keyboards, just waiting for what they'll see as his inevitable misstep. They want to catch him sneaking into The Human Centipede or illegally downloading The Human Centipede or actually building a Human Centipede. They want him to be exposed as a phony, a fraud or - to borrow a word from the New Testament - a hypocrite. I don't see that happening. Just because Tebow has character doesn't mean he's playing one.
But yeah, sometimes he comes across as the Gallant side of every Highlights magazine cartoon ever. Yeah, the constant platitudes for his teammates and pledges to work harder and cloyingly positive attitude can make you shout "CAN IT, DUDLEY DO-RIGHT" at your television screen, assuming you're old enough to remember either Bullwinkle or Brendan Frasier's career.
Maybe it's hard to like Tebow because he makes us feel worse about our lives. Not in an MTV Cribs "I'll never have a pair of solid gold pants" kind of way, but because he's held himself to a standard that we know we can't reach. When we ask ourselves "What would Tim Tebow do?", the answer - at least for me - is "Not this." He wouldn't pocket the stack of change from Exxon's Take A Penny jar. He wouldn't ignore the elderly woman struggling to push her groceries to her car. He wouldn't make snap judgments about NFL sophomores who play two time zones to the left.
Maybe that's why it's easier to embrace a me-first NBA player who calls himself "King James" than to accept the humble NFL-er who quotes King James. Maybe that's why Tebow's around-the-clock commitment to Christ is a tougher sell than the empty gestures airmailed from the end zone, why we no longer notice when every third-down back high-fives the Almighty after a garbage-time touchdown.
Speaking of garbage, the Denver Broncos finished with a franchise worst 4-12 record last season and have sputtered to a 1-4 start, thanks in part to Kyle Orton's 58.7 completion percentage. Other players would've turned water to whine by now, speaking out of turn, criticizing the coaching strategy or strongly suggesting that they get a chance to start. Not Tebow, who stood supportively on the sidelines, ears tucked beneath a mesh-backed hat as he reminded himself that thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's playing time.
But apparently the meek shall inherit the turf, and there couldn't be a better set of circumstances for Tebow's first 2011 start. Denver's opponent, the still-winless Miami Dolphins are - inexplicably -hosting Florida Gator Dayto celebrate the team's 2008 BCS championship. Tebow will be honored before the game and cheered by a crowd that will probably look as orange and blue as the INVESCO Field stands. Tebow had one college start at the Dolphins' stadium, when he and the Gators collected that championship over Sam Bradford's Oklahoma Sooners. Tebow completed 18 of 30 passes for 231 yards, and Noah-approved pairs of TDs and INTs. He also rushed for 109 yards.
"I'm honored to get this opportunity," Tebow said of his upcoming start. "I'm very excited. I just know that every day I'm going to come out here and practice."
Listen to him! He's like Ned Flanders in a football uniform! How will he fare on the field? I'm not sure it matters. Tebow has been rotisseried since training camp, with most of the analysts serving their feelings beside criticism of his unorthodox throwing motion. His mechanics will be dissected from the pregame show until the studio lights dim for the night. If Tebow succeeds, it's in spite of his technique; if he fails, it's because of it.
John Elway, Denver's chief of football operations, will be keeping one icy blue eye on Tebow and one on fellow Stanford QB Andrew Luck. First-year coach John Fox will just be relieved not to see the words "Jake Delhomme" on his depth chart. And Kyle Orton will sit sullenly on the bench, ignoring Tebow's worn copy of Chicken Soup for the Second Stringer's Soul.
Tebow has been silent since being named the starter. He hasn't Tweeted since typing "Philippians 2:3" ("Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit") on the day he led Denver to an emotionally charged almost-comeback over the Chargers. He closed his post with "GB²", his acronym that stands for "God Bless, Go Broncos." That's as perfect a summary of Tebow as you can get: He's a Christian first, a football player second.
That won't change whether Tebow wins or loses, whether he starts or stands, whether you love him or hate him. He is who he is, and I'll always respect him for that. I might even eat my vegetables.
Jelisa Castrodale has learned a lot about life by making a mess of her own. Read more at jelisacastrodale.com
October 20, 2011
Do We Believe the Whole Gospel?
R.C. Sproul
Renewing Your Mind
Unbelief. This one word expresses the judgment Emil Brunner, the Swiss "crisis theologian," used to describe nineteenth-century liberal theology. The rise of such liberalism was a conscious synthesis between naturalism in the world of philosophy and historic Christianity. Liberalism sought to de-supernaturalize the Christian faith and to restrict the modern significance of Jesus and the New Testament to ethical considerations, particularly with respect to the needs of human beings, and especially with respect to their material needs.
This provoked a significant dilemma for the organized church, first in Europe and then in America. If an institution repudiates the very foundation upon which it is built and for which it exists, what happens to the billions of dollars worth of church property and its numerous ordained professionals? The clergy were left with nothing to preach except social concerns. In order to maintain a reason for the continued existence of Christianity as an organized religion, nineteenth-century liberalism turned to a new gospel, dubbed the "social gospel." This was a gospel that focused on considerations of humanitarianism and had at the core of its agenda a commitment to "social justice."
The use of the term "social justice" involved an ironic twisting of words. What was in view in this philosophy was basically the redistribution of wealth, following the template of socialism. The false assumption of this so-called social justice was that material wealth can be gained only by means of the exploitation of the poor. Ergo, for a society to be just, the wealth must be redistributed by government authority. In reality, this so-called social justice degenerated into social injustice, where penalties were levied on those who were legitimately productive and non-productivity was rewarded — a bizarre concept of justice indeed.
The rise in importance of the social gospel provoked a controversy known in church history as the "modernist-fundamentalist controversy," which raged in the early years of the twentieth century. This controversy witnessed an unholy dichotomy between two poles of Christian concern. On the one hand, there was the classic concern of personal redemption accomplished by Christ through His atoning death on the cross, which brought reconciliation for those who put their trust in Jesus. On the other hand there was the consideration of the material well-being of human beings in this world right now. It included the consideration of clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, giving shelter to the homeless, and caring for the poor.
Many evangelicals at this period in history, in order to preserve the central significance of the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, gave renewed emphasis to evangelism. In many cases, this emphasis upon evangelism was done to the exclusion of the other pole of biblical concern, namely, mercy ministry to those who were poor, afflicted, and suffering. So glaring was the dichotomy between liberal and evangelical concerns that, sadly, many evangelicals began to distance themselves from any involvement in mercy ministries, lest their activities be construed as a surrender to liberalism.
The fallacy of the false dilemma takes two important truths and forces one to choose between them. The assumption of the either/or fallacy is that of two particular matters, only one is true while the other is false; therefore, one is required to choose between the true and the false. The either/or fallacy that stood before the church in this period was either the gospel of personal redemption or the gospel of social concern for the material welfare of human beings.
Even a cursory reading of the New Testament, however, makes it clear that the concerns of Jesus and of the New Testament writers cannot be reduced to an either/or dilemma. The problem with this fallacy, as with all fallacies, is that truth becomes severely distorted. The New Testament does not allow for this false dilemma. The choice that the church has is never between personal salvation and mercy ministry. It is rather a both/and proposition. Neither pole can be properly swallowed by the other. To reduce Christianity either to a program of social welfare or to a program of personal redemption results in a truncated gospel that is a profound distortion.
Historically, before the outbreak of nineteenth-century liberalism, the church did not seem to struggle with this false dichotomy. For centuries, the church understood her task as both to proclaim the saving gospel of the atoning work of Christ and, at the same time, to follow Jesus' example of ministry to the blind, to the deaf, to the imprisoned, to the hungry, to the homeless, and to the poor. The ministry of the church, if it is to be healthy, must always be firmly committed to both dimensions of the biblical mandate, that we may be faithful to Christ Himself. If we reject either the ministry of personal redemption or of mercy to the afflicted, we express "unbelief."
Dr. R.C. Sproul is president of Ligonier Academy of Biblical and Theological Studies and the author of the booklet How Should I Live in This World?
R.C. Sproul
Renewing Your Mind
Unbelief. This one word expresses the judgment Emil Brunner, the Swiss "crisis theologian," used to describe nineteenth-century liberal theology. The rise of such liberalism was a conscious synthesis between naturalism in the world of philosophy and historic Christianity. Liberalism sought to de-supernaturalize the Christian faith and to restrict the modern significance of Jesus and the New Testament to ethical considerations, particularly with respect to the needs of human beings, and especially with respect to their material needs.
This provoked a significant dilemma for the organized church, first in Europe and then in America. If an institution repudiates the very foundation upon which it is built and for which it exists, what happens to the billions of dollars worth of church property and its numerous ordained professionals? The clergy were left with nothing to preach except social concerns. In order to maintain a reason for the continued existence of Christianity as an organized religion, nineteenth-century liberalism turned to a new gospel, dubbed the "social gospel." This was a gospel that focused on considerations of humanitarianism and had at the core of its agenda a commitment to "social justice."
The use of the term "social justice" involved an ironic twisting of words. What was in view in this philosophy was basically the redistribution of wealth, following the template of socialism. The false assumption of this so-called social justice was that material wealth can be gained only by means of the exploitation of the poor. Ergo, for a society to be just, the wealth must be redistributed by government authority. In reality, this so-called social justice degenerated into social injustice, where penalties were levied on those who were legitimately productive and non-productivity was rewarded — a bizarre concept of justice indeed.
The rise in importance of the social gospel provoked a controversy known in church history as the "modernist-fundamentalist controversy," which raged in the early years of the twentieth century. This controversy witnessed an unholy dichotomy between two poles of Christian concern. On the one hand, there was the classic concern of personal redemption accomplished by Christ through His atoning death on the cross, which brought reconciliation for those who put their trust in Jesus. On the other hand there was the consideration of the material well-being of human beings in this world right now. It included the consideration of clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, giving shelter to the homeless, and caring for the poor.
Many evangelicals at this period in history, in order to preserve the central significance of the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, gave renewed emphasis to evangelism. In many cases, this emphasis upon evangelism was done to the exclusion of the other pole of biblical concern, namely, mercy ministry to those who were poor, afflicted, and suffering. So glaring was the dichotomy between liberal and evangelical concerns that, sadly, many evangelicals began to distance themselves from any involvement in mercy ministries, lest their activities be construed as a surrender to liberalism.
The fallacy of the false dilemma takes two important truths and forces one to choose between them. The assumption of the either/or fallacy is that of two particular matters, only one is true while the other is false; therefore, one is required to choose between the true and the false. The either/or fallacy that stood before the church in this period was either the gospel of personal redemption or the gospel of social concern for the material welfare of human beings.
Even a cursory reading of the New Testament, however, makes it clear that the concerns of Jesus and of the New Testament writers cannot be reduced to an either/or dilemma. The problem with this fallacy, as with all fallacies, is that truth becomes severely distorted. The New Testament does not allow for this false dilemma. The choice that the church has is never between personal salvation and mercy ministry. It is rather a both/and proposition. Neither pole can be properly swallowed by the other. To reduce Christianity either to a program of social welfare or to a program of personal redemption results in a truncated gospel that is a profound distortion.
Historically, before the outbreak of nineteenth-century liberalism, the church did not seem to struggle with this false dichotomy. For centuries, the church understood her task as both to proclaim the saving gospel of the atoning work of Christ and, at the same time, to follow Jesus' example of ministry to the blind, to the deaf, to the imprisoned, to the hungry, to the homeless, and to the poor. The ministry of the church, if it is to be healthy, must always be firmly committed to both dimensions of the biblical mandate, that we may be faithful to Christ Himself. If we reject either the ministry of personal redemption or of mercy to the afflicted, we express "unbelief."
Dr. R.C. Sproul is president of Ligonier Academy of Biblical and Theological Studies and the author of the booklet How Should I Live in This World?
Thursday, October 20, 2011
October 20, 2011
Keep On Praying
Some things take time. On more than one occasion I’ve found myself salivating in front of our kitchen oven anxiously anticipating a slice of cake my wife was baking. My question to her usually is, “How much longer before it’s done?”, sometimes followed by, “Can I have a piece now?” She refuses to be moved by my impatience! She reminds me that I can’t have cake until the cake’s done.
A cake is at its best when it’s done. And it’s not done until it’s done! No matter how good it smells or how much we want it now, a cake takes time to bake. Our impatience doesn’t speed up the process.
We need to be reminded of this principle when it comes to prayer. As much as we want our prayers to be answered immediately, they’re not always answered immediately. Sometimes our prayers take time to work. Why? It’s not because of a lack of God’s power.
Sometimes answers to prayer take time because of the resistance of someone or something to the will of God. God never forces His plans and desires on people or into situations. He works gently and consistently to persuade people to follow Him and to shape circumstances in ways that please Him. When we keep on praying for those who are outside of God’s will and for situations that are contrary to God’s will, it’s an invitation for the Holy Spirit to continue exercising His wooing and shaping grace and influence on people and circumstances.
At times our prayers require patience and persistence because of the spiritual resistance of our enemy; the devil. When we pray we’re engaging in spiritual battle. Battles are not generally won overnight. When going up against stubborn spiritual strongholds, we should expect to invest time in the prayer process, praying until victory comes.
There’re also times when God’s silence and seeming unresponsiveness to our prayers is specifically designed by Him as a faith-testing, faith-growing experience for us. In these seasons, God helps us develop greater spiritual grit and stronger faith muscles. Delayed answers to prayer should drive us deeper in our relationship with God, challenging and encouraging us to trust Him more.
The Bible teaches us to keep on praying, even when answers aren’t apparent or forthcoming. Take a look at a couple of encouraging Scripture verses:
One day Jesus told His disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. — Luke 18:1 (NLT)
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. — Galatians 6:9 (NIV)
Some things take time. They’re not done until they’re done. Prayer is one of those things. Don’t give up. Keep on praying!
Pastor Dale
Some things take time. On more than one occasion I’ve found myself salivating in front of our kitchen oven anxiously anticipating a slice of cake my wife was baking. My question to her usually is, “How much longer before it’s done?”, sometimes followed by, “Can I have a piece now?” She refuses to be moved by my impatience! She reminds me that I can’t have cake until the cake’s done.
A cake is at its best when it’s done. And it’s not done until it’s done! No matter how good it smells or how much we want it now, a cake takes time to bake. Our impatience doesn’t speed up the process.
We need to be reminded of this principle when it comes to prayer. As much as we want our prayers to be answered immediately, they’re not always answered immediately. Sometimes our prayers take time to work. Why? It’s not because of a lack of God’s power.
Sometimes answers to prayer take time because of the resistance of someone or something to the will of God. God never forces His plans and desires on people or into situations. He works gently and consistently to persuade people to follow Him and to shape circumstances in ways that please Him. When we keep on praying for those who are outside of God’s will and for situations that are contrary to God’s will, it’s an invitation for the Holy Spirit to continue exercising His wooing and shaping grace and influence on people and circumstances.
At times our prayers require patience and persistence because of the spiritual resistance of our enemy; the devil. When we pray we’re engaging in spiritual battle. Battles are not generally won overnight. When going up against stubborn spiritual strongholds, we should expect to invest time in the prayer process, praying until victory comes.
There’re also times when God’s silence and seeming unresponsiveness to our prayers is specifically designed by Him as a faith-testing, faith-growing experience for us. In these seasons, God helps us develop greater spiritual grit and stronger faith muscles. Delayed answers to prayer should drive us deeper in our relationship with God, challenging and encouraging us to trust Him more.
The Bible teaches us to keep on praying, even when answers aren’t apparent or forthcoming. Take a look at a couple of encouraging Scripture verses:
One day Jesus told His disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. — Luke 18:1 (NLT)
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. — Galatians 6:9 (NIV)
Some things take time. They’re not done until they’re done. Prayer is one of those things. Don’t give up. Keep on praying!
Pastor Dale
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)