Month: August 2024

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.   John 1:12

A few years ago Elaine and I went to the movie Overcomer with our daughter, her husband, and a granddaughter.   It is one of those faith-based films that gets a 30% approval from the ten critics on the Rotten Tomatoes site and a 98% approval from the 2000 viewers.  Pretty typical, especially when the gospel is clearly articulated.  As soon as one of the characters started talking about the need for having Jesus I am sure the critics started noticing all kinds of poor lighting, poor performances, poor plot lines, and poor music.  Other than these things, I am sure they loved it.

One of the interesting things that stood out to me in the story was the contrast between a dying  man Thomas Hill and the main character John Harrison.    Thomas Hill had come to believe in Christ in his latter years after a lifetime of abusing himself in every way possible.  John Harrison, on the other hand,   was a successful basketball coach who had been a believer for many years and had just recently fallen on some hard times.   At one point in the movie Hill asked Coach Harrison who John Harrison was and the coach answered with  things like coach, husband , father, and other typical answers until he eventually said he was a Christian.   Hill  then asked Harrison why he had placed Christ so low on the list.  The coach was indignant at first, but then Hill’s words began to work on him as the movie progressed.   Thomas Hill was right.  The reason Coach Harrison placed Christ so low on the list was because Christ was so low on his list.

Thomas Hill’s difficulties had led him to a sincere faith in Christ, while Coach Harrison’s difficulties had exposed his weak faith in Christ.   In the Greek original of the New Testament the word sincerity means ‘judged in the sunlight’; and the English word is derived from the Latin—’sine cera’, which means ‘without wax’. In the days when art flourished in ancient Greece, it was the common practice to repair with ‘invisible’ wax any vase or statue that had, as a result of carelessness or misadventure, been damaged.

A rich man or a person of high rank might employ a sculptor to chisel the dignatary’s  bust in marble. Sometimes, if the chisel slipped, an important part of the bust would be chipped off. Rather than start all over, the sculptor would mend the damage with wax. The flaw could not be detected by a layman except under very close scrutiny. This way the sculptor was able to palm off  his defective workmanship to the unsuspecting buyer.  However, if the client happened to be a knowing person, he would carry the finished statuette out of the studio into the open before paying for it, and  would examine it carefully in the sunlight. If he failed to do this, sometime in the future he would possibly see the nose drop off his statuette in the heated room of his house. The statue was not `sincere’, not ‘without wax’, and could not bear careful scrutiny or intense heat.

Many Christians have John Harrison faith.  They say that Christ is the most important person in their lives, but believe their identity comes from people, possessions or position.  If they can squeeze Christ on the list somewhere between some of these things, that’s fine, but He certainly can’t replace any of  them.   The difficulties the coach was facing shined the light on his identity in Christ.  He had been playing the Christian game for  a long time and as long as the heat didn’t get too hot,  the wax stayed in place.   When tough times came his waxy faith was exposed.   Likewise, today’s Christianity can often be inauthentic because appearance seems more important than actuality.   

Many products today are designed to imitate the real thing. There is plastic decking that looks like real wood. Vinyl flooring that appears to be ceramic tile. You can purchase fake fur or jewelry, phony teeth, hairpieces, and other body parts. We have even reached the point to make artificial mud designed to fool the neighbors. 

Spray-on Mud was created for use on the outside of your SUV or four-wheeler.  That way it appears you use your expensive hobby for more than taking up space in the driveway. Spray it on and friends might think you’ve just returned from a wilderness adventure.  People want the authentic look without authenticity .  It’s the best of both worlds- a cheap way to look real.

There are many expressions of imitation Christianity that we can try to pass off as the real thing. Occasional church attendance when convenient passes for worship.  Giving when there is some extra money can substitute for sacrificial service.  Christian bumper stickers and symbols can be used as evangelism replacements.  Christian clichés handed on facebook can  appear to be deep biblical wisdom.  Talking a good Christian game can be just that- a game.  Charles Spurgeon once said, “I would sooner possess the joy of Christ five minutes than I would revel in the mirth of fools for half a century.”  

Let the words of Paul  in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 inspire a real walk with Christ, “When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.  I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling.  And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit.  I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.” 

So what is authenticity?  Easy. It looks like Jesus! 

“Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win. Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air. Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

In these verses Paul compares the Christian with an athlete in competition. He talks about our discipline, our effort, and our integrity. These are good verses for us to keep in mind because today our opponents are many. Besides battling against our own flesh and the principalities and powers, we battle against a world that has turned upside down and is changing the rules of morality to suit a disintegrating society.

Christianity is a faith of common sense. As we stray further and further from Christian principles we also leave common sense further and further behind. I find it amazing that groups that will close entire sections of a forest down for the tiniest of creatures can support the continual killing of the tiniest of humans. Unfortunately, most Christian principles are recognized by everyone as just Christian principles. Some are so against Christianity that they must oppose everything about Christianity to prove their dismissal of the faith. Consequently, they must reject many of the common sense principles that Christianity brings to this world. Much of the world is going along with this craziness, but every day you will hear people saying, “where is people’s common sense?” Sadly, it is disintegrating by the same proportions that people reject the Biblical world perspective.

I read a story about an unusual happening in the 1990’s in an NCAA Division II national championship cross-country race in California. A runner named Mike Delvaco and 127 of the state’s best runners were competing on a 10,000 meter course to see “who would win the prize.” About three miles into the race, Delvaco was somewhere in the middle of the pack, when he realized that the runners had made a wrong turn. So he yelled out, “You’re going the wrong way,” but they didn’t listen. Only 4 others followed Mike when he turned in the right direction…and suddenly, he found himself in the lead. He must have had some doubt when the field dropped from 128 to 5, but he stayed on course.

However, that lasted only about a mile. Mike and the runners who followed him were soon reunited with the larger pack who, having gone the wrong way, actually shaved about a half a mile off the course. The shortcut of the many put them ahead of the small band of runners that took the correct path. This was bad enough for Mike, but the final blow came when, because so many of the runners had gone the wrong way, the officials changed the official course route to accommodate their error. So when Mike Delcavo finally crossed the finish line, he was number 103 overall. His right action, as well of that of four others, was ignored and because so many went the wrong way they were rewarded with a shorter race. At the end of the race, one of Delcavo’s competitors “thought it was funny that he went the right way.”

Isn’t that a telling statement? In our mixed up world, when so many are wrong, wrong becomes right. Instead of the world keeping a standard of acceptable behavior, it changes what acceptable behavior is. But although the world changes “the course” to accommodate itself, God does not. He knows the course; He made the course; and He expects us to run the course as marked. Numbers do not influence God. No matter how many go astray, he does not accept the majority as a sign of rightness. In Noah’s day God did not change his plan for the sake of the majority.

When I was in junior high I had a math teacher named Mrs. Woodward. She was a stickler for the right answer. No matter how many kids missed a question or no matter how many different answers they had, she would only accept the right one. Unbelievable! But would she have helped us as students by accepting less than the truth?  Maybe it would have helped our grade for that semester, but it would have cost us in the long run.  Mrs. Woodward refused to enable our future failure by accepting wrong as right.

 In our day and age the majority seems to dictate the rightness or wrongness of an issue. In some cases, that might be fine (speed limits, taxes and fees, etc.), but in moral issues the majority can’t be the determining factor. In Jeremiah 17:9 God tells us, “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable–who can understand it?” Do we really want a majority deciding the moral direction of the country? Yes, if the majority uses the Word of God as a moral compass. No, if the only compass they have is a deceitful heart.

Contrary to what many believe in this day and age, there is right and wrong. Relativism is a dead end street. Without any standards to make decisions we are at the whims of the loudest, biggest, or meanest. Much of the world uses similar standards of measurements for distance, weight, and volume. That is so everyone can understand each other. If there were hundreds of different measurements for lengths, every distance would have to be renamed hundreds of times. No one would be able to determine if a mile was actually a mile. In some countries, a mile might not exist as a measurement and they would have to invent a new word for that distance. It would be very cumbersome.

Only a few people at New Hope (my church) know this (because I mentioned it in a sermon), but my height is also a measurement found in the dictionary and and on the internet. I am a smoot. One smoot is equal to Oliver Smoot’s height in 1962 which was 67 inches. Smoot was a student at MIT and as a fraternity prank they used his height to determine the length of the Harvard Bridge which stretches between Boston and Cambridge.  Smoot would lie down and his frat brothers would make a new mark each time he repositioned. The bridge’s length turned out to be 364 smoots plus or minus one ear. The markings on the bridge are redone each year by the fraternity and with the blessing of the city have been maintained through several bridge renovations. It has become quite a tourist attraction. So at 5’ 7” I am a smoot. (By the way, for the curious, the ark was about 81 smoots long, give or take an ear!)

You can see what happens. The smoot has to be translated back into measurements with which we are familiar, or a smoot is meaningless. When we don’t have any standard of right or wrong and everyone just determines what it is on his own, and it is a chaotic situation. Actions that used to be considered “wrong” not only become acceptable, but become the only actions that are “right.” I did a chapel service at a Boy Scout Family Camp one weekend. I went through the scout oath, scout law, scout motto, etc. from the 1911 handbook. I compared the admonitions of the handbook to the admonitions of the Bible.

Needless to say, things have changed in our world.  When a phrases like, “physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight” occur, they rely on accepted standards of physical strength, mental alertness, and morality. The definitions of those terms have been so obscured that what these phrases mean now is anybody’s guess. Of course, for those of us that believe that the Bible defines standards for behavior, we also interpret the handbook phrases the same way.  We take them for what they meant in 1911 when God played an important part of the Scouting experience. Those who do not hold a Biblical standard look at a term like “morally straight” and must determine what it means on their own.  To some “morally straight” might mean being straight with themselves and doing whatever they want.  Is that what it originally meant in the scout handbook (or in the Bible)?  Probably not.

Like Mike Delvaco showed us, taking the right path does not always “pay off” with reward. It takes courage and conviction to follow wholeheartedly after God instead of the rest of the world. Sometimes it can get lonely running alone, and we may be wondering where the others are going. We might even yell out, “You’re going the wrong way,” but most won’t listen. Instead, we will be heckled and ridiculed by others who pursue their own course. And ultimately, the “race officials” may reward others for bad turns. The news consistently show us that! But we must remain on God’s course. We must run with discipline, doing our best, staying on course, and when the race is over and when we have finished the course, He who is the true judge will say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

“And all believed and were of one heart and mind, and no one felt that what he owned was his own; everyone was sharing.”   Acts 4:32

In this verse Luke gives us a picture of the early Christian church, and he reveals the source of its power to impact the world around it. Remember, the early Christians were not superhuman. They were human; they were frail; they were sinners; and just like us they needed God’s grace and power- especially if they were going to keep the gospel alive at a time of small numbers and great persecution.

It seems that the church finds its greatest growth in times of persecution.  In some parts of the world today the church is growing at an unheard of rate.  Yet, in the western nations, the church is experiencing decline. Difficulty seems to breed a togetherness of purpose. In places where people must work together, they do work together.  In places where people can be individuals and survive, they work as individuals.

So, what were the keys to the ministry of the early church that changed the world forever? First, they are described as believers. Only those who have a common faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior can enjoy the unity of spirit and purpose that was seen in the early church. Our power to live for God, rely on God, and commune with God depends on our belief in God. That does not mean that if we have a day of doubt we lose our relationship with Him, but it does mean that we need the indwelling Holy Spirit to have the faith necessary to grow in Him, and consequently, to grow the church.

Secondly, because of their common faith in Jesus Christ, they were of one heart and soul; they were singular and focused in their objective. They knew the reason for their existence as a church was not to entertain or even to do good in the community. Their single intention was to exalt the name of Jesus Christ. They were unified, but not at the sake of truth. Today too many churches and Christians put unity above truth. They say we must get along at no matter what, but that cannot be. The early church put truth above unity and truth above tolerance. They would never have sacrificed truth for any temporary peace. They knew that unity gained at the cost of truth would only result in a false unity.

 Jesus did not skirt the truth in His ministry.  He would have gotten a D in most evangelism classes today.  He said that we must die to ourselves, must leave mother, father, brother, sister, must prepare to be persecuted.  He overturned cultural norms.  He did not embrace cultural abnormalities just for popularity sake. He did not just overturn the money changers tables, he overturned the long-held (fallacious) beliefs of the church, culture, and communities.  For all His efforts, He was killed.  He placed truth above all.  He presented the kingdom of God in its truest light, even at the detriment of popularity.

Finally,  using Christ as their model, the early believers endeavored to glorify Christ in their actions. This resulted in practical implications for their daily lives. Although they had personal possessions, they did not see these things as their own. They saw a need to freely give and saw all they had as gifts from God. They knew that part of the key of spreading the gospel was to live out the gospel. To present the gospel of the great Giver of peace, they needed to be givers themselves. Believing, unifying, and sharing were the prerequisites of presenting Christ to the world.

Believing, unifying, and sharing are still prerequisites of presenting Christ to the world.  Without belief we will lack power, without power we will fail to work together, and without togetherness, our sharing will be more limited. The early believers modeled a growing church in the face of difficulties.  You notice that the first letters of our devotional words form the word BUS- believe, unify, and share. The early church rode that “bus” because if they hadn’t, the early church would not have moved.

We, too, are called into oneness with fellow believers to be examples to the world of Christ’s love. We are called to allow that “BUS” to move our churches forward. We should strive with fellow believers to exalt the name of Jesus by our actions. If we believe, it is because of Christ; if we live in unity, it is because of Christ; if we consider all we have as God’s, it is because of Christ. If we do these things, others will see us and want to know what is different about us. It is then that we can say to them, “It is not what is different about us, but who is different within us.” Step aboard and allow God’s Bus to take us where He wants us to go.

“To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit…” 1 Peter 3:8

We are bombarded every day with negative news. There seems to be more violence and evil acts than ever before. It may seem like this is a new phenomenon, but this kind of behavior has existed ever since the fall. Cain killed his brother Able and it has been downhill ever since. But we are of a faith that calls not for violence, revenge and hate but one which calls for peace, forgiveness and love. That is a unique message among the people of today.

The New Testament and most notably the epistles of Paul were written for us today. In most of the Old Testament there were two kinds of people- the people of Israel and the gentiles (everyone else). In the Old Testament there were also countless stories about fighting among the people. There seems to be a painful story of violence scattered throughout every book. But though violence in the world has not ended, the message of the Bible for us today has become clear. Although there are still only two kinds of people in the world, those of the body of Christ and those who are not of the body of Christ, the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ has brought a new message of love into the world.

In today’s verse Peter calls us to get along with others, to be kind toward others, to be compassionate toward others. At the beginning of the verse he uses the phrase “to sum up” and this is a fair portrayal not only of his previous words, but the words of the whole New Testament. Throughout the New Testament we are instructed to care about one another. Whether the speaker is Jesus, Luke, James, Peter, or Paul, or one of the many others, the exhortation is one of love. I am convinced that if we who know Christ lived as the Word instructs, the need for missionaries would be eliminated. Everyone who came in contact with a Christian would want to know more about Christ, and anyone who knew Him would be able to share Him. Our love would be like a wildfire on a dry hill, spreading with every gust of wind that hits it.

I have wept in the night for the shortness of sight,
That to somebody’s need I was blind;
But I never have yet felt a twinge of regret,
For being a little too kind.

Today we will have countless opportunities to show the world who Christ is. It may be in small ways or big ways, it doesn’t matter. We may be the closest some people get to Jesus today. Our small kindness might be the last step in series of happenings in their journey to know Christ. The world is full of evil, but Christ calls us to be good, and the good that we can do should contrast so vividly with the world that people cannot but ask who this Jesus is we follow. Remember, we do not do kind deeds for just kind deed’s sake. We do kind things because it will give us the opportunity to share Jesus. Our kindness, though called for in the Word, will not, on its own, introduce others to Jesus. Our kindness should just be a vehicle that allows us to share where we receive our power to good.

So do good today. In this pretty dark world, it can sure use some light, and as we know, Jesus is the Light of the World.