Author: Rick (Page 7 of 36)

“Be ye also patient; prepare your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draws near.” James 5:8

Getting to spend time with the grandkids over the last few years (actually 20!) has taught me a lot about patience.  The kids always have so much energy and they are ready to go from one activity to another without even having to catch their breath.  Because I have to catch my breath occasionally I need to learn some patience or I will get ahead of myself.  I am not a kid anymore and at 73 I hardly remember even being a kid.

Being with the grandkids is a kick. The following story did not happen, but it is in my memory banks and I could sure see it happening because so many equally neat things have happened during the years. Picture Nana preparing pancakes for all the kids (which she did), Asher and Isaac begin to argue over who would get the first pancake (which is possible). Nana sees this as an opportunity for a good Bible lesson not only for the two little ones, but for all the rest. So she says; “Now kids, if Jesus were sitting here, He would say, ‘Let my brother have the first pancake. I can wait.'” Asher then turns to Isaac and says, “Isaac, you be Jesus.” Did it happen? Naw, but could it happen? Sure. With all the great lines and all the wonderful things that have happened through the years, it might even happen the next time we are with them.

So kids want to eat first, bat first, fish first, and well, do almost everything first. (Except be punished first. They seem to be more patient in that instance). But every year as the kids get older they get more and more patient. I have heard many times recently the line, “You go first,” and it seems as the kids get older, they get more mature in this area. As we get more mature in our Christian walk, we need to show the same kind of progress in our patience.

Patience is especially important when it comes to the Lord. He has a whole lot of things to take care of and sometimes what we want to see happen now, just can’t. We have all heard the prayer, “Lord, give me patience and give it to me now.” If we don’t have patience we can easily get discouraged with the pace that God sometimes keeps. Maybe that friend we pray for just never seems to get the gospel. Maybe our ministry at work never seems to pay dividends. Maybe our life seems to stand still while those around us fly on ahead. Whatever the situation, it is possible for even the most dedicated Christian to get discouraged with God’s schedule.

The Word shows us time and time again that growth and strength in waiting are often more important than the end so impatiently longed for. Paul had time to realize this as he lay in prison, and the result was God’s words that he penned for us. Paul could have been pacing his cells waiting for God to move, but instead he used the time to write words that would change the world. Moses must have asked, ‘Why?’ many times during the delays in the wilderness, but yet the wanderings (and wonderings) were necessary to build God’s nation. Even Jesus Himself experienced the discipline of delay in His first 30 years or so before the beginning of His great public ministry.

Sometimes when we have been waiting on something for a long time, we get very weary. But we must remember we are not alone! Sometimes, like the cake that is in the oven, God’s plan must be finished before we can enjoy it. If we get it when we want it, it won’t be ready for us. Our impatience would lead to an inferior result. Let’s allow God to move at the pace He wants, because it will always be better than the pace we call for. If we ask the Lord to renew our hearts and desires today, and give us a fresh infilling of strength to wait on His perfect timing, He will do so. He wants us to have the greatest gifts at just the right time and because He is the creator of both- it is best if we let Him handle it.

“Indeed, my plans are not like your plans, and my deeds are not like your deeds, for just as the sky is higher than the earth, so my deeds are superior to your deeds and my plans superior to your plans.” Isaiah 55:8,9

I like to think of myself as okay. Not great, but at least okay. I am probably not the only one who does that. It is comforting, I guess, to look around and believe that there are a lot of people worse than we are. But today I was looking at these verses in Isaiah and I realized that the word “your” in these verses was talking about me. Not the other guy- me. My deeds are not like God’s deeds. My ways are not God’s ways. In all ways, His ways are superior to my ways.

Well, I guess that can be fairly depressing if we ponder it. But God does not stop there and leave us with no hope. Almost every part of the Bible is about hope; about how we can triumph in spite of our misguided ways. The Bible gives us hope in a world of hopelessness.

Today I was thinking back to a few summers ago to the inferior rafts that I bought for our family camping trip. I recently upgraded to one that actually floats. I thought it would be a good investment, especially for whoever is in the middle of the river in it. Our ways are like those old rafts. They are inferior and regardless of how fast or slow the leak- our ways always leak. And like the rafts, we cannot patch them on our own. We can try to fix things up on our own, but it will never work. I had to get a new raft, just like we have to become new creatures. We can’t patch up the old, we must become new. That can only be done through Christ.

I like to think some of my ways are good. But no matter how good I think they are, if they are mine, they are not the ways of God. What I need to do is to know God well enough to know His ways. When I start becoming more like Him, my ways will start to come in line with His ways.

Many people want to try to do their own thing and try to align God with them. That cannot be done. Going back to the rafts, that would be like coming back to camp and instead of pulling ourselves to shore, we try to pull the shore to us. The shore, like God, is fixed. We must be the ones that move. If God’s ways are superior to ours, why should He come to us. It is logical that we go to Him. Unfortunately, the common practice is for us to do our own thing and then try to say that is God’s way as well.

I think back to that past summer and what it was like when my raft was sinking in the middle of the river. I was thinking that I will probably go down with both ends of the raft above my head closing in on me like a giant clam. I thought how much better it would be to have a raft that holds air. Now I have a good raft because I purchased one. If we want to get rid of our inferior ways, guess what, we don’t have to purchase it. It has been paid for and all we need to do is receive it.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

While reading through the Bible there is the reoccurrence of a theme that we should keep in mind every time we open the Word. God is not hesitant to point out the diseases humankind faces, but as is the nature of a loving God, He just as quickly points out the cures. In the greatest example, God, through men with pens, has warned us of the poison called sin that pulses through each of us. God, through those same men, has revealed to us the antidote- Jesus.

This pattern is seen in almost every one of the New Testament books. God says, “Don’t do this (because it is injurious to us), but do this (because it is beneficial to us). A wonderful example can be found in Ephesians 5. Verse 17 says, “So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is,” and 18 says, “And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless actions, but be filled by the Spirit.” Paul tells us what we should not do, but does not leave it there. He tells us what we should do instead. Every “don’t do” in the Word is followed by a “but do” and He gives us the power to do it.

Paul understands, through the Holy Spirit, that just pointing out what we should not do leaves a void that needs to be filled with something. Not long ago I heard a phrase regarding parenting. A child psychologist said to a group of parents, “if you don’t train up your child, someone else will.” What that means is that if we take something away, it will be filled with something else, but that something else isn’t always good. That’s why Paul does not just say, “Don’t be filled with spirits” and stop there, but goes on to say that we should be filled with the Holy Spirit instead.

It is said if someone quits smoking he needs to do something to fill the void left. When my dad quit smoking in 1969 he had to have something to replace the three packs a day that he smoked every day. He had to have something that replaced the nicotine, the smell, the movement of hand to lips, and a host of other habits. There weren’t enough packs of gum, nicotine patches, or suckers that could replace that thirty-year habit. He replaced the habit with prayer. He said he prayed non-stop all the way from Portland (where he smoked his last cigarette) to Grants Pass (where he died over forty years later). He said that after that day in 1969 he never craved a cigarette again. No nicotine patch for him- he put on a prayer patch instead. God always supplies the alternatives if we want to use them.

In Ephesians 4:31-32 Paul tells us “to put away every kind of bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and evil, slanderous talk. and instead, be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.” We cannot just put away the bad and stop there. We must put on the good, as well. If we don’t, the bad will return; the vacuum will be filled; the old nature will step back on the throne.

The other day in my Bible reading Abraham was called to make a sacrifice and his son was laid upon the altar. When the time came for the sacrifice, God didn’t say, “Nevermind, Abraham. You proved yourself. Untie Isaac and go home.” No, God filled the void that was left on altar with a ram caught in a thicket. If God asks us to give up something, he will graciously provide a better alternative.

The Bible is a book of answers. To be otherwise would show a merciless God who has penned a medical book that lists diseases without the cures. But our God is merciful and prefers instruction to destruction. The Bible is the greatest book ever written and describes the human dilemmas more honestly than any other. Fortunately for us, it is also the book that outlines how to deal with those dilemmas. So when God directs us away from something, He always directs us toward something else. That is what a good God does; that is why we can say we have a good God.

Have a Great Day.

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!”