By John Stallings
How glorious the king of Israel looked today! He exposed himself to the servant girls like any other person might do!—2 Sam.6:14
A cynic is defined as---A person disposed to railing & faultfinding with a disposition to disbelieve in the sincerity or goodness of human motives or actions & is want to express it in a sarcastic manner; a sneering faultfinder.”
Another definition of a cynic is. “A man who when he smells flowers looks around for a casket.” Yet another is; “someone who is disappointed in the past & prematurely disappointed with the future.”
We have to be careful to look within ourselves for we all have within us the cynical voice. The cynic says things like; Take no risks, don’t walk too close to the edge, true love is a pipe dream, don’t spend your money on books, relationships don’t last, you’re too old, you’re too young, never trust people, the Sun revolves around the earth, there’s no cure for Polio, this is stupid, & isn’t there a law against it?
We don’t have to look far in the Bible to find cynics. When King David danced before the Ark as it was being brought back to Jerusalem, watching him from a window above was his appalled wife Michal. Cynicism caused her to interpret her husbands actions as naive’ & careless & she tore into him for it. Obviously God wasn’t pleased with her performance because the Bible records; because of this she had no children.
One of the first steps toward becoming a cynic is to start to doubt the goodness of God & people. It is said that we have 1,500 negative thoughts in a 24 hour period. We eat, breathe, listen to & swim in an ocean of negativity all the time.
1. The cynic comes on as a great moralist.
Cynics will say; “forget your dream & think about feeding the poor.” It’s funny they weren’t thinking about the poor until you & your dream came along. Judas registered his complaint about the woman poring expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet in John 12:4-
6. It’s clear that he didn’t care for the poor as he said he did but he resented that precious essence being poured out & not getting his “cut.”
Cynicism & sentimentality are opposite sides of the same coin. Cynics generally feel all leaders are buffoons or crooks. If I were to pick someone who has a cynical persona in a humorous way it would be late-night T.V host David Letterman. As a matter of fact his style of cynicism is very pervasive today among America’s youth. People are confusing cynicism & sarcasm with sophistication.
Many TV sitcoms are based almost entirely on biting sarcasm, put-downs & snide remarks. Because it’s so clever its become a verbal art form.
2. Cynics are cheap-- & slow-down experts.
“You can’t pay for it” is one of their favorite lines. “People won’t support it, it’s too big.” Cynics try to intimidate. They are slow-down experts. Their advice is, “You must be cautious, slow & careful. We need more time to think about it.” They have “think-about-it itus.” They tried to stop David when he slew Goliath, Nehemiah when he rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls, Rev.Martin Luther King Jr. when he marched for justice & freedom, Fred Smith when he started FedEx & JFK with his dream of going to the Moon.
Cynics will think so long about something that they suck all the excitement out of it.
3. Cynics will shame you for your “egotistical ideas.”
In the 17th century, Galileo was ostracized by the Catholic Church & told, “The idea that the earth is not the center of the universe & that it daily revolves around the Sun is absurd & theologically false & an error in faith. In 1992 they recanted & apologized.
4. Cynics will tolerate goals but not dreams.
In 1927 many people said talking movies were silly. They said-“No one wants to hear the actor’s voices anyway?” Cynics love to ridicule. A cynic said decades ago, “There’s no reason for any person to have a computer in their home.”
A man came to Florida in the 1970’s to start a business. He’d been bankrupt 3 times & owed banks 5 million dollars. Cynics tried to talk him into building a “fun arcade” on about 5 acres with a few horses, a replica of the Matter horn & small train running around it. After all, who was he but a maker of cartoons, with a big dream? Had the cynics been successful, there would now be a “Walt’s Fun-arcade” in the outskirts of Orlando instead of “Disney World-- the worlds Number one resort destination.”
If we don’t have big dreams our spirits will wither.
5. Cynics will try to frighten you.
“If you fly in planes you might get killed.” If I’d been afraid to fly I could never traveled the world & seen thousands of souls saved. As an extra perk, I’ve also witnessed much of the breath taking beauty of God’s magnificent world. I’d rather die going somewhere interesting than to die sitting & accomplishing nothing. If I ever die in a plane crash, don’t waste any tears over me. Just say- he knew it could happen but that’s the way he wanted it. After all we have to get out of this world some way.
Fred Smith wrote an Essay in Business school about a company that would deliver packages all over the world within hours. His professor sneered at him & gave him a grade of 70. Today we know his business plan as FedEx.
My friend, follow your dreams though you reach the age of 100. Your dreams keep you alive. What dream is languishing in your heart stored away because of fear of ridicule? Expect fear to come when you commit. That’s o.k. You are drawn by your dreams. The only qualification a cynic needs is vocal cords.
We now have satellites hurling through space to send us back pictures of other worlds because of the power of dreams. If your dream is impossible that’s o.k. but get on with it.
Dreams by their very nature seem impossible. Don’t eliminate the unseen from your reality because when you do you eliminate God Himself. Your dreams will deliver you to a new reality.
Look around you. Everything you see is someone’s dream.
THE PHONE
THE LIGHT BULB
THE COMPUTER
TELEVISION
MICROWAVE
CAR
FAX
JET PLANES
HELICOPTERS
INTERSTATE HI-WAYS
AIR CONDITIONING
THE SPACE SHUTTLE
MAN ON THE MOON
CELL PHONES
IPHODS
BLACKBERRY’S, ECT.
When the Steam boat was being cranked for the first time, as it chugged & chugged, a cynic hollered --“They’ll never start that thing” It was finally successfully cranked & it lurched ahead so quickly it looked like it was coming up on the river bank. As the onlookers ran to get out of its way the same cynic hollered, “They’ll never stop that thing.”
Edison’s was 67 years old when his shop & warehouse burned to the ground destroying everything he had. He stood & watched it & said, “Thank God there goes all my mistakes.” When asked how he could continue working on the light bulb when he had so many failures, he replied, “I just learned ten thousand ways not to make a light bulb.”
In 1876 Western Union said, “The telephone has too many short comings to be successful.” In 1899 a respected leader in San Francisco said, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
6. History has shown that cynics can be violent.
Ask the Kennedy family. Ask the Martin Luther King family. And even Jesus was killed by a sneering, hooting, hating, cynical, murderous mob. A cynic is threatened when he sees someone about to accomplish something great because he’s already given up on everything. Ask any athlete & they’ll tell you the closer they get to the goal or finish line the greater the pressure is, because a score is coming up.
A manifestation of cynicism is saying “what’s the use?” I heard a man say that the short version of the “serenity prayer” is “To blazes with it.” This would definitely be a vintage cynic statement.
God definitely isn’t a cynic because if he were He’d have given up on man when he sinned in the Garden. He could have looked at the whole mess & said “What’s the use?” All through man’s history God has continued to extend His grace when man failed time after time. His grace reached its zenith when Jesus Christ God’s son came to be born in Bethlehem, live, die & be resurrected from the dead to win for each of us the victory over sin, death & Satan.
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he put it like this;
And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses & sin. Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, according to the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh & of the mind; & were by nature the children of wrath even as others.
But God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together & made us sit together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.Eph.2:1-7
John
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
Senator Byrd of West Virginia
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for the dogfight promoters. Barbaric!—let the word resound from hill to hill, from mountain to mountain, from valley to valley across this broad land. Barbaric!”
It’s refreshing to learn that Senator Byrd actually believes in hell but it makes one wonder why he can get so bent out of shape about the dogfights. I agree that these dogfights are perverse & evil & mindlessly cruel & should not be tolerated in any society. I love dogs as well as all of Gods creation (while I confess to killing some of God’s fish occasionally & even eating them.)
However, there’s something wrong with a person or society that can get all bent out of shape over dogs fighting, while these dogs would fight anyway if left alone, when we can watch multitudes of our elderly living in poverty & turn a blind eye.
Many of the same people who can get so upset about dogfights don’t seem to have much compassion for the millions of babies whose brains are sucked out by a suction tube & bodies ripped piece by piece out of their mother’s wombs while they are alert & can feel the pain.
What’s wrong with this picture?
It’s refreshing to learn that Senator Byrd actually believes in hell but it makes one wonder why he can get so bent out of shape about the dogfights. I agree that these dogfights are perverse & evil & mindlessly cruel & should not be tolerated in any society. I love dogs as well as all of Gods creation (while I confess to killing some of God’s fish occasionally & even eating them.)
However, there’s something wrong with a person or society that can get all bent out of shape over dogs fighting, while these dogs would fight anyway if left alone, when we can watch multitudes of our elderly living in poverty & turn a blind eye.
Many of the same people who can get so upset about dogfights don’t seem to have much compassion for the millions of babies whose brains are sucked out by a suction tube & bodies ripped piece by piece out of their mother’s wombs while they are alert & can feel the pain.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Gifted-not spiritual
By John Stallings
In 11 Corinthians 4:7, Paul writes; “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.”
When we hear of the failure of a well known Christian, we are perplexed and wonder why and how it happened. When someone well known is mentioned on the six o’clock news and their failure is spread across the T.V screens and newspapers, we are shocked and mourn for them, which is as it should be. We should also go to prayer for them, whether or not the story being told is true.
If what we’re hearing has actually happened, we’re shocked because the newness of the revelation has caught us unprepared. However, in truth we are usually hearing about it, not unlike cancer, in its final stages. Rarely does a story emerge about an individual in the germinating phase of their failure. That person doubtless had been pursuing the course of action and going down that road for years. We are just finding it out.
Though we often hear the term, “Falling into sin” it’s a misnomer in many ways, for these falls almost always take time. It is unfortunate that these things happen in the Kingdom of God because when one Christian stumbles all of us are wounded by it. But Paul’s statement in this verse helps us to better understand that God has put his rich treasure of Grace and power into earthen vessels, “that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” What a sobering and humbling thought.
Again, Paul is reminding us in this verse that there is a human element that we all constantly contend with. One Bible translation of the above verse says; “We have this treasure in Jars of Clay.” While there is no question about the reality of the powerful treasure we are given, scripture reminds us that the containers of this marvelous power are only clay.
Let me share with you a concept that might sound strange: gifted not spiritual. Does it sound like an oxymoron to hear the words in the same sentence? Does the idea of an individual exercising a Gift such as the gift of Healing, or the gift of Faith or Prophesy, and not be what God calls a” Spiritual person” seem crazy? How could such a thing be true?
In 1 Corinthians 3:1 the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul tells the Corinthian church, “I could not write unto you as Spiritual but as unto carnal”. You certainly couldn’t accuse this Corinthian church of not exercising the gifts for they possessed them and they were certainly in use. However, according to Paul they were “not spiritual.” Having made that statement, let’s chase it for a bit and see just what Paul meant.
IT’S OBVIOUS THAT THE GIFTS GOD GAVE THE EARLY CHURCH ARE AVAILABLE TODAY.
Romans 11:26 makes it clear that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance; meaning when God gives the gifts, he does not revoke them. Since the gifts were given to the early church, his promise was that they wouldn’t be withdrawn. Moreover, these gifts can’t, as some have supposed, have ended with the Apostles for they were never called the Gifts of the Apostles, but rather were the “Gifts of the Spirit.”
Certainly we know the Holy Spirit hasn’t died. So we can rightly say that Gods gifts are still resident within the Church. Many theologians, through a process of dispensations, like a mailman sorting mail, arbitrarily place the gifts in the dispensation where they feel they belong. This seems convenient but is dead wrong.
However it’s important to remember, and this confuses folk; that just because a person uses one of the spiritual gifts doesn’t mean that individual is spiritually mature or for that matter their lives are pleasing to God. What it does mean, clear and simple, is that God by divine fiat has chosen to use that person. No gift or the exercise of that gift marks a person as “someone special.”
THE GIFT TELLS LITTLE ABOUT THE ONE WHO HAS IT, BUT RATHER TELLS US ABOUT THE ONE WHO GAVE IT.
If someone gave me a $500,000 Bentley and I drove it around arrogantly, it would make me look ridiculous because the car would say nothing about me; rather it would speak of the person who gifted me.
• In the mid-seventies, I went to conduct a revival in a church in Florida. When I arrived the people were still buzzing with excitement about the evangelist who had ministered for them a few months earlier. This man, whom I had met briefly earlier that year, had an unusual ministry in that he had the ability to give folk knowledge about themselves that only they and their doctor or those close to them could possibly know. He didn’t preach much, once in awhile he’d have a message but he was very clear with the people. He would say, “I don’t preach sermons like other preachers.” This was always fine with the people who came and the revival he conducted in this particular church went on for seven weeks. The Pastor showed me the check book where this man’s checks had been written to him nightly (he couldn’t wait until the end of the week to be paid as most other preachers do.) I was stunned to see that the checks he received were hundreds, sometimes thousands each and every night. I certainly didn’t begrudge this minister the money he received but it was far more than most churches that size could normally pay an Evangelist. This man would come to the service each night and when introduced, he would begin bringing people up to the platform and giving them information about themselves he obviously couldn’t have known. During the mid-seventies, he was a sensation everywhere he went. He wasn’t always correct about people. There were nights he didn’t seem to “have it” and everyone understood. I believe he called his gift “the word of knowledge or discerning of Spirits,” but the fact of the matter was that he was right on target much of the time.
After the first service of my meeting in this church, a man who was a leader came up to me and asked, “Brother, Is that all you do?” I was a little confused and asked what he meant. He asked again if that was “all I did.” I answered that what I do each night, unless God led me otherwise, was to sing my songs, preach the Word of God and expect signs to follow and have people Saved, Healed and Blessed. I continued to tell the brother that I always preached the Word and when the Word was preached we could expect exciting signs to follow. Just as in Bible days, “signs and wonders follow the believers.” I explained that several gifts were also operable in my ministry but since the Holy Spirit is a personality & doesn’t express Himself in the same way in every service, I never felt lead of God to advertise myself as a specialist. If the manifestation of a “gift” was what the people expected of me, they would be disappointed if the gift wasn’t evident in each & every service, therefore presenting a temptation to “try to force the gift to operate & therefore do what God isn’t doing.” This seemed to be what their last evangelist was doing. Also, some of the things God showed me about particular folk in the church had a negative side & were better presented within the context of a sermon, therefore taking the “personal sting” out of the revelation. If God prompted me to do it more openly, I would as always have a keen listening ear.
MULTIPLE GIFTS RESIDENT IN ONE PERSON NOT UNUSUAL
In 2 Timothy 4:1-2 Paul mentions several gifts that Timothy should be exercising. He says,
“Preach the word”—Be instant in season & out of season”---
“reprove, rebuke, exhort,”---
“With all longsuffering--- & doctrine.”
Several gifts of the spirit or a “gift-mix” are contained in that short passage. Many times within one sermon there can be a stretch of five minutes or more of pure prophesy embedded in the message for those with ears to hear. But the good brother didn’t try to hide his disappointment over the fact that preaching & singing was for the most part “all I did.”
During that week I met several other wonderful folk who had been so enraptured by their former Evangelist’s ministry that they could hardly speak of anything else. Since the Pastor had been an old friend of mine I tactfully questioned him about the effects this Evangelist had on his church. I quickly discerned that almost anything I said was construed to be jealousy on my part of that Evangelist’s ministry. I was there for two weeks and immensely enjoyed it. At the close of the meetings, my offering wasn’t as much as the former evangelist was given however the folk did give generously and purchased my records and my needs were more than met. We had, I felt a very well attended, successful series of meetings and a lot happened during those days. The Pastor and the people were happy and invited me back someday. After I left, I said very little about the experience to anyone figuring questions I asked might be construed as “sour grapes”.
I left that town troubled in my spirit, for there was something I knew about this Evangelist that I hadn’t mentioned. That information was not exactly unknown among the ministers I knew either, but really was old news, not of much significance. I knew from unimpeachable sources that this man, a few years back had been discovered in a motel with another man and some women who weren’t their wives, having a drunken party. The reason this knowledge wasn’t all that important was that he had confessed it all and was, as far as I knew, in right standing now with God, his wife, and fellow ministers.
From time to time after that meeting in Florida, I would hear stories about the evangelist most of them centering on his lengthy, successful, lucrative revivals. I knew that in some places he had to rent u-haul trucks to take away from the cities all the things people lavished on him. Because he had this gift operating in his ministry, nothing else seemed to be important and pockets turned inside out for him everywhere he went. I also knew personally of people who had been so enamored with this man who had given them personal information about themselves that they gave everything they had. Thankfully their church stepped in and paid their household bills after the meetings. All I could do was just ponder these things in my heart, though they troubled me, put them aside & move on.
Thirteen years went by and one day I turned on my T.V and to my horror, saw this evangelist on one of the major Christian talk shows laughing & talking with the host. I was floored and told my wife these exact words, “This is the beginning of the end for him,” calling the name of the T.V host, who also was an old friend of mine. I knew there was nothing I could have told him that the host of that show didn’t already know so I had no alternative but to stare dumbfounded into the T.V. Within just a few months the Christian talk show was cancelled, the host had fallen into adultery and scandal and had lost his marriage, most of it arranged for him by this Evangelist. The Evangelist had also fallen back into sin and lost his ministry and was driving a taxi, and had been arrested several times for drunk driving. Not long afterward he died of a sexually transmitted disease. Here was a man who could, when he was having a good night, almost read peoples minds.
Now, can I say that this man wasn’t using a true gift of God? No! I could not, nor would not! In all probability he was exercising a spiritual gift that God had at one time bestowed on him, for remember, those gifts aren’t taken back by God. Obviously he had no spiritual fruit but many times we suspend our search for spiritual fruit feeling we’ll be called “critical.”
THIS DOESN’T REFLECT ON THE REALITY OF THE GIFTS
What I’m saying here might make some feel uncomfortable feeling it reflects on the magnificent gifts of God. But think about it this way. While it’s extremely hurtful to God and the body of Christ to have a preacher or any Christian to fall and turn away from what they know is real, if a preacher who preaches a strong the Salvation message backslides, it isn’t a reflection on the Salvation message. What has gone wrong is the failure of that individual and nothing more. What we must teach is that we need to see the fruit of any person’s life before we can know whether or not that person is in sync with spiritual reality.
In Matthew 7; 21; Jesus said “NOT EVERY ONE THAT SAITH UNTO ME LORD LORD SHALL INTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. BUT HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS HEAVEN. MANY WILL SAY UNTO ME IN THAT DAY, LORD LORD HAVE WE NOT PROPHESIED IN THY NAME? AND HAVE WE NOT CAST OUT DEVILS? AND IN THEY NAME DONE MANY WONDERFUL WORKS? AND THEN I WILL PROFESS ONTO THEM I NEVER KNEW YOU; DEPART FROM ME YE THAT WORK INIQUITY.”
Think about that. Jesus doesn’t say, ‘No, you never did any of those things. He just says depart from me, I never knew you.” What I am saying here isn’t meant as a negative regarding the Gifts of the Spirit but rather it’s a call for understanding and balance. We get so carried away with a gift and the person who uses it that we can forget that it tells little about the user of the gift but the giver of it, and doesn’t assure that the user of the gift is in right standing with the giver. If a preacher who was known to not believe gifts are operative in our day were to say these things, folk would automatically reject it feeling that what he said was biased. However I was raised in churches that believe in these gifts as do I. The Bible never says “by their gifts shall ye know them” but rather “by their fruits shall ye know them”.
CHARISMA WITHOUT CHARACTER IS DANGEROUS
Sadly we often turn that around backwards and say “by their gifts shall ye know them”, which is obviously in error. Charisma without Character is very dangerous and folk fitting that description consistently do damage to the body of Christ.
I personally have known men who were either in jail or preaching. As soon as they are let out of jail they will go somewhere and start a church and believe me it will grow, right up until the time they go to jail again. I have no ax to grind with the preachers; the real problem isn’t with them as much as the people who will blindly follow them without checking the fruit of their life.
Yes the miraculous signs are real and should follow all believers. But in the early church the signs were for the unbeliever; sadly today all kinds of supernatural signs are needed to get many Christians interested.
The answer is to stop elevating people because of a spiritual gift for certainly we know if they are using it rightly they will not try to elevate themselves.
New Christians especially should be taught not to be hyper- critical, but to be on guard against being led by someone whose life doesn’t please God. It is always helpful to remember also that when any individual speaks a word into our lives that has anything to do with direction for our life, it should always be a confirmation of God is already saying to us. When God wants to give us direction, he will speak to our own hearts through his word or through promptings in our spirit. Anything said to us through another person, if it’s God, will square with what we’ve already been shown by God’s spirit.
There’s a wonderful discourse on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. , and, in the last verse Paul tells of a more excellent way. The next chapter, 1 Cor. 13 is of course the love chapter. It’s interesting that chapter twelve is the POWER chapter, thirteen is the LOVE chapter and if you read chapter fourteen you’ll find it’s the SOUND MIND chapter. Remember Paul told young Timothy, “God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” I think it’s no accident that God has sandwiched the love chapter between twelve, the power chapter enumerating the available gifts, and fourteen, the sound mind chapter exhorting how the gifts are to be used. After all, what good are we if we can raise the dead and have no love? If I have enough faith to move mountains and no love, then I might just throw the mountain in someone else’s path. Paul tells these Corinthians that he can’t call them spiritual even though they are gifted because they are seeking after men instead of realizing God gets all the glory for what any of us accomplishes.
JOHN DID NO MIRACLES
There’s a fantastic fact in the New Testament that really amazed me when I first saw it. John the Baptist did no miracles, however Jesus said of John in Matthew 11; 11, “no greater man was born of women than John.” Isn’t that amazing; here is Christ, the great miracle worker, calling John a man who didn’t perform a single miracle not only great but he says no greater man was ever born of woman. This statement is emblematic of the fact that Jesus doesn’t equate greatness with the miraculous. We should never be followers of men just because of their gifts, but on the other hand always be appreciative of the magnificent supernatural gifts God has placed within his church.
There are two ways God can work where man is concerned; He can work in us or He can work through us. He has worked through donkeys, birds, fish, wooden rods, and rocks among other things. God however can’t work IN anything but yielded, submitted Christians. Much of Samson’s life God was only working THROUGH him not IN HIM. Our prayer should be;
“God, please work through me & use me as an instrument to accomplish your will. But, don’t only work through me to do marvelous things men would call great, if my own heart is to be left adrift in a spiritual desert never feasting on the manna I’m dispensing to others."
"WORK IN ME, IN MY HEART & SOUL SO THAT I MIGHT EACH DAY GROW MORE & MORE UNTO THE MEASURE OF THE STATURE OF THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST."John
In 11 Corinthians 4:7, Paul writes; “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.”
When we hear of the failure of a well known Christian, we are perplexed and wonder why and how it happened. When someone well known is mentioned on the six o’clock news and their failure is spread across the T.V screens and newspapers, we are shocked and mourn for them, which is as it should be. We should also go to prayer for them, whether or not the story being told is true.
If what we’re hearing has actually happened, we’re shocked because the newness of the revelation has caught us unprepared. However, in truth we are usually hearing about it, not unlike cancer, in its final stages. Rarely does a story emerge about an individual in the germinating phase of their failure. That person doubtless had been pursuing the course of action and going down that road for years. We are just finding it out.
Though we often hear the term, “Falling into sin” it’s a misnomer in many ways, for these falls almost always take time. It is unfortunate that these things happen in the Kingdom of God because when one Christian stumbles all of us are wounded by it. But Paul’s statement in this verse helps us to better understand that God has put his rich treasure of Grace and power into earthen vessels, “that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” What a sobering and humbling thought.
Again, Paul is reminding us in this verse that there is a human element that we all constantly contend with. One Bible translation of the above verse says; “We have this treasure in Jars of Clay.” While there is no question about the reality of the powerful treasure we are given, scripture reminds us that the containers of this marvelous power are only clay.
Let me share with you a concept that might sound strange: gifted not spiritual. Does it sound like an oxymoron to hear the words in the same sentence? Does the idea of an individual exercising a Gift such as the gift of Healing, or the gift of Faith or Prophesy, and not be what God calls a” Spiritual person” seem crazy? How could such a thing be true?
In 1 Corinthians 3:1 the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul tells the Corinthian church, “I could not write unto you as Spiritual but as unto carnal”. You certainly couldn’t accuse this Corinthian church of not exercising the gifts for they possessed them and they were certainly in use. However, according to Paul they were “not spiritual.” Having made that statement, let’s chase it for a bit and see just what Paul meant.
IT’S OBVIOUS THAT THE GIFTS GOD GAVE THE EARLY CHURCH ARE AVAILABLE TODAY.
Romans 11:26 makes it clear that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance; meaning when God gives the gifts, he does not revoke them. Since the gifts were given to the early church, his promise was that they wouldn’t be withdrawn. Moreover, these gifts can’t, as some have supposed, have ended with the Apostles for they were never called the Gifts of the Apostles, but rather were the “Gifts of the Spirit.”
Certainly we know the Holy Spirit hasn’t died. So we can rightly say that Gods gifts are still resident within the Church. Many theologians, through a process of dispensations, like a mailman sorting mail, arbitrarily place the gifts in the dispensation where they feel they belong. This seems convenient but is dead wrong.
However it’s important to remember, and this confuses folk; that just because a person uses one of the spiritual gifts doesn’t mean that individual is spiritually mature or for that matter their lives are pleasing to God. What it does mean, clear and simple, is that God by divine fiat has chosen to use that person. No gift or the exercise of that gift marks a person as “someone special.”
THE GIFT TELLS LITTLE ABOUT THE ONE WHO HAS IT, BUT RATHER TELLS US ABOUT THE ONE WHO GAVE IT.
If someone gave me a $500,000 Bentley and I drove it around arrogantly, it would make me look ridiculous because the car would say nothing about me; rather it would speak of the person who gifted me.
• In the mid-seventies, I went to conduct a revival in a church in Florida. When I arrived the people were still buzzing with excitement about the evangelist who had ministered for them a few months earlier. This man, whom I had met briefly earlier that year, had an unusual ministry in that he had the ability to give folk knowledge about themselves that only they and their doctor or those close to them could possibly know. He didn’t preach much, once in awhile he’d have a message but he was very clear with the people. He would say, “I don’t preach sermons like other preachers.” This was always fine with the people who came and the revival he conducted in this particular church went on for seven weeks. The Pastor showed me the check book where this man’s checks had been written to him nightly (he couldn’t wait until the end of the week to be paid as most other preachers do.) I was stunned to see that the checks he received were hundreds, sometimes thousands each and every night. I certainly didn’t begrudge this minister the money he received but it was far more than most churches that size could normally pay an Evangelist. This man would come to the service each night and when introduced, he would begin bringing people up to the platform and giving them information about themselves he obviously couldn’t have known. During the mid-seventies, he was a sensation everywhere he went. He wasn’t always correct about people. There were nights he didn’t seem to “have it” and everyone understood. I believe he called his gift “the word of knowledge or discerning of Spirits,” but the fact of the matter was that he was right on target much of the time.
After the first service of my meeting in this church, a man who was a leader came up to me and asked, “Brother, Is that all you do?” I was a little confused and asked what he meant. He asked again if that was “all I did.” I answered that what I do each night, unless God led me otherwise, was to sing my songs, preach the Word of God and expect signs to follow and have people Saved, Healed and Blessed. I continued to tell the brother that I always preached the Word and when the Word was preached we could expect exciting signs to follow. Just as in Bible days, “signs and wonders follow the believers.” I explained that several gifts were also operable in my ministry but since the Holy Spirit is a personality & doesn’t express Himself in the same way in every service, I never felt lead of God to advertise myself as a specialist. If the manifestation of a “gift” was what the people expected of me, they would be disappointed if the gift wasn’t evident in each & every service, therefore presenting a temptation to “try to force the gift to operate & therefore do what God isn’t doing.” This seemed to be what their last evangelist was doing. Also, some of the things God showed me about particular folk in the church had a negative side & were better presented within the context of a sermon, therefore taking the “personal sting” out of the revelation. If God prompted me to do it more openly, I would as always have a keen listening ear.
MULTIPLE GIFTS RESIDENT IN ONE PERSON NOT UNUSUAL
In 2 Timothy 4:1-2 Paul mentions several gifts that Timothy should be exercising. He says,
“Preach the word”—Be instant in season & out of season”---
“reprove, rebuke, exhort,”---
“With all longsuffering--- & doctrine.”
Several gifts of the spirit or a “gift-mix” are contained in that short passage. Many times within one sermon there can be a stretch of five minutes or more of pure prophesy embedded in the message for those with ears to hear. But the good brother didn’t try to hide his disappointment over the fact that preaching & singing was for the most part “all I did.”
During that week I met several other wonderful folk who had been so enraptured by their former Evangelist’s ministry that they could hardly speak of anything else. Since the Pastor had been an old friend of mine I tactfully questioned him about the effects this Evangelist had on his church. I quickly discerned that almost anything I said was construed to be jealousy on my part of that Evangelist’s ministry. I was there for two weeks and immensely enjoyed it. At the close of the meetings, my offering wasn’t as much as the former evangelist was given however the folk did give generously and purchased my records and my needs were more than met. We had, I felt a very well attended, successful series of meetings and a lot happened during those days. The Pastor and the people were happy and invited me back someday. After I left, I said very little about the experience to anyone figuring questions I asked might be construed as “sour grapes”.
I left that town troubled in my spirit, for there was something I knew about this Evangelist that I hadn’t mentioned. That information was not exactly unknown among the ministers I knew either, but really was old news, not of much significance. I knew from unimpeachable sources that this man, a few years back had been discovered in a motel with another man and some women who weren’t their wives, having a drunken party. The reason this knowledge wasn’t all that important was that he had confessed it all and was, as far as I knew, in right standing now with God, his wife, and fellow ministers.
From time to time after that meeting in Florida, I would hear stories about the evangelist most of them centering on his lengthy, successful, lucrative revivals. I knew that in some places he had to rent u-haul trucks to take away from the cities all the things people lavished on him. Because he had this gift operating in his ministry, nothing else seemed to be important and pockets turned inside out for him everywhere he went. I also knew personally of people who had been so enamored with this man who had given them personal information about themselves that they gave everything they had. Thankfully their church stepped in and paid their household bills after the meetings. All I could do was just ponder these things in my heart, though they troubled me, put them aside & move on.
Thirteen years went by and one day I turned on my T.V and to my horror, saw this evangelist on one of the major Christian talk shows laughing & talking with the host. I was floored and told my wife these exact words, “This is the beginning of the end for him,” calling the name of the T.V host, who also was an old friend of mine. I knew there was nothing I could have told him that the host of that show didn’t already know so I had no alternative but to stare dumbfounded into the T.V. Within just a few months the Christian talk show was cancelled, the host had fallen into adultery and scandal and had lost his marriage, most of it arranged for him by this Evangelist. The Evangelist had also fallen back into sin and lost his ministry and was driving a taxi, and had been arrested several times for drunk driving. Not long afterward he died of a sexually transmitted disease. Here was a man who could, when he was having a good night, almost read peoples minds.
Now, can I say that this man wasn’t using a true gift of God? No! I could not, nor would not! In all probability he was exercising a spiritual gift that God had at one time bestowed on him, for remember, those gifts aren’t taken back by God. Obviously he had no spiritual fruit but many times we suspend our search for spiritual fruit feeling we’ll be called “critical.”
THIS DOESN’T REFLECT ON THE REALITY OF THE GIFTS
What I’m saying here might make some feel uncomfortable feeling it reflects on the magnificent gifts of God. But think about it this way. While it’s extremely hurtful to God and the body of Christ to have a preacher or any Christian to fall and turn away from what they know is real, if a preacher who preaches a strong the Salvation message backslides, it isn’t a reflection on the Salvation message. What has gone wrong is the failure of that individual and nothing more. What we must teach is that we need to see the fruit of any person’s life before we can know whether or not that person is in sync with spiritual reality.
In Matthew 7; 21; Jesus said “NOT EVERY ONE THAT SAITH UNTO ME LORD LORD SHALL INTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. BUT HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS HEAVEN. MANY WILL SAY UNTO ME IN THAT DAY, LORD LORD HAVE WE NOT PROPHESIED IN THY NAME? AND HAVE WE NOT CAST OUT DEVILS? AND IN THEY NAME DONE MANY WONDERFUL WORKS? AND THEN I WILL PROFESS ONTO THEM I NEVER KNEW YOU; DEPART FROM ME YE THAT WORK INIQUITY.”
Think about that. Jesus doesn’t say, ‘No, you never did any of those things. He just says depart from me, I never knew you.” What I am saying here isn’t meant as a negative regarding the Gifts of the Spirit but rather it’s a call for understanding and balance. We get so carried away with a gift and the person who uses it that we can forget that it tells little about the user of the gift but the giver of it, and doesn’t assure that the user of the gift is in right standing with the giver. If a preacher who was known to not believe gifts are operative in our day were to say these things, folk would automatically reject it feeling that what he said was biased. However I was raised in churches that believe in these gifts as do I. The Bible never says “by their gifts shall ye know them” but rather “by their fruits shall ye know them”.
CHARISMA WITHOUT CHARACTER IS DANGEROUS
Sadly we often turn that around backwards and say “by their gifts shall ye know them”, which is obviously in error. Charisma without Character is very dangerous and folk fitting that description consistently do damage to the body of Christ.
I personally have known men who were either in jail or preaching. As soon as they are let out of jail they will go somewhere and start a church and believe me it will grow, right up until the time they go to jail again. I have no ax to grind with the preachers; the real problem isn’t with them as much as the people who will blindly follow them without checking the fruit of their life.
Yes the miraculous signs are real and should follow all believers. But in the early church the signs were for the unbeliever; sadly today all kinds of supernatural signs are needed to get many Christians interested.
The answer is to stop elevating people because of a spiritual gift for certainly we know if they are using it rightly they will not try to elevate themselves.
New Christians especially should be taught not to be hyper- critical, but to be on guard against being led by someone whose life doesn’t please God. It is always helpful to remember also that when any individual speaks a word into our lives that has anything to do with direction for our life, it should always be a confirmation of God is already saying to us. When God wants to give us direction, he will speak to our own hearts through his word or through promptings in our spirit. Anything said to us through another person, if it’s God, will square with what we’ve already been shown by God’s spirit.
There’s a wonderful discourse on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. , and, in the last verse Paul tells of a more excellent way. The next chapter, 1 Cor. 13 is of course the love chapter. It’s interesting that chapter twelve is the POWER chapter, thirteen is the LOVE chapter and if you read chapter fourteen you’ll find it’s the SOUND MIND chapter. Remember Paul told young Timothy, “God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” I think it’s no accident that God has sandwiched the love chapter between twelve, the power chapter enumerating the available gifts, and fourteen, the sound mind chapter exhorting how the gifts are to be used. After all, what good are we if we can raise the dead and have no love? If I have enough faith to move mountains and no love, then I might just throw the mountain in someone else’s path. Paul tells these Corinthians that he can’t call them spiritual even though they are gifted because they are seeking after men instead of realizing God gets all the glory for what any of us accomplishes.
JOHN DID NO MIRACLES
There’s a fantastic fact in the New Testament that really amazed me when I first saw it. John the Baptist did no miracles, however Jesus said of John in Matthew 11; 11, “no greater man was born of women than John.” Isn’t that amazing; here is Christ, the great miracle worker, calling John a man who didn’t perform a single miracle not only great but he says no greater man was ever born of woman. This statement is emblematic of the fact that Jesus doesn’t equate greatness with the miraculous. We should never be followers of men just because of their gifts, but on the other hand always be appreciative of the magnificent supernatural gifts God has placed within his church.
There are two ways God can work where man is concerned; He can work in us or He can work through us. He has worked through donkeys, birds, fish, wooden rods, and rocks among other things. God however can’t work IN anything but yielded, submitted Christians. Much of Samson’s life God was only working THROUGH him not IN HIM. Our prayer should be;
“God, please work through me & use me as an instrument to accomplish your will. But, don’t only work through me to do marvelous things men would call great, if my own heart is to be left adrift in a spiritual desert never feasting on the manna I’m dispensing to others."
"WORK IN ME, IN MY HEART & SOUL SO THAT I MIGHT EACH DAY GROW MORE & MORE UNTO THE MEASURE OF THE STATURE OF THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST."John
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
So, is Iraq a just war?
By John Stallings
What is a just war & what does the Bible say about war? Christians have struggled with this for centuries. I realize that reasonable people can look at the same event & see something different, but what does the Bible really say about war?
Certainly we know that God is & has always been a God of peace. The universe was created to be in complete & total peace. But the Bible isn’t silent on the subject of war which we’ll see.
The apostle Paul said in Romans12:18----If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
Is there ever a time when we must draw our weapons & fight? Yes! Just as there are many references to peace in the Bible there are many references to war. The trouble with some pacifists is that they say they look to Jesus as their example but they ignore the whole council of God.
• Generally speaking, a just war permits a preemptive strike when imminent danger looms.
Let’s look at an example. If you awoke one morning & looked over toward your neighbor’s back yard & saw that he was mounting a large cannon & it was aimed right at your kitchen, what would you think? Let’s say that by the next day you observed the cannon was being encased in concrete so that it wouldn’t swivel, it would be in a fixed position & that position was aimed right at your house. What would you think then?
Now let’s say you visited with your neighbor & learned that the cannon was a working gun & when you pointed out that it was in a hardened position aimed right at you, he agreed that it was, & offered no other explanation, what would you then do?
In such a scenario, the only thing you could logically do would be to accept the fact that your neighbor was planning to wipe you & your family out & you’d have to decide if you wanted to just let it happen or take action to have that gun removed no matter what the cost. If you went to the authorities & they said there wasn’t enough proof that your neighbor was planning to do you harm, & they couldn’t be of help to you, now what would you do? You would either plan to die or take preemptive action.
• Next, generally speaking, a just war would be to remove a tyrant from power whose history proves him to be guilty of on-going war crimes.
Obviously Saddam Hussein who killed thousands of his own people was a threat to the world, was removed from leadership, tried & punished by his own people. This was as it should have been. Over the past few years we’ve killed or incarcerated thousands of terrorists. It’s a heartbreak that so many American lives have been lost but when you take in to account the avowed militant purposes of these radicals, it would seem its either us or them.
• Lastly, a just war allows a nation to act unilaterally for the defense of its citizenry.
Two questions require an answer; is war ever ordained by God & how does God feel about war?
Revelation 19:11-16 says,-- And I saw heaven opened & behold a white horse, & he that sat upon him was called faithful & true, & in righteousness he doth judge & make war.
Ex.15:2-3 says, The LORD is my strength & song, & he is become my salvation; He is my God, & I will prepare Him an habitation; my father’s God, & I will exalt Him. The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is His name.Moses, Joshua & many of the Judges were strengthened by God for war. Read Hebrews 11:32-34.
God gives us council to be wise in war. Proverbs 20:18, --Every purpose is established by council: and with good advice make war. In the Hebrew language there are two different words for murder & war, so they are seen totally different by God.
Does the sixth commandment say”--Thou shalt not kill?” No! It says: “Thou shalt not commit murder.”
Justice is a joy to the godly but it causes dismay among evil doers. God isn’t only a God of peace; He is also a God of justice.
John Stewart Mills said, -“A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares about more than his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free.”
WHEN IS WAR JUSTIFIED?
1. A time for war is when freedom is to be defended.
Throughout the book of Judges, God calls the Israelites to go to war against the Midianites & Philistines. Why? Because these nations were trying to conquer Israel. They were called to defend themselves.
The birth of our nation involved war. The freedoms our ancestors deeply felt was theirs didn’t happen without a war.
2. A time for war is when innocent people need to be defended.
Micah 6:8 says—He hath shown thee O man what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy & to walk humbly with thy God.Solomon gave this advice in Proverbs 21:15; --It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.
3. A time for war is to stop the spread of evil.
Here is a reason for the Iraqi war; after we were attacked on September 11, 2001, President Bush & all of America declared war on all terrorists everywhere. There must be laws to stop those who are evil. God gave us the Ten Commandments & every good law ever written is rooted in these commandments.
WHEN WILL THE WORLD HAVE PEACE?
Will we ever have permanent peace? Isaiah 2:4 paints a beautiful picture of the peace we look forward to. The Lord will settle all international disputes permanently.
When the time is right Jesus will come again. Then all war will end. What should we do in the mean time?
1. Pray—1 Tim.2:1-2 says---I exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men. And for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet & peaceable life in all Godliness & honesty.
2. Trust God—Psalm 27:1-3---The Lord is my light & my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me in this will I be confident.
3. Seek peace—Do your part to live in peace with everyone, as much as possible. Rom. 12:18—NLT
4. Support each other-Galatians 6:2—Bear ye one another’s burdens & so fulfill the law of Christ.During these times we need to pull together & support one another & especially our military personnel. Their families also need our support.
Gore, Kennedy, Kerry, Clinton & a lot more who could be named should be ashamed of their rhetoric.
John
What is a just war & what does the Bible say about war? Christians have struggled with this for centuries. I realize that reasonable people can look at the same event & see something different, but what does the Bible really say about war?
Certainly we know that God is & has always been a God of peace. The universe was created to be in complete & total peace. But the Bible isn’t silent on the subject of war which we’ll see.
The apostle Paul said in Romans12:18----If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
Is there ever a time when we must draw our weapons & fight? Yes! Just as there are many references to peace in the Bible there are many references to war. The trouble with some pacifists is that they say they look to Jesus as their example but they ignore the whole council of God.
• Generally speaking, a just war permits a preemptive strike when imminent danger looms.
Let’s look at an example. If you awoke one morning & looked over toward your neighbor’s back yard & saw that he was mounting a large cannon & it was aimed right at your kitchen, what would you think? Let’s say that by the next day you observed the cannon was being encased in concrete so that it wouldn’t swivel, it would be in a fixed position & that position was aimed right at your house. What would you think then?
Now let’s say you visited with your neighbor & learned that the cannon was a working gun & when you pointed out that it was in a hardened position aimed right at you, he agreed that it was, & offered no other explanation, what would you then do?
In such a scenario, the only thing you could logically do would be to accept the fact that your neighbor was planning to wipe you & your family out & you’d have to decide if you wanted to just let it happen or take action to have that gun removed no matter what the cost. If you went to the authorities & they said there wasn’t enough proof that your neighbor was planning to do you harm, & they couldn’t be of help to you, now what would you do? You would either plan to die or take preemptive action.
• Next, generally speaking, a just war would be to remove a tyrant from power whose history proves him to be guilty of on-going war crimes.
Obviously Saddam Hussein who killed thousands of his own people was a threat to the world, was removed from leadership, tried & punished by his own people. This was as it should have been. Over the past few years we’ve killed or incarcerated thousands of terrorists. It’s a heartbreak that so many American lives have been lost but when you take in to account the avowed militant purposes of these radicals, it would seem its either us or them.
• Lastly, a just war allows a nation to act unilaterally for the defense of its citizenry.
Two questions require an answer; is war ever ordained by God & how does God feel about war?
Revelation 19:11-16 says,-- And I saw heaven opened & behold a white horse, & he that sat upon him was called faithful & true, & in righteousness he doth judge & make war.
Ex.15:2-3 says, The LORD is my strength & song, & he is become my salvation; He is my God, & I will prepare Him an habitation; my father’s God, & I will exalt Him. The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is His name.Moses, Joshua & many of the Judges were strengthened by God for war. Read Hebrews 11:32-34.
God gives us council to be wise in war. Proverbs 20:18, --Every purpose is established by council: and with good advice make war. In the Hebrew language there are two different words for murder & war, so they are seen totally different by God.
Does the sixth commandment say”--Thou shalt not kill?” No! It says: “Thou shalt not commit murder.”
Justice is a joy to the godly but it causes dismay among evil doers. God isn’t only a God of peace; He is also a God of justice.
John Stewart Mills said, -“A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares about more than his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free.”
WHEN IS WAR JUSTIFIED?
1. A time for war is when freedom is to be defended.
Throughout the book of Judges, God calls the Israelites to go to war against the Midianites & Philistines. Why? Because these nations were trying to conquer Israel. They were called to defend themselves.
The birth of our nation involved war. The freedoms our ancestors deeply felt was theirs didn’t happen without a war.
2. A time for war is when innocent people need to be defended.
Micah 6:8 says—He hath shown thee O man what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy & to walk humbly with thy God.Solomon gave this advice in Proverbs 21:15; --It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.
3. A time for war is to stop the spread of evil.
Here is a reason for the Iraqi war; after we were attacked on September 11, 2001, President Bush & all of America declared war on all terrorists everywhere. There must be laws to stop those who are evil. God gave us the Ten Commandments & every good law ever written is rooted in these commandments.
WHEN WILL THE WORLD HAVE PEACE?
Will we ever have permanent peace? Isaiah 2:4 paints a beautiful picture of the peace we look forward to. The Lord will settle all international disputes permanently.
When the time is right Jesus will come again. Then all war will end. What should we do in the mean time?
1. Pray—1 Tim.2:1-2 says---I exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men. And for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet & peaceable life in all Godliness & honesty.
2. Trust God—Psalm 27:1-3---The Lord is my light & my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me in this will I be confident.
3. Seek peace—Do your part to live in peace with everyone, as much as possible. Rom. 12:18—NLT
4. Support each other-Galatians 6:2—Bear ye one another’s burdens & so fulfill the law of Christ.During these times we need to pull together & support one another & especially our military personnel. Their families also need our support.
Gore, Kennedy, Kerry, Clinton & a lot more who could be named should be ashamed of their rhetoric.
John
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Putting things into perspective.
By John Stallings
I just got an email today that I know I’ve read before. I was glad I got it because it reminded me of something I’ve been thinking about lately. It shows the earth & its size in comparison to other planets such as Venus, Mars, Mercury & our Sun. In this group Earth is a nominally large planet with our Sun being of course much larger than we are. But when it showed our Solar system compared with other lesser known heavenly bodies in nearby galaxies, forget it. The earth & our solar system is so small in comparison to these gigantic bodies that we are hardly visible. Bottom line; we human beings are just “a speck on a speck.” I think the email was captioned—“Putting things into perspective.”
Though I’m not totally sure about the following, I read someplace that we have two eyes basically to give us depth perception. In other words, one eye would be enough for us to see fine but without the second eye we’d lose depth perception or “Perspective.” Imagine if you will, you were sitting on a veranda overlooking the ocean. There was a glass on a table in front of you & a sailboat, let’s say, 500 yards out in the water. If you went to pour water from a pitcher in the glass, with only one eye the sailboat far away would look just about as close as the glass right in front of you. The first few tries you might even pour water on the table. I tested this earlier today & sure enough, with one eye closed; trees up ahead of me looked like they were practically side by side when they were in fact hundreds of yards apart. Again, it’s all about perspective.
Now let’s think about our challenges & problems we face on a daily basis. Without the added blessing of perspective they would become so large in our eyes that we’d tend to sink just gazing at them. However when we place our problems into perspective, they become more manageable, more real.
For example, if you got up one morning with a big red pimple on the end of your nose that would be just awful, but it wouldn’t be so bad if you immediately thought of what it would be like to be eaten by a bear. When you gaze at that big ugly pimple you can say “well, at least I’m not being eaten by a bear.” Believe me this will work.
Here’s another very crude example of how perspective works. It’s going to be extreme so prepare yourself. If you were living under a lot of stress & pressure it wouldn’t be so far-fetched to think you’d wake up some morning & immediately drop your head in your hands thinking about how bad things were. All those bad thoughts would flood your mind & make you sorry you ever woke up. Now, with the blessing of perspective, you’d immediately challenge the bad thoughts by overriding them with thoughts like; “well I haven’t killed anyone. I haven’t even hurt anybody & nobody has physically hurt me. I still have two arms, two good legs, two eyes, ears, a nose & all my eternal organs are intact. I’m still saved & nobody can take that away & they can’t stop God from loving me. I have so many good people & good things in my life what am I worrying about? I even have a few dollars in a dish somewhere & that’s more than I once had. The doctor told me my hearts doing its job, so really, if I just get out of this bed & not tie my shoe- laces too tight I think I can make this day just fine. Yeah, that’s the ticket; my shoes were too tight yesterday.”
You see? You’ve probably been doing this for years & didn’t stop to think you were using the power of perspective. Of course if things got worse you could go into the fact that about half the world is hungry & you are too fat, (sorry—chunky) etc. Usually we don’t have to get that extreme to get ourselves squared away.
If you’ve been reading the Bible long you know that the Old Testament is peppered with the words of Israel’s prophets who spoke up & addressed the people usually in times of trouble. I’m glad I didn’t live back then because it truly was a thankless job. They probably faced lots of hostility from people who either said-“too much information” or “thanks for pointing out the obvious.” And suffice to say they were hearing from other prophets that you & I never heard of. Here’s a few we know about; Zachariah Haggai, Zephaniah, Obadiah, Malachi, & Habakkuk.
Let’s look at Joel. His little book is fairly easy to read, its only three chapters, 73 verses long. Joel wastes no time getting his message to us. It’s gratifying to know his fathers name was Penuel except for the fact that we don’t have a clue who Penuel was. As a matter of fact Joel himself isn’t a big figure in scripture either.
Joel had a strong appreciation for the Temple & the institutional religion of Israel. We don’t know exactly when he lived but we know he loved that Temple. Let me correct that. We know when Joel lived, within a 175 year window. That’s close enough. We also know that Joel ministered in a time when Israel was questioning where in the world God was in their lives. There had been a lot of suffering because of the plague of locusts. They were starting to pull out of the depression & Joel was trying to talk sense to them.
They were looking for what might lie ahead & Joel was speaking to them about that challenge. They were mulling over the fact that they weren’t where they’d been in the past & Joel was trying to tell them if they’d continue to follow God things would improve. “Look around!” Joel kept pointing out. “You have plenty to eat! You survived the locusts! This is how you know God is here, right in the middle of your lives. Look around at all that is hopeful people.”
Joel felt, I guess, that if the Israelites spent all their time and energy thinking about the past they’d miss the promise sprouting up all around them. They were on a new track now. They had survived. Joel said, “Look around at all the evidence of renewal of promise & joy & celebrate! Not only are you going to have plenty to eat God’s going to pour out His spirit on you people.”
“Not only that, God’s going to pour out His spirit on your sons & daughters. They will prophesy, dream dreams & see visions. Look around people & you’ll see. God is getting ready to bless you indeed. Celebrate, celebrate, and celebrate!!”
I don’t know about you but this little prophet Joel has been able to connect with my spirit. He has won my heart. When he invited them to take a step back & see God’s blessings he invited me to do the same & I’m downright happy about. I’m about ready to shout. I’m not trying to kid myself or anyone else into thinking that life is all roses & that no matter how much victory we get we can beat the realities of life. Far from it. But one thing I know; I’ve made it to this day. I’ve plowed through hell “seven ways from Sunday” & by God’s grace I’m still on my feet.
I’ve made hard decisions & lived through the consequences. I’ve encountered fears & kept moving. Look at all this change around us that we’ve had to adjust to. Just when things were going smoothly an illness came or a job change, a new situation arose but we’re still here. Think about all you’ve processed over the decades & kept going.
You took a licking & kept on ticking by God’s grace.
You made the necessary adjustments & here you are.
NOW CELEBRATE!!!!
John
I just got an email today that I know I’ve read before. I was glad I got it because it reminded me of something I’ve been thinking about lately. It shows the earth & its size in comparison to other planets such as Venus, Mars, Mercury & our Sun. In this group Earth is a nominally large planet with our Sun being of course much larger than we are. But when it showed our Solar system compared with other lesser known heavenly bodies in nearby galaxies, forget it. The earth & our solar system is so small in comparison to these gigantic bodies that we are hardly visible. Bottom line; we human beings are just “a speck on a speck.” I think the email was captioned—“Putting things into perspective.”
Though I’m not totally sure about the following, I read someplace that we have two eyes basically to give us depth perception. In other words, one eye would be enough for us to see fine but without the second eye we’d lose depth perception or “Perspective.” Imagine if you will, you were sitting on a veranda overlooking the ocean. There was a glass on a table in front of you & a sailboat, let’s say, 500 yards out in the water. If you went to pour water from a pitcher in the glass, with only one eye the sailboat far away would look just about as close as the glass right in front of you. The first few tries you might even pour water on the table. I tested this earlier today & sure enough, with one eye closed; trees up ahead of me looked like they were practically side by side when they were in fact hundreds of yards apart. Again, it’s all about perspective.
Now let’s think about our challenges & problems we face on a daily basis. Without the added blessing of perspective they would become so large in our eyes that we’d tend to sink just gazing at them. However when we place our problems into perspective, they become more manageable, more real.
For example, if you got up one morning with a big red pimple on the end of your nose that would be just awful, but it wouldn’t be so bad if you immediately thought of what it would be like to be eaten by a bear. When you gaze at that big ugly pimple you can say “well, at least I’m not being eaten by a bear.” Believe me this will work.
Here’s another very crude example of how perspective works. It’s going to be extreme so prepare yourself. If you were living under a lot of stress & pressure it wouldn’t be so far-fetched to think you’d wake up some morning & immediately drop your head in your hands thinking about how bad things were. All those bad thoughts would flood your mind & make you sorry you ever woke up. Now, with the blessing of perspective, you’d immediately challenge the bad thoughts by overriding them with thoughts like; “well I haven’t killed anyone. I haven’t even hurt anybody & nobody has physically hurt me. I still have two arms, two good legs, two eyes, ears, a nose & all my eternal organs are intact. I’m still saved & nobody can take that away & they can’t stop God from loving me. I have so many good people & good things in my life what am I worrying about? I even have a few dollars in a dish somewhere & that’s more than I once had. The doctor told me my hearts doing its job, so really, if I just get out of this bed & not tie my shoe- laces too tight I think I can make this day just fine. Yeah, that’s the ticket; my shoes were too tight yesterday.”
You see? You’ve probably been doing this for years & didn’t stop to think you were using the power of perspective. Of course if things got worse you could go into the fact that about half the world is hungry & you are too fat, (sorry—chunky) etc. Usually we don’t have to get that extreme to get ourselves squared away.
If you’ve been reading the Bible long you know that the Old Testament is peppered with the words of Israel’s prophets who spoke up & addressed the people usually in times of trouble. I’m glad I didn’t live back then because it truly was a thankless job. They probably faced lots of hostility from people who either said-“too much information” or “thanks for pointing out the obvious.” And suffice to say they were hearing from other prophets that you & I never heard of. Here’s a few we know about; Zachariah Haggai, Zephaniah, Obadiah, Malachi, & Habakkuk.
Let’s look at Joel. His little book is fairly easy to read, its only three chapters, 73 verses long. Joel wastes no time getting his message to us. It’s gratifying to know his fathers name was Penuel except for the fact that we don’t have a clue who Penuel was. As a matter of fact Joel himself isn’t a big figure in scripture either.
Joel had a strong appreciation for the Temple & the institutional religion of Israel. We don’t know exactly when he lived but we know he loved that Temple. Let me correct that. We know when Joel lived, within a 175 year window. That’s close enough. We also know that Joel ministered in a time when Israel was questioning where in the world God was in their lives. There had been a lot of suffering because of the plague of locusts. They were starting to pull out of the depression & Joel was trying to talk sense to them.
They were looking for what might lie ahead & Joel was speaking to them about that challenge. They were mulling over the fact that they weren’t where they’d been in the past & Joel was trying to tell them if they’d continue to follow God things would improve. “Look around!” Joel kept pointing out. “You have plenty to eat! You survived the locusts! This is how you know God is here, right in the middle of your lives. Look around at all that is hopeful people.”
Joel felt, I guess, that if the Israelites spent all their time and energy thinking about the past they’d miss the promise sprouting up all around them. They were on a new track now. They had survived. Joel said, “Look around at all the evidence of renewal of promise & joy & celebrate! Not only are you going to have plenty to eat God’s going to pour out His spirit on you people.”
“Not only that, God’s going to pour out His spirit on your sons & daughters. They will prophesy, dream dreams & see visions. Look around people & you’ll see. God is getting ready to bless you indeed. Celebrate, celebrate, and celebrate!!”
I don’t know about you but this little prophet Joel has been able to connect with my spirit. He has won my heart. When he invited them to take a step back & see God’s blessings he invited me to do the same & I’m downright happy about. I’m about ready to shout. I’m not trying to kid myself or anyone else into thinking that life is all roses & that no matter how much victory we get we can beat the realities of life. Far from it. But one thing I know; I’ve made it to this day. I’ve plowed through hell “seven ways from Sunday” & by God’s grace I’m still on my feet.
I’ve made hard decisions & lived through the consequences. I’ve encountered fears & kept moving. Look at all this change around us that we’ve had to adjust to. Just when things were going smoothly an illness came or a job change, a new situation arose but we’re still here. Think about all you’ve processed over the decades & kept going.
You took a licking & kept on ticking by God’s grace.
You made the necessary adjustments & here you are.
NOW CELEBRATE!!!!
John
Friday, July 20, 2007
SAMUEL--PORTRAIT OF A LEADER
By John Stallings
If you attend church regularly, you’ve probably heard Hannah preached on many times on Mother’s day. What a story it is. She was childless, & was chided by her husband’s other wife for being barren. Then because of her right attitude & prayerful spirit God broke that cycle of her life by giving her Samuel. Then other children came.
Hannah had promised her first son to the Lord so at the appointed time she took Samuel to Eli the priest & he grew up under the aging man’s tutelage. Samuel’s calling was spectacular for he was called as a child by the audible voice of God. One night he heard a voice calling him repeatedly & went to Eli who told him the next time he heard the voice to answer, Speak Lord for thy servant heareth.
Samuel was the last & best judge of Israel & had a transitional ministry. Under his watch the judges were ushered out & the kings were ushered in. However Samuel & his Godly advice weren’t always well received by Israel but he maintained a steadfast walk with God & has few equals.
SUDDENLY SAMUEL DISCOVERED THAT HE WASN’T WANTED ANYMORE.
The last years of Samuel’s life however weren’t so pleasant. The transition from the old order of judges to the new order of the monarchy was a painful experience for him. He made a mistake when he appointed his two sons as judges. 1 Samuel 8:1-3. These boys were scoundrels. They weren’t as bad as Eli’s boys; Eli’s boys were immoral while Samuel’s boys were mostly unethical. Samuel was guilty of nepotism & ignorance but he wasn’t a money-grabbing deceiver. He never took a dime from the people (1Sam.12:3-4) but his sons used their father’s position to profit in a profligate manner.
We don’t know why Samuel appointed his sons; it may have been that there just wasn’t anyone else he felt could do the job. Or it may have just been a lapse of judgment.
A PIVOTAL POINT IN SAMUEL’S LEADERSHIP CAME WHEN HE WASN’T ABLE TO STEER STUBBORN ISRAEL AWAY FROM THEIR DEMAND FOR A KING.
Have you ever been in a situation where you felt your influence & leadership was failing to be effectual? You have a feeling that your record no longer counts for anything, all your former ties are strained, you used to be looked up to but now what you do or say doesn’t carry much weight. The sacrifices you made are no longer looked at as a big thing, people think, “you just did what anybody would have done, no big deal.” The question “what part of -it’s over- don’t you get” might well be asked of you.
Samuel’s sons made him look bad to the people & they flat-out faced him with it. They told him he was getting old (just under 60—big deal) & his sons weren’t cutting it so their answer was, appoint us a king.
Samuel wasn’t happy at all about the king idea. He was right to feel that his children had let him down, the Israelites had let him down, the elders had let him down and deep down in his heart of hearts he felt he’d let himself & the Lord down. How else could he explain how his kids had turned out to be such bad boys?”
LOOK HOW SAMUEL RESPONDS TO HIS LEADERSHIP PROBLEMS.
The elders were pressuring him to quit. They had it all figured out for him. Samuel was feeling hurt, backed into a corner & disrespected in the worst way he could imagine. He didn’t threaten to call it quits, take an early retirement or jump on the bus. He did what his mother did; he went to God in prayer. 1 Sam.8:6. Samuel was deeply troubled & probably hopping mad but he didn’t lose his composure. He prayed about it asking God for wisdom, direction & patience.
Sometimes the decline of a leader’s influence & abilities doesn’t mean that he or she is washed up. It may just mean that they can no longer lead in the same capacity. At some point a subtle line was crossed, a corner was turned. It doesn’t mean that they are over & done with it just means that their role as leader will be different. Such a time came in the life of Samuel the prophet as he grew older. Even though his role changed he still continued to be an important leader.
Samuel hadn’t put his head in the sand; he was the first to recognize things were changing that’s why he appointed his two sons to help. It wasn’t Samuel’s fault that his sons turned out to be a big disappointment. At least he was forward looking enough to think of his mortality. I’ve seen leaders who refused to think of the time they would no longer be around. They refused to mentor another person to fill their shoes or even consider training & depositing into the lives of others the things they’ve learned that would be invaluable to the individual who someday filled their shoes.
• A GOOD LEADER WILL HELP PEOPLE IDENTIFY THEIR PURPOSE & CAST A VISION FOR THE FUTURE.
• A GOOD LEADER WILL HELP THE PEOPLE ESTABLISH GOALS & IMPLEMENT PLANS TO HELP THEM SUCCESSFULLY ACHIEVE THOSE GOALS.
• A GOOD LEADER WILL DEVELOP CONCENSUS, BUILD COHESIVENESS, CREATE HARMONY & FOSTER UNITY.
• A GOOD LEADER WILL INSPIRE PEOPLE TO GREATER EFFICIENCY & EFFECTIVENESS & WILL ENCOURAGE THEM TO REACH THEIR POTENTIAL & MAXIMIZE THEIR ABILITIES.
• IF A LEADER FINDS THAT HE/SHE CAN NO LONGER FULFILL THEIR RESPONSIBILITY, THEY SHOULD DELEGATE SOME OF THE RESPONSIBILITY OR ALLOW SOMEONE ELSE TO TAKE THEIR PLACE.
Samuel knew that what the people were asking for was wrong. They had no clue as to what was in store for them. The kings they were asking for were going to be worse than Samuel’s sons. God had run the kings & nations out the front door & Israel let them in the back door. Israel had been an exalted nation but alas, they just wanted to be like their neighbors. One of the problems was that their neighbors were idol worshippers.
Samuel’s maturity, humility & Godliness were manifest that day. After God had “loaded his gun” with truth he still didn’t scoff at the people. He didn’t squabble or scream at them or throw a conniption fit. He had within his power to let them have it with God’s words but he left out the choice words, the best parts that would have vindicated him before the people. He didn’t lecture them on their collective rejection of God, or their personal wrong against him, even though God said --What they’re doing to me, so they are doing to you. The people had made personal accusations but he didn’t take them personally. Neither did he gloat at their mistake, or their folly. As a matter of fact nowhere in all of this did Samuel mention himself.
What a class act! He did tell them in no uncertain terms what having a king would be like for them, but describing it was as far as it went. There was no coercion on his part even though it displeased him greatly. To him it was all about the Lord & His people & their relationship to Him. Though Samuel wasn’t pleased he didn’t get in knots over it & end up grievously disturbed & resentful. Samuel reminded himself what God had said:--It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.
Samuel's’ life wasn’t narcissistic; it wasn’t about him it was always about the Lord & others. He tells the people—far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. He knew that to refuse to pray for them was malicious & spiteful. If we want something to compare Samuel’s conduct with, all we have to do is look at Moses who when frustrated, called the people rebels. Num.20:10.
God had already foretold that someday this would happen; the people would demand a king. He also told the people exactly what would happen to them when they got their king. In his next & also his last speech to Israel, given immediately after King Saul’s public coronation, Samuel spoke from the heart to the people. He knew as well as he knew his name what heartache laid in store for them but still he didn’t cajole or arm-twist to get them to reconsider.
And reconsider they certainly didn’t, even after hearing what a king would be like. But Israel almost never changed. It’s always the same old song with them. They were headstrong, obstinate & rebellious & their prophets told them so. Generations later when the Apostle Paul preached to them he’d say things like-- Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you….or…blindness in part has happened to Israel. Rom.11:25.
To the bitter end Samuel was optimistic in word & at heart. It’s almost as if he knew trouble was in the wings but still was just hoping it wouldn’t happen.
Have you been rejected & seen your dreams & plans crumble before your eyes. Have you been tempted to lash out & get vindication? Ask yourself as Samuel did; are you serving God or man? When you’re not appreciated as you should be do you have the right stuff to withstand it & do right when everybody is doing you wrong?
The people rejected Samuel’s advice but Samuel accepted God’s advice. When he saw what was happening he went to God & God told him—Listen to the voice of the people & appoint them a king. So Samuel said unto the men of Israel, go every man to his own city. 1 Sam.8:21-22.
GOD WAS GOING TO GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY CLAMOURED FOR—A KING.
It’s reminiscent of Psalm 106:15—And He gave them their request but sent leanness to their soul. God’s position was the same then as it is now & always has been. He simply refuses to make his creation a puppet-on-a-string. To Him love & devotion that’s coerced isn’t love at all & He’s not interested.
Samuel may not have understood God’s strategy but he obeyed & took the necessary steps to implement it. God doesn’t always do things the way we want & He doesn’t always do things the way we think they should be done. But we must always remember to submit our plans to Him.
If you’re on the missions committee, the deacon board, Sunday school teacher, nursery worker, trustee, treasurer, musician, office worker, kitchen helper, publicity worker, or youth group worker, you must always bring your plans to God. Samuel went to God & sought His leadership.
Jesus is the head of His church & we are simply the servants. We serve not to gain prestige & power but simply to serve God & His people. When we do this we will have great significance in His kingdom.
The day came when Samuel’s ability to lead the people changed but even though his role changed, his superlative attitude made him useable to God until the day he died. Turning your power over to someone else is never easy. Admitting that things didn’t turn out as well as expected is never easy. Samuel experienced all of these things. He must have had many sleepless nights & many days of confusion & uneasiness. But under God & with Samuel’s steady hand Israel came through the transition. Samuel lived to a ripe old age & died in peace & honor among his people.
Is there something in front of you that you’d rather avoid? Maybe you’re on the threshold of change & things aren’t all that clear to you. Perhaps you’re beginning to realize that something you worked hard to accomplish isn’t going to work out. Follow the example of Samuel & stay connected with God & His people. You can’t see God but He can see you & He has you in His sights. He hasn’t forgotten you, though it may sometimes feel that He has. Your story & testimony can turn out as victoriously as Samuel’s did.
The answer is in Hebrews 12:2 …..Looking unto Jesus the author & finisher of our faith….
We must fix our eyes on Him because if we look hard at anything else we will doubtless lose hope.
John
If you attend church regularly, you’ve probably heard Hannah preached on many times on Mother’s day. What a story it is. She was childless, & was chided by her husband’s other wife for being barren. Then because of her right attitude & prayerful spirit God broke that cycle of her life by giving her Samuel. Then other children came.
Hannah had promised her first son to the Lord so at the appointed time she took Samuel to Eli the priest & he grew up under the aging man’s tutelage. Samuel’s calling was spectacular for he was called as a child by the audible voice of God. One night he heard a voice calling him repeatedly & went to Eli who told him the next time he heard the voice to answer, Speak Lord for thy servant heareth.
Samuel was the last & best judge of Israel & had a transitional ministry. Under his watch the judges were ushered out & the kings were ushered in. However Samuel & his Godly advice weren’t always well received by Israel but he maintained a steadfast walk with God & has few equals.
SUDDENLY SAMUEL DISCOVERED THAT HE WASN’T WANTED ANYMORE.
The last years of Samuel’s life however weren’t so pleasant. The transition from the old order of judges to the new order of the monarchy was a painful experience for him. He made a mistake when he appointed his two sons as judges. 1 Samuel 8:1-3. These boys were scoundrels. They weren’t as bad as Eli’s boys; Eli’s boys were immoral while Samuel’s boys were mostly unethical. Samuel was guilty of nepotism & ignorance but he wasn’t a money-grabbing deceiver. He never took a dime from the people (1Sam.12:3-4) but his sons used their father’s position to profit in a profligate manner.
We don’t know why Samuel appointed his sons; it may have been that there just wasn’t anyone else he felt could do the job. Or it may have just been a lapse of judgment.
A PIVOTAL POINT IN SAMUEL’S LEADERSHIP CAME WHEN HE WASN’T ABLE TO STEER STUBBORN ISRAEL AWAY FROM THEIR DEMAND FOR A KING.
Have you ever been in a situation where you felt your influence & leadership was failing to be effectual? You have a feeling that your record no longer counts for anything, all your former ties are strained, you used to be looked up to but now what you do or say doesn’t carry much weight. The sacrifices you made are no longer looked at as a big thing, people think, “you just did what anybody would have done, no big deal.” The question “what part of -it’s over- don’t you get” might well be asked of you.
Samuel’s sons made him look bad to the people & they flat-out faced him with it. They told him he was getting old (just under 60—big deal) & his sons weren’t cutting it so their answer was, appoint us a king.
Samuel wasn’t happy at all about the king idea. He was right to feel that his children had let him down, the Israelites had let him down, the elders had let him down and deep down in his heart of hearts he felt he’d let himself & the Lord down. How else could he explain how his kids had turned out to be such bad boys?”
LOOK HOW SAMUEL RESPONDS TO HIS LEADERSHIP PROBLEMS.
The elders were pressuring him to quit. They had it all figured out for him. Samuel was feeling hurt, backed into a corner & disrespected in the worst way he could imagine. He didn’t threaten to call it quits, take an early retirement or jump on the bus. He did what his mother did; he went to God in prayer. 1 Sam.8:6. Samuel was deeply troubled & probably hopping mad but he didn’t lose his composure. He prayed about it asking God for wisdom, direction & patience.
Sometimes the decline of a leader’s influence & abilities doesn’t mean that he or she is washed up. It may just mean that they can no longer lead in the same capacity. At some point a subtle line was crossed, a corner was turned. It doesn’t mean that they are over & done with it just means that their role as leader will be different. Such a time came in the life of Samuel the prophet as he grew older. Even though his role changed he still continued to be an important leader.
Samuel hadn’t put his head in the sand; he was the first to recognize things were changing that’s why he appointed his two sons to help. It wasn’t Samuel’s fault that his sons turned out to be a big disappointment. At least he was forward looking enough to think of his mortality. I’ve seen leaders who refused to think of the time they would no longer be around. They refused to mentor another person to fill their shoes or even consider training & depositing into the lives of others the things they’ve learned that would be invaluable to the individual who someday filled their shoes.
• A GOOD LEADER WILL HELP PEOPLE IDENTIFY THEIR PURPOSE & CAST A VISION FOR THE FUTURE.
• A GOOD LEADER WILL HELP THE PEOPLE ESTABLISH GOALS & IMPLEMENT PLANS TO HELP THEM SUCCESSFULLY ACHIEVE THOSE GOALS.
• A GOOD LEADER WILL DEVELOP CONCENSUS, BUILD COHESIVENESS, CREATE HARMONY & FOSTER UNITY.
• A GOOD LEADER WILL INSPIRE PEOPLE TO GREATER EFFICIENCY & EFFECTIVENESS & WILL ENCOURAGE THEM TO REACH THEIR POTENTIAL & MAXIMIZE THEIR ABILITIES.
• IF A LEADER FINDS THAT HE/SHE CAN NO LONGER FULFILL THEIR RESPONSIBILITY, THEY SHOULD DELEGATE SOME OF THE RESPONSIBILITY OR ALLOW SOMEONE ELSE TO TAKE THEIR PLACE.
Samuel knew that what the people were asking for was wrong. They had no clue as to what was in store for them. The kings they were asking for were going to be worse than Samuel’s sons. God had run the kings & nations out the front door & Israel let them in the back door. Israel had been an exalted nation but alas, they just wanted to be like their neighbors. One of the problems was that their neighbors were idol worshippers.
Samuel’s maturity, humility & Godliness were manifest that day. After God had “loaded his gun” with truth he still didn’t scoff at the people. He didn’t squabble or scream at them or throw a conniption fit. He had within his power to let them have it with God’s words but he left out the choice words, the best parts that would have vindicated him before the people. He didn’t lecture them on their collective rejection of God, or their personal wrong against him, even though God said --What they’re doing to me, so they are doing to you. The people had made personal accusations but he didn’t take them personally. Neither did he gloat at their mistake, or their folly. As a matter of fact nowhere in all of this did Samuel mention himself.
What a class act! He did tell them in no uncertain terms what having a king would be like for them, but describing it was as far as it went. There was no coercion on his part even though it displeased him greatly. To him it was all about the Lord & His people & their relationship to Him. Though Samuel wasn’t pleased he didn’t get in knots over it & end up grievously disturbed & resentful. Samuel reminded himself what God had said:--It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.
Samuel's’ life wasn’t narcissistic; it wasn’t about him it was always about the Lord & others. He tells the people—far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. He knew that to refuse to pray for them was malicious & spiteful. If we want something to compare Samuel’s conduct with, all we have to do is look at Moses who when frustrated, called the people rebels. Num.20:10.
God had already foretold that someday this would happen; the people would demand a king. He also told the people exactly what would happen to them when they got their king. In his next & also his last speech to Israel, given immediately after King Saul’s public coronation, Samuel spoke from the heart to the people. He knew as well as he knew his name what heartache laid in store for them but still he didn’t cajole or arm-twist to get them to reconsider.
And reconsider they certainly didn’t, even after hearing what a king would be like. But Israel almost never changed. It’s always the same old song with them. They were headstrong, obstinate & rebellious & their prophets told them so. Generations later when the Apostle Paul preached to them he’d say things like-- Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you….or…blindness in part has happened to Israel. Rom.11:25.
To the bitter end Samuel was optimistic in word & at heart. It’s almost as if he knew trouble was in the wings but still was just hoping it wouldn’t happen.
Have you been rejected & seen your dreams & plans crumble before your eyes. Have you been tempted to lash out & get vindication? Ask yourself as Samuel did; are you serving God or man? When you’re not appreciated as you should be do you have the right stuff to withstand it & do right when everybody is doing you wrong?
The people rejected Samuel’s advice but Samuel accepted God’s advice. When he saw what was happening he went to God & God told him—Listen to the voice of the people & appoint them a king. So Samuel said unto the men of Israel, go every man to his own city. 1 Sam.8:21-22.
GOD WAS GOING TO GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY CLAMOURED FOR—A KING.
It’s reminiscent of Psalm 106:15—And He gave them their request but sent leanness to their soul. God’s position was the same then as it is now & always has been. He simply refuses to make his creation a puppet-on-a-string. To Him love & devotion that’s coerced isn’t love at all & He’s not interested.
Samuel may not have understood God’s strategy but he obeyed & took the necessary steps to implement it. God doesn’t always do things the way we want & He doesn’t always do things the way we think they should be done. But we must always remember to submit our plans to Him.
If you’re on the missions committee, the deacon board, Sunday school teacher, nursery worker, trustee, treasurer, musician, office worker, kitchen helper, publicity worker, or youth group worker, you must always bring your plans to God. Samuel went to God & sought His leadership.
Jesus is the head of His church & we are simply the servants. We serve not to gain prestige & power but simply to serve God & His people. When we do this we will have great significance in His kingdom.
The day came when Samuel’s ability to lead the people changed but even though his role changed, his superlative attitude made him useable to God until the day he died. Turning your power over to someone else is never easy. Admitting that things didn’t turn out as well as expected is never easy. Samuel experienced all of these things. He must have had many sleepless nights & many days of confusion & uneasiness. But under God & with Samuel’s steady hand Israel came through the transition. Samuel lived to a ripe old age & died in peace & honor among his people.
Is there something in front of you that you’d rather avoid? Maybe you’re on the threshold of change & things aren’t all that clear to you. Perhaps you’re beginning to realize that something you worked hard to accomplish isn’t going to work out. Follow the example of Samuel & stay connected with God & His people. You can’t see God but He can see you & He has you in His sights. He hasn’t forgotten you, though it may sometimes feel that He has. Your story & testimony can turn out as victoriously as Samuel’s did.
The answer is in Hebrews 12:2 …..Looking unto Jesus the author & finisher of our faith….
We must fix our eyes on Him because if we look hard at anything else we will doubtless lose hope.
John
Thursday, July 19, 2007
P.U.S.H!
Pray Until Something Happens
By John Stallings
Back in the sixties I conducted a revival in Kansas City, Missouri. We were there for three weeks but the church was already in revival when we arrived. Many exciting things happened while we were there but one story especially stands out in my mind.
It was a church of about five hundred happy people & one of the most alive churches I ever had the privilege to preach in. Beside the regular services, prayer meetings were being held on an almost round-the-clock basis & the spirit of revival was alive & well in all of them. It was one of those times in the life of a church when everyone was getting involved & being spiritually refreshed.
One morning during the meetings the pastor of the church was walking up the front steps to enter the church building when he heard a man calling him. He looked around & immediately recognized it was a neighbor whose house stood very close to the church. The pastor figured the man was going to complain about the noise that had been going on at the church because after all they’d been in a spirit of revival for several months. Most of the services ran late & cars were crowded around the building usually seven nights a week.
The neighbor smiled as he walked up the steps & shook the pastor’s hand. It quickly became obvious that rather than being in a critical mood the neighbor was curious about something. He proceeded to ask the pastor about a certain odd noise that was coming from a basement window that was very close to his house. It always happened on Tuesday mornings around ten-o’clock. It wasn’t really disturbing his family as much as it was making them curious about the nature of the noise. The pastor asked for more details & the man motioned for him to walk around to the side of the church & he’d show him the window. As they stood & looked at the little window the confused pastor asked again what the noises were like. The neighbor explained that it sounded like a maternity ward. He understood it was a strange way to try to describe it but that was actually the closest he could come to describing it. It sounded like women crying & moaning, giving birth to babies in a maternity ward. The pastor pleaded temporary ignorance as to what that room was being used for on Tuesday mornings but told the neighbor he’d check it out & let him know. The pastor, now curious himself about that kind of noise coming from his church window went straight to his office & scanned the church calendar that lay on his desk. A broad smile broke across his face as he saw that Tuesdays at ten o’clock was the time the ladies met for prayer meeting. They were known for their robust praying & always had a long list of unsaved they were agonizing before God for. The neighbor was right; the noises coming from that little basement room were emanating from a “spiritual maternity ward,” for the Bible says—when Zion travailed she brought forth children. Isaiah 66:8
P.U.S.H PRAYING is just that kind of praying. It's praying until something happens. When a woman is in the birth process, the last stage of labor requires great energy & effort. She is in great pain as she pushes to give birth. Push prayers shouldn't be a casual experience but rather a serious, prevailing patient praying that comes out of a great prayer burden.
Jesus prayed like that in Gethsemane when great drops of blood popped out of his pores. (Luke 22:41-44. ---Hebrews 5:7-9)
There’s a story told of a man who was told by God that he had a work for him to do & showed him a large rock in front of his cabin.
The Lord explained that he was to PUSH against the rock with all his might. This, the man did day after day. For years he toiled from sun-up to sun-down with his shoulder squarely against the rock pushing with all his might.
Each night the man returned to his cabin sore & worn out feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.
One day he started thinking –“you’ve been pushing against this rock for a long time & it hasn’t budged. Why kill yourself over this? You’re never going to move it. Why not just start putting in your time giving just a minimum of effort & that will be good enough?”
Then he felt he should go to prayer & ask the Lord why he was failing. The Lord answered, “Son when I asked you to serve me you said you would. I told you to push against that rock. Not once did I ask you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you’ve come to me telling me that you’ve failed. But is that really so? Look at your arms. Look how strong you are, much more powerful than you used to be. Through opposition you’ve grown much in your abilities & you now surpass what you used to be. But your calling was to be obedient & to PUSH against the rock & exercise your faith & trust in my wisdom. This you’ve done. I, my son will now move the rock.”
That little story hits home to all of us I’m sure. We grow weary in the work & start to try to do it all ourselves when what God actually wants is our simple obedience & faith in Him.
When everything goes wrong---Just PUSH!
When the work gets you down---Just PUSH!
When your money looks funny & bills are due---Just PUSH!
When people are acting strange---Just PUSH!
When you’re misunderstood---Just PUSH!
When nothing seems to be happening---Just PUSH!
Here are 12 benefits of prayer,
1. Prayer defeats the devil. ---Matt. 18:18
2. Prayer saves the unbeliever---Acts 2:21
3. Prayer edifies the believer—Jude 20
4. Prayer sends laborers into the harvest—Matt.9:38
5. Prayer heals the sick—James 5:13-15
6. Prayer overcomes the impossible—Matt. 21:22
7. Prayer changes the natural---James 5:13-15
8. Prayer brings the right things to pass—Matt. 7:7-11
9. Prayer brings peace—Phil.4:5-7
10. Prayer imparts wisdom---James 1:5
11. Prayer guards against temptation---Matt. 26:41
12. Prayer reveals God’s answers—Like 11:9,10
To keep PUSHING in prayer is the key until God moves. The question is have you been really praying to see the victory come. Could this be why your prayer life is dull & dry & you’ve failed to see the answers to your prayers? Why not acknowledge your failures & ask God to give you a prayer burden & with the help of the Holy Spirit—PUSH! ----Pray Until Something Happens? ---------John
By John Stallings
Back in the sixties I conducted a revival in Kansas City, Missouri. We were there for three weeks but the church was already in revival when we arrived. Many exciting things happened while we were there but one story especially stands out in my mind.
It was a church of about five hundred happy people & one of the most alive churches I ever had the privilege to preach in. Beside the regular services, prayer meetings were being held on an almost round-the-clock basis & the spirit of revival was alive & well in all of them. It was one of those times in the life of a church when everyone was getting involved & being spiritually refreshed.
One morning during the meetings the pastor of the church was walking up the front steps to enter the church building when he heard a man calling him. He looked around & immediately recognized it was a neighbor whose house stood very close to the church. The pastor figured the man was going to complain about the noise that had been going on at the church because after all they’d been in a spirit of revival for several months. Most of the services ran late & cars were crowded around the building usually seven nights a week.
The neighbor smiled as he walked up the steps & shook the pastor’s hand. It quickly became obvious that rather than being in a critical mood the neighbor was curious about something. He proceeded to ask the pastor about a certain odd noise that was coming from a basement window that was very close to his house. It always happened on Tuesday mornings around ten-o’clock. It wasn’t really disturbing his family as much as it was making them curious about the nature of the noise. The pastor asked for more details & the man motioned for him to walk around to the side of the church & he’d show him the window. As they stood & looked at the little window the confused pastor asked again what the noises were like. The neighbor explained that it sounded like a maternity ward. He understood it was a strange way to try to describe it but that was actually the closest he could come to describing it. It sounded like women crying & moaning, giving birth to babies in a maternity ward. The pastor pleaded temporary ignorance as to what that room was being used for on Tuesday mornings but told the neighbor he’d check it out & let him know. The pastor, now curious himself about that kind of noise coming from his church window went straight to his office & scanned the church calendar that lay on his desk. A broad smile broke across his face as he saw that Tuesdays at ten o’clock was the time the ladies met for prayer meeting. They were known for their robust praying & always had a long list of unsaved they were agonizing before God for. The neighbor was right; the noises coming from that little basement room were emanating from a “spiritual maternity ward,” for the Bible says—when Zion travailed she brought forth children. Isaiah 66:8
P.U.S.H PRAYING is just that kind of praying. It's praying until something happens. When a woman is in the birth process, the last stage of labor requires great energy & effort. She is in great pain as she pushes to give birth. Push prayers shouldn't be a casual experience but rather a serious, prevailing patient praying that comes out of a great prayer burden.
Jesus prayed like that in Gethsemane when great drops of blood popped out of his pores. (Luke 22:41-44. ---Hebrews 5:7-9)
There’s a story told of a man who was told by God that he had a work for him to do & showed him a large rock in front of his cabin.
The Lord explained that he was to PUSH against the rock with all his might. This, the man did day after day. For years he toiled from sun-up to sun-down with his shoulder squarely against the rock pushing with all his might.
Each night the man returned to his cabin sore & worn out feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.
One day he started thinking –“you’ve been pushing against this rock for a long time & it hasn’t budged. Why kill yourself over this? You’re never going to move it. Why not just start putting in your time giving just a minimum of effort & that will be good enough?”
Then he felt he should go to prayer & ask the Lord why he was failing. The Lord answered, “Son when I asked you to serve me you said you would. I told you to push against that rock. Not once did I ask you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you’ve come to me telling me that you’ve failed. But is that really so? Look at your arms. Look how strong you are, much more powerful than you used to be. Through opposition you’ve grown much in your abilities & you now surpass what you used to be. But your calling was to be obedient & to PUSH against the rock & exercise your faith & trust in my wisdom. This you’ve done. I, my son will now move the rock.”
That little story hits home to all of us I’m sure. We grow weary in the work & start to try to do it all ourselves when what God actually wants is our simple obedience & faith in Him.
When everything goes wrong---Just PUSH!
When the work gets you down---Just PUSH!
When your money looks funny & bills are due---Just PUSH!
When people are acting strange---Just PUSH!
When you’re misunderstood---Just PUSH!
When nothing seems to be happening---Just PUSH!
Here are 12 benefits of prayer,
1. Prayer defeats the devil. ---Matt. 18:18
2. Prayer saves the unbeliever---Acts 2:21
3. Prayer edifies the believer—Jude 20
4. Prayer sends laborers into the harvest—Matt.9:38
5. Prayer heals the sick—James 5:13-15
6. Prayer overcomes the impossible—Matt. 21:22
7. Prayer changes the natural---James 5:13-15
8. Prayer brings the right things to pass—Matt. 7:7-11
9. Prayer brings peace—Phil.4:5-7
10. Prayer imparts wisdom---James 1:5
11. Prayer guards against temptation---Matt. 26:41
12. Prayer reveals God’s answers—Like 11:9,10
To keep PUSHING in prayer is the key until God moves. The question is have you been really praying to see the victory come. Could this be why your prayer life is dull & dry & you’ve failed to see the answers to your prayers? Why not acknowledge your failures & ask God to give you a prayer burden & with the help of the Holy Spirit—PUSH! ----Pray Until Something Happens? ---------John
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Somewhere under the rainbow.
by John Stallings
It seems almost impossible to me that Judy Garland first sang the song “Somewhere over the rainbow” in the film “The Wizard of Oz” when I was just a few months old. I didn’t see it until I was in my thirties. I like the song for the same reasons I like the Elvis song “If I can dream.” I was never very much impressed with Elvis until we visited Graceland in 1989 & at the little theater across the street they had a movie presentation of some highlights of his career entitled “If I can dream.” Old Elvis was dressed in a white suit & when I heard that song I understood something of the magic he exuded onstage & why he was so popular. Too bad it ended the way it did & when it did. All that wasted talent coupled with Elvis’s lost- ness has the making of quiet a tragedy. I trust Elvis didn’t land in hell but its obvious drugs turned his last years into a living version of hell. But I digress.
Getting back to Judy & “Over the rainbow,” I’m using her song as a segway to the idea that even more beautiful than the fantasy that wonderful things could exist –somewhere over the rainbow—we have a real guarantee from God that we can all exist Under the rainbow & be kept in His divine protection.
After the flood that swept away all but eight of the human race & two of the birds, the livestock, & all the wild animals, God made a promise to Noah & his sons. “No more wipe-outs like this one. And as a reminder I’m hanging my “war-bow” up in the heavens. Never again will I allow water to destroy all life on earth. The covenant is unconditional & it’s given with nothing from Noah; its Unilateral disarmament. The covenant is perpetual & universal.” What an incredible example of God’s grace this is. And God makes the wonderful promise knowing all the time that man will continue to be wicked. Yes, indeed, we have God’s Word that He’s not going to get mad again & drown us all like a bunch of wet turkeys.
I take this story literally as I do all of Bible except where it’s obvious that simile or metaphor is used. We might want to keep in mind that when a parable, simile or metaphor is used, it’s in all probability a milder form of the reality that lies behind it, such as using fire & brimstone to describe hell. A person may say the word fire is just a symbolic word, but pray tell how do you explain away the brimstone?
Over & over in scripture we have God giving second chances. Like when Adam & Eve sinned God gave them clothes & sent them on their way to begin again. Like Cain who’d killed his brother Able was given a second chance, when God could have wiped him out too. Then God started over with a seventy-five year old man whom he gave his covenant & promised him a land of his own. Like God brought Israel out of Egypt, freed them from bondage giving them the Promised Land. Then in the fullness of time God sent His son to die for our race & promised us eternal life through our faith in Him.
Over & over God has kept His promise to keep working with man. When I hear the words Judy Garland sang a generation ago, I think I understand her dream. “Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, birds fly over the rainbow, why then oh why can’t I?” I know the feeling. But as much as I might understand her sentiment, & as appealing as that magical ride might be, God has made us all a much better promise; A promise that we can live very comfortable UNDER HIS RAINBOW, which hovers like a divine punctuation mark behind every storm.
When we are worn out by abuse... We are still under His rainbow.
When the enemy comes in like a flood…We are under His rainbow.
When grief drops over us like a net—we are under His rainbow.
When we feel we’re about to drown in loneliness... We’re under His rainbow.
When stress seems to stifle us... We’re under His rainbow.
At the age of sixteen I had my first song published. It was entitled “Rainbow of love.” I believe the sheet music is still available at The Gospel publishing house, Springfield, Missouri.
Let me share one verse & the chorus;
There were rain clouds above me, and a storm down inside,
My tears fell unendingly, tears I wanted to hide,
Then I cried out for mercy, & I looked up above,
There in place of a cloudy sky, was a rainbow of love.
Yes God placed a rainbow, a rainbow up above,
He placed it there for you & me to see,
So we’d know that His love would last,
Always shine up above, and in place of a cloudy sky,
There’d be a rainbow of love.
God’s message to Noah is a message we can all take refuge in. No matter what happens,
KEEP LOOKING UP FOR THAT RAINBOW.
John
It seems almost impossible to me that Judy Garland first sang the song “Somewhere over the rainbow” in the film “The Wizard of Oz” when I was just a few months old. I didn’t see it until I was in my thirties. I like the song for the same reasons I like the Elvis song “If I can dream.” I was never very much impressed with Elvis until we visited Graceland in 1989 & at the little theater across the street they had a movie presentation of some highlights of his career entitled “If I can dream.” Old Elvis was dressed in a white suit & when I heard that song I understood something of the magic he exuded onstage & why he was so popular. Too bad it ended the way it did & when it did. All that wasted talent coupled with Elvis’s lost- ness has the making of quiet a tragedy. I trust Elvis didn’t land in hell but its obvious drugs turned his last years into a living version of hell. But I digress.
Getting back to Judy & “Over the rainbow,” I’m using her song as a segway to the idea that even more beautiful than the fantasy that wonderful things could exist –somewhere over the rainbow—we have a real guarantee from God that we can all exist Under the rainbow & be kept in His divine protection.
After the flood that swept away all but eight of the human race & two of the birds, the livestock, & all the wild animals, God made a promise to Noah & his sons. “No more wipe-outs like this one. And as a reminder I’m hanging my “war-bow” up in the heavens. Never again will I allow water to destroy all life on earth. The covenant is unconditional & it’s given with nothing from Noah; its Unilateral disarmament. The covenant is perpetual & universal.” What an incredible example of God’s grace this is. And God makes the wonderful promise knowing all the time that man will continue to be wicked. Yes, indeed, we have God’s Word that He’s not going to get mad again & drown us all like a bunch of wet turkeys.
I take this story literally as I do all of Bible except where it’s obvious that simile or metaphor is used. We might want to keep in mind that when a parable, simile or metaphor is used, it’s in all probability a milder form of the reality that lies behind it, such as using fire & brimstone to describe hell. A person may say the word fire is just a symbolic word, but pray tell how do you explain away the brimstone?
Over & over in scripture we have God giving second chances. Like when Adam & Eve sinned God gave them clothes & sent them on their way to begin again. Like Cain who’d killed his brother Able was given a second chance, when God could have wiped him out too. Then God started over with a seventy-five year old man whom he gave his covenant & promised him a land of his own. Like God brought Israel out of Egypt, freed them from bondage giving them the Promised Land. Then in the fullness of time God sent His son to die for our race & promised us eternal life through our faith in Him.
Over & over God has kept His promise to keep working with man. When I hear the words Judy Garland sang a generation ago, I think I understand her dream. “Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, birds fly over the rainbow, why then oh why can’t I?” I know the feeling. But as much as I might understand her sentiment, & as appealing as that magical ride might be, God has made us all a much better promise; A promise that we can live very comfortable UNDER HIS RAINBOW, which hovers like a divine punctuation mark behind every storm.
When we are worn out by abuse... We are still under His rainbow.
When the enemy comes in like a flood…We are under His rainbow.
When grief drops over us like a net—we are under His rainbow.
When we feel we’re about to drown in loneliness... We’re under His rainbow.
When stress seems to stifle us... We’re under His rainbow.
At the age of sixteen I had my first song published. It was entitled “Rainbow of love.” I believe the sheet music is still available at The Gospel publishing house, Springfield, Missouri.
Let me share one verse & the chorus;
There were rain clouds above me, and a storm down inside,
My tears fell unendingly, tears I wanted to hide,
Then I cried out for mercy, & I looked up above,
There in place of a cloudy sky, was a rainbow of love.
Yes God placed a rainbow, a rainbow up above,
He placed it there for you & me to see,
So we’d know that His love would last,
Always shine up above, and in place of a cloudy sky,
There’d be a rainbow of love.
God’s message to Noah is a message we can all take refuge in. No matter what happens,
KEEP LOOKING UP FOR THAT RAINBOW.
John
Monday, July 16, 2007
God winked today.
By John Stallings
I must admit this isn’t original with me. Juda saw a minister interviewed recently on a Christian T. V show who’s written a book called “When God Winks.” His thesis is; every now & then God throws little surprises at us & even small miracles we weren’t expecting. He calls them “God-Winks.” Juda, who’s currently looking over my shoulder, just informed me that you can go—www. God winks. Com & pull up his website. I haven’t bothered to do that as yet because that’s not the purpose of this blog.
We just returned (and I mean just waked in the door) from a weekend trip. We stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel in Ocala & while I sat in a rocking- chair out front waiting for Juda to powder her nose, I noticed a man in my peripheral vision looking at me and about to ask me a question. As I turned toward him he asked—“Arent you John-------? I finished his question by telling him my last name. Long story short-- his wife, daughter & Juda walked out of the restaurant about the same time & we had “old home week.” Turns out they remembered us from a church we’ve ministered at many times. He & has wife & small daughter are no longer there & had moved to a distant city & been wondering for some time how to get in touch with us. God had winked for all of us. He had been trying to locate us but in all candidness we’d forgotten we even had a website & it had inadvertently lapsed from the Internet. Juda had just put it back up a few nights ago so it was no wonder these old friends hadn’t been able to contact us. Our bad!!!
We used the front porch of Cracker Barrel to visit for a while then he asked if we could join hands & pray for his father who had recently been hospitalized after experiencing an aortal aneurysm. Of course we all joined hands & prayed.
I expect to be receiving an email from this wonderful family real soon. As we parted at the restaurant Juda reminded me that we’d given them all our information but had forgotten to ask their name, their email address or much of anything else for that matter.I have a good memory but it's short. Doesn’t that just beat “Johnny-jump-up?” as my grandma used to say?
Who knows how it all will end up but at least our paths crossed with some old friends & wonderful people of God & we were able to unite our hearts in prayer. Maybe, just maybe in God’s long scheme of things, that’s what the whole thing was about. Maybe an old friendship will be reignited or maybe, it was just---one of “God’s winks.”
I must admit this isn’t original with me. Juda saw a minister interviewed recently on a Christian T. V show who’s written a book called “When God Winks.” His thesis is; every now & then God throws little surprises at us & even small miracles we weren’t expecting. He calls them “God-Winks.” Juda, who’s currently looking over my shoulder, just informed me that you can go—www. God winks. Com & pull up his website. I haven’t bothered to do that as yet because that’s not the purpose of this blog.
We just returned (and I mean just waked in the door) from a weekend trip. We stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel in Ocala & while I sat in a rocking- chair out front waiting for Juda to powder her nose, I noticed a man in my peripheral vision looking at me and about to ask me a question. As I turned toward him he asked—“Arent you John-------? I finished his question by telling him my last name. Long story short-- his wife, daughter & Juda walked out of the restaurant about the same time & we had “old home week.” Turns out they remembered us from a church we’ve ministered at many times. He & has wife & small daughter are no longer there & had moved to a distant city & been wondering for some time how to get in touch with us. God had winked for all of us. He had been trying to locate us but in all candidness we’d forgotten we even had a website & it had inadvertently lapsed from the Internet. Juda had just put it back up a few nights ago so it was no wonder these old friends hadn’t been able to contact us. Our bad!!!
We used the front porch of Cracker Barrel to visit for a while then he asked if we could join hands & pray for his father who had recently been hospitalized after experiencing an aortal aneurysm. Of course we all joined hands & prayed.
I expect to be receiving an email from this wonderful family real soon. As we parted at the restaurant Juda reminded me that we’d given them all our information but had forgotten to ask their name, their email address or much of anything else for that matter.I have a good memory but it's short. Doesn’t that just beat “Johnny-jump-up?” as my grandma used to say?
Who knows how it all will end up but at least our paths crossed with some old friends & wonderful people of God & we were able to unite our hearts in prayer. Maybe, just maybe in God’s long scheme of things, that’s what the whole thing was about. Maybe an old friendship will be reignited or maybe, it was just---one of “God’s winks.”
Friday, July 13, 2007
Changes are coming
By John Stallings
Several years ago there was a television show called Wide World of Sports. The opening sequence showed a young man on skies wiping out in the most atrocious tumble I’d ever seen. It was so terrible that many people wondered why they would chose to play the clip over and over for several years. The man looked like a helicopter as he flailed & catapulted, head over heels, arms & legs twisting through the air.
I recently read an explanation of why this incident happened. The man explained that as he was jumping, the surface had become too fast & if he’d completed the jump he would have landed in a bad place beyond the safe landing area. Had he not literally changed in mid-air, the jump could have been fatal. As it happened, although he was captured on film in an awfully awkward fall that seemed to never end, all he got out of what looked like a fatal mishap was a headache.
This point’s up one of the realities of life &that is, sometimes we are called upon to make changes, & do it, as this young man did, “on the fly.”
At the turn of the twentieth century the railroad industry was faced with a dilemma. Automobiles & airplanes had come on the scene & were starting to siphon off their business. They weren’t very wise & kept doing business as usual, & at one time almost died out. Evidently, someone had wrongly told the railroad folk they were in the railroad business. In reality, they were in the people business & didn’t know it. When people started to choose other methods of transportation, the railroads were in trouble. Finally the government had to step in & form Amtrak to keep passenger trains in business. Today, the only passenger train ticket a person can buy is a government ticket.
Do you remember the Old Oaken Bucket? Well that bucket was a staple for many years, giving people something to carry water in, when the old water wells were all they had. The sad thing about the Old Oaken Bucket people was that someone obviously also told them they were in the bucket business. In truth, they were in the people business; or the business to help people transport water comfortably. When running water became available, I suppose the only ones in the bucket business who came out of it O.K were the ones who were visionary enough to buy water utility stocks. The bottom line was; people no longer needed buckets. What has happened, pure and simple is change.
If you’ve raised a child you’ll know what one of a child’s favorite questions especially on a car trip is, are we there yet?
The answer to that question, in life is; no, we aren’t there yet and probably will never “arrive”, but we keep changing.
My own experience has made me aware of the need for change. In the last few years Juda & I have I lost both our parents. If you’ve experienced this you’ll know that everything shifts when a parent dies. Changes like death are changes that are universal, imposed on us by life.
On the other hand, sometimes we get so hungry for change that we will go to great lengths to make it happen.
For instance, intentional body changes, like losing weight. I’ve often thought how funny it is that I could get a song on the world-wide Gospel charts, but it wouldn’t impress my friends like losing a few pounds would. The obvious reason for this is that we all know the discipline involved in losing even a little weight.
Many, perhaps a majority of us, don’t like change or accept it readily because change often means loss. We can be talking about death as well as birth. Being human, we don’t make adjustments easily, however, since life is a journey, how could we not expect to constantly be making changes? A journey is, almost by definition, constant change. We are traveling & moving from one point to another on our trip through life. There will be hills &valleys, deserts & oceans as we advance on our journey. Change is happening from the time we are born to the day of our death, and never to change would put us in an unhealthy state. I don’t know if it’s still done in China but at one time tiny feet were so worshipped that in order to keep females feet small they’d tightly wrap them with winding cloths. I have read that though their feet would indeed remain little and dainty, when unwrapped they would look ugly and deformed. Growth and change are normal, while stunted growth is generally extremely unattractive.
When I was a child my father was a Pastor/Evangelist which meant that even under the best of conditions, we moved a lot. If we stayed 2 or 3 years in one place we were surprised but happy. As my dad grew older he would stay longer in Pastorates but that didn’t happen until I was almost grown. What this meant was that my Mom, sister & I had to get used to often changing homes, schools, churches, cities & communities. When I grew older, I’d joke with my father that he would move across the street if he thought he would be a step ahead of the devil.
When I started in evangelism in my early twenties, I began my own travels all over the country & in many foreign countries. When you live like that for awhile, though you may enjoy it, you develop a deep yearning for a home and roots. When it’s your calling, you thrive on the travel but still there’s that constant change of congregations, towns and living conditions. Most people can’t live like that for more than a ten year period and then they just start to wear down because something within them yearns to put down roots. Though it’s very possible for some to get hooked on that kind of constant change & never truly be happy in one place; very few are Nomadic & at some point settle down.
LOOKING BACK AT YESTERDAY STUNTS OUR GROWTH AND PROGRESS.
Though life imposes change, still it’s always a little sad to move on because in order to do so, old patterns and ways must be left behind. However, if we refuse to change, we’ll lose ground anyway, because rebelling against change has its own set of unfortunate circumstances. If we don’t remain open to change, we will be haunted by the same old conditions, problems and frustrations.
LIFE CALLS ON US TO REVISE OURSELVES CONSTANTLY.
In order to have a healthy life, we must be on a lifelong quest for self-improvement & hardest of all, self-discipline, & sometimes life will hand us special motivation to go forward.
Genesis 19:26 tells the story of how Lot’s wife. Abraham & family had been warned to leave Sodom for it would be destroyed, & not to look back as they left. Lots wife looked back, & turned into a pillar of salt. Of course she actually turned to salt, but there’s another application here. Being a salt statue, she was suspended & stuck in a state of frozen development. Looking back will freeze us in time so that we can’t move forward to the next chapter in our lives. It is like trying to drive a car always looking in the rear view mirror. It’s fine to occasionally glance at the mirror but doing it constantly would soon result in our running into a ditch or colliding with something.
In Isaiah 43:18-19 God tells his people, “Remember not the former things neither consider the things of old. Behold I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
In this passage God is actually warning the people about looking back. He tells them not to remember the former things; to wash them from their minds, & not to even consider them anymore.
In Luke 9:62, Jesus said, “No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Again, rather a strong warning.
In Philippians 3:13 Paul says, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto the things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
IF ALL THE IMPORTANT THINGS LIE IN OUR PAST, WHY NOT JUST DIE?
After all, what good is going forward if the really good things are all behind us? If everything of any consequence or to be desired is already over, what’s the point of living? The answer of course is that since we’re still here, we know that God has a purpose for our lives. With Gods help every one of us can make powerful changes and move toward better things in life.
The power of choice and free will are awesome tools that we possess. For example, a person who is released from prison after serving their time has a choice. The person can make some changes in attitude, readjust to life on the outside & move on or refuse to change, continue with same mind -set & end up back in prison. Sadly, a great percentage of people who are released go right back to jail proving that prison isn’t necessarily remedial unless an individual will put forth the effort to change.
THE FIRST CHANGE CAME WHEN WE GAVE OURSELVES TO CHRIST.
The KJV version of Romans 12:1 says, “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” In this passage, Paul didn’t say give God an hour or a day but give him your whole life.
Listen to this translation. “So here’s what I want you to do, take your whole body and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God has for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit in without even thinking .Readily recognize what he wants from you and respond to it. Unlike the culture that always dragging you to its level, God brings out the best in you and develops well formed maturity.”—Message Bible
In the book of Jeremiah, we have a most beautiful picture of change. God brings the crusty prophet down to the potter’s house to teach him some things about His work, His will, and His ways of bringing them to pass. In Jeremiah 2:13, God had told his people, “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the foundation of living waters, and have hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” When he sees the potter’s wheel, in chapter 20, Jeremiah instantly understands that this is a picture of stubborn, sinful man in the hands of God being changed and transformed. He sees God taking the clay, spoiling it & reforming it the way He wants it to be.
Once you really see what this story implies, you realize it’s one of the most encouraging stories in the Bible. God is showing us that in his hands the worst person or situation we could imagine can be made useable.
There is a wonderful old song we used to sing when I was a boy and it went like this; Have thine on way Lord, have thine own way, thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.”This is the spirit of the potter’s house experience. To be changed by the potter into a vessel of honor. In Genesis 2:7, we see God reaching down and forming man out of the dust of the earth and breathing into him the breath of life. Certainly the God who formed man in the beginning can take him in his hands and mold him as clay into whatever he chooses him to be.
When it comes to man, God has a plan, God has the power to execute the plan, and He has the patience to complete the work He starts.
Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Romans 8:28 says, “For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”Lamentations 4:2 says, “The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine Gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter.”
In John 3 we read about Nicodemus. He was a leader of the Jews & obviously a man of high standing & he came to Jesus by night. It’s possible that he didn’t want to be seen visiting this controversial man in daylight hours but at least he came. At least he was curios to see if this man had answers for a life that was obviously not very fulfilling. But Jesus immediately speaks to Nicodemus about changing. He talks to him about a change so radical that it even has a special name, The New Birth. It truly hit Nicodemus as earth shaking because he likened it to going back into the womb and being born again. There’s no doubt that the new Birth is a transforming experience.
Perhaps the most outstanding examples of this in the Bible is the experience of Saul of Tarsus who was changed on the road to Damascus. His change was so dramatic that it’s what we call a phenomenal conversion. One minute he was going about his life work of oppressing Christians & the very next he was crying out to God to tell him what was His assignment for him. It would be somewhat like Ted Kennedy, the embodiment of a liberal political animal waking up one morning and being a conservative who would be more extreme than Rush Limbaugh. We’re talking change now.
OUR WORLD IS IN A CONSTANT STATE OF CHANGE.
I read that in 1943, a man by the name of Thomas Watson was the president of the IBM Corporation. He actually said, “I could never see a worldwide need for more than five computers.” Can you imagine a smart business man saying that? The only thing I could see that would have made him say that would be that he didn’t see how much in the state of flux the world really is in.
I read an article about new city bus program that will soon be used in my town, Altamonte Springs, Fl. In a city famous for traffic jams, our city officials hope to create a better way to move people around. Here’s how it will work. Using a computer at home, at work or at special places around the town, a rider would order a bus trip. The request would be dispatched by computer to a bus driver who would then pick up the rider at a particular stop within 12 minutes and go to the stop closest to the destination. Sounds good doesn’t it? Obviously the on-demand service has already been tried successfully in other cities.
My point is that we are living in a time of diverse change & all of us will have to adapt to it or live in the past, [if that will even be possible.] When you think about it, change is one of most uncomfortable things we do but life is constantly demanding it of us.
The network news media is now wrestling with the reality of the changing world where people no longer have to wait until six o’clock at night to find out what’s happening in the world. We now have 24 hour cable news not to mention the internet, or information highway that we all have access to.
Churches have also been faced with the necessity of change. Because of changes in the work place & lifestyles, old traditional ways have been supplanted with new ideas & concepts. Certainly the Gospel hasn’t changed but the way it’s piped to people has. Nowadays, a person can turn on satellite television & get preaching & teaching 24 hours a day. Many churches are going to Sunday morning only with cell groups meeting in different parts of their cities through the week. It’s not intrinsically bad or good it just is.
Change is just inevitable. At this moment your body is going through all sorts of changes. Your brain is changing. The Universe, including the earth, is changing. How the world does business & everything about our economies is changing. I remember when I traveled on the west coast in the early sixties; we didn’t telephone home to Florida but once a month because it was too expensive. Now we call with a cell phone from airplane, ships and trains, half way around the world, without hesitation. It’s hard for me to believe as I look back that things have changed so much in so short a time.
We all now have a choice. We can embrace the change that’s coming anyway, or we can hide from it. But unlike the poor people in the Indian Ocean when the Tsunami struck, we have been advised. We’ve been given a heads-up to what the future will be like. Either we prepare and cooperate with change by adapting and benefiting from it, or sadly, we’ll just be swept away.
We have learned that many changes are coming regardless of what we think or do or how we feel. We have seen that many changes happen fast but most, slowly. If we do something toward the things we want to change every day, we can change most anything we’d like to change, in time.
Markets change from bull to bear; weather changes, sometimes on a dime. The seasons change several times a year. Of course that’s cyclical in nature. Technology changes & when it does things never go back the way they were. Jobs change, management changes, people change, everything in life changes. If we look back, we’ll see that we’ve weathered many changes already in our lives. We may have resisted some change but you can probably look back & say, “thank God that changed & look at the great things that came of it.”
THE GREATEST CHANGES OF ALL ARE JUST AHEAD.
Jesus is coming back to the earth soon to take his church away & not long afterward we’ll all come back to earth with him & He’ll rule & reign forever.
Listen to 1 CORINTHIANS 15: 51, “BEHOLD I SHOW YOU A MYSTERY; WE SHALL NOT ALL SLEEP BUT WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED, IN A MOMENT, IN A TWINKLING OF AN EYE, AT THE LAST TRUMP: FOR THE TRUMPET SHALL SOUND, AND THE DEAD SHALL BE RAISED INCORRUPTIBLE, AND WE SHALL BE CHANGED.
FOR THIS CORRUPTIBLE MUST PUT ON INCORRUPTION AND THIS MORTAL MUST OUT ON IMMORTALITY.”
SO WHEN THIS CORRUPTIBLE SHALL HAVE OUT ON INCORRUPTION, AND THIS MORTAL SHALL HAVE PUT ON IMMORTALITY, THEN SHALL BE BROUGHT TO PASS THE SAYING THAT IS WRITTEN, OH DEATH WHERE IS THY STING? OH GRAVE WHERE IS THY VICTORY?
Finally we’ll be in his presence for all of eternity.
Several years ago there was a television show called Wide World of Sports. The opening sequence showed a young man on skies wiping out in the most atrocious tumble I’d ever seen. It was so terrible that many people wondered why they would chose to play the clip over and over for several years. The man looked like a helicopter as he flailed & catapulted, head over heels, arms & legs twisting through the air.
I recently read an explanation of why this incident happened. The man explained that as he was jumping, the surface had become too fast & if he’d completed the jump he would have landed in a bad place beyond the safe landing area. Had he not literally changed in mid-air, the jump could have been fatal. As it happened, although he was captured on film in an awfully awkward fall that seemed to never end, all he got out of what looked like a fatal mishap was a headache.
This point’s up one of the realities of life &that is, sometimes we are called upon to make changes, & do it, as this young man did, “on the fly.”
At the turn of the twentieth century the railroad industry was faced with a dilemma. Automobiles & airplanes had come on the scene & were starting to siphon off their business. They weren’t very wise & kept doing business as usual, & at one time almost died out. Evidently, someone had wrongly told the railroad folk they were in the railroad business. In reality, they were in the people business & didn’t know it. When people started to choose other methods of transportation, the railroads were in trouble. Finally the government had to step in & form Amtrak to keep passenger trains in business. Today, the only passenger train ticket a person can buy is a government ticket.
Do you remember the Old Oaken Bucket? Well that bucket was a staple for many years, giving people something to carry water in, when the old water wells were all they had. The sad thing about the Old Oaken Bucket people was that someone obviously also told them they were in the bucket business. In truth, they were in the people business; or the business to help people transport water comfortably. When running water became available, I suppose the only ones in the bucket business who came out of it O.K were the ones who were visionary enough to buy water utility stocks. The bottom line was; people no longer needed buckets. What has happened, pure and simple is change.
If you’ve raised a child you’ll know what one of a child’s favorite questions especially on a car trip is, are we there yet?
The answer to that question, in life is; no, we aren’t there yet and probably will never “arrive”, but we keep changing.
My own experience has made me aware of the need for change. In the last few years Juda & I have I lost both our parents. If you’ve experienced this you’ll know that everything shifts when a parent dies. Changes like death are changes that are universal, imposed on us by life.
On the other hand, sometimes we get so hungry for change that we will go to great lengths to make it happen.
For instance, intentional body changes, like losing weight. I’ve often thought how funny it is that I could get a song on the world-wide Gospel charts, but it wouldn’t impress my friends like losing a few pounds would. The obvious reason for this is that we all know the discipline involved in losing even a little weight.
Many, perhaps a majority of us, don’t like change or accept it readily because change often means loss. We can be talking about death as well as birth. Being human, we don’t make adjustments easily, however, since life is a journey, how could we not expect to constantly be making changes? A journey is, almost by definition, constant change. We are traveling & moving from one point to another on our trip through life. There will be hills &valleys, deserts & oceans as we advance on our journey. Change is happening from the time we are born to the day of our death, and never to change would put us in an unhealthy state. I don’t know if it’s still done in China but at one time tiny feet were so worshipped that in order to keep females feet small they’d tightly wrap them with winding cloths. I have read that though their feet would indeed remain little and dainty, when unwrapped they would look ugly and deformed. Growth and change are normal, while stunted growth is generally extremely unattractive.
When I was a child my father was a Pastor/Evangelist which meant that even under the best of conditions, we moved a lot. If we stayed 2 or 3 years in one place we were surprised but happy. As my dad grew older he would stay longer in Pastorates but that didn’t happen until I was almost grown. What this meant was that my Mom, sister & I had to get used to often changing homes, schools, churches, cities & communities. When I grew older, I’d joke with my father that he would move across the street if he thought he would be a step ahead of the devil.
When I started in evangelism in my early twenties, I began my own travels all over the country & in many foreign countries. When you live like that for awhile, though you may enjoy it, you develop a deep yearning for a home and roots. When it’s your calling, you thrive on the travel but still there’s that constant change of congregations, towns and living conditions. Most people can’t live like that for more than a ten year period and then they just start to wear down because something within them yearns to put down roots. Though it’s very possible for some to get hooked on that kind of constant change & never truly be happy in one place; very few are Nomadic & at some point settle down.
LOOKING BACK AT YESTERDAY STUNTS OUR GROWTH AND PROGRESS.
Though life imposes change, still it’s always a little sad to move on because in order to do so, old patterns and ways must be left behind. However, if we refuse to change, we’ll lose ground anyway, because rebelling against change has its own set of unfortunate circumstances. If we don’t remain open to change, we will be haunted by the same old conditions, problems and frustrations.
LIFE CALLS ON US TO REVISE OURSELVES CONSTANTLY.
In order to have a healthy life, we must be on a lifelong quest for self-improvement & hardest of all, self-discipline, & sometimes life will hand us special motivation to go forward.
Genesis 19:26 tells the story of how Lot’s wife. Abraham & family had been warned to leave Sodom for it would be destroyed, & not to look back as they left. Lots wife looked back, & turned into a pillar of salt. Of course she actually turned to salt, but there’s another application here. Being a salt statue, she was suspended & stuck in a state of frozen development. Looking back will freeze us in time so that we can’t move forward to the next chapter in our lives. It is like trying to drive a car always looking in the rear view mirror. It’s fine to occasionally glance at the mirror but doing it constantly would soon result in our running into a ditch or colliding with something.
In Isaiah 43:18-19 God tells his people, “Remember not the former things neither consider the things of old. Behold I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
In this passage God is actually warning the people about looking back. He tells them not to remember the former things; to wash them from their minds, & not to even consider them anymore.
In Luke 9:62, Jesus said, “No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Again, rather a strong warning.
In Philippians 3:13 Paul says, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto the things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
IF ALL THE IMPORTANT THINGS LIE IN OUR PAST, WHY NOT JUST DIE?
After all, what good is going forward if the really good things are all behind us? If everything of any consequence or to be desired is already over, what’s the point of living? The answer of course is that since we’re still here, we know that God has a purpose for our lives. With Gods help every one of us can make powerful changes and move toward better things in life.
The power of choice and free will are awesome tools that we possess. For example, a person who is released from prison after serving their time has a choice. The person can make some changes in attitude, readjust to life on the outside & move on or refuse to change, continue with same mind -set & end up back in prison. Sadly, a great percentage of people who are released go right back to jail proving that prison isn’t necessarily remedial unless an individual will put forth the effort to change.
THE FIRST CHANGE CAME WHEN WE GAVE OURSELVES TO CHRIST.
The KJV version of Romans 12:1 says, “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” In this passage, Paul didn’t say give God an hour or a day but give him your whole life.
Listen to this translation. “So here’s what I want you to do, take your whole body and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God has for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit in without even thinking .Readily recognize what he wants from you and respond to it. Unlike the culture that always dragging you to its level, God brings out the best in you and develops well formed maturity.”—Message Bible
In the book of Jeremiah, we have a most beautiful picture of change. God brings the crusty prophet down to the potter’s house to teach him some things about His work, His will, and His ways of bringing them to pass. In Jeremiah 2:13, God had told his people, “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the foundation of living waters, and have hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” When he sees the potter’s wheel, in chapter 20, Jeremiah instantly understands that this is a picture of stubborn, sinful man in the hands of God being changed and transformed. He sees God taking the clay, spoiling it & reforming it the way He wants it to be.
Once you really see what this story implies, you realize it’s one of the most encouraging stories in the Bible. God is showing us that in his hands the worst person or situation we could imagine can be made useable.
There is a wonderful old song we used to sing when I was a boy and it went like this; Have thine on way Lord, have thine own way, thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.”This is the spirit of the potter’s house experience. To be changed by the potter into a vessel of honor. In Genesis 2:7, we see God reaching down and forming man out of the dust of the earth and breathing into him the breath of life. Certainly the God who formed man in the beginning can take him in his hands and mold him as clay into whatever he chooses him to be.
When it comes to man, God has a plan, God has the power to execute the plan, and He has the patience to complete the work He starts.
Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Romans 8:28 says, “For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”Lamentations 4:2 says, “The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine Gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter.”
In John 3 we read about Nicodemus. He was a leader of the Jews & obviously a man of high standing & he came to Jesus by night. It’s possible that he didn’t want to be seen visiting this controversial man in daylight hours but at least he came. At least he was curios to see if this man had answers for a life that was obviously not very fulfilling. But Jesus immediately speaks to Nicodemus about changing. He talks to him about a change so radical that it even has a special name, The New Birth. It truly hit Nicodemus as earth shaking because he likened it to going back into the womb and being born again. There’s no doubt that the new Birth is a transforming experience.
Perhaps the most outstanding examples of this in the Bible is the experience of Saul of Tarsus who was changed on the road to Damascus. His change was so dramatic that it’s what we call a phenomenal conversion. One minute he was going about his life work of oppressing Christians & the very next he was crying out to God to tell him what was His assignment for him. It would be somewhat like Ted Kennedy, the embodiment of a liberal political animal waking up one morning and being a conservative who would be more extreme than Rush Limbaugh. We’re talking change now.
OUR WORLD IS IN A CONSTANT STATE OF CHANGE.
I read that in 1943, a man by the name of Thomas Watson was the president of the IBM Corporation. He actually said, “I could never see a worldwide need for more than five computers.” Can you imagine a smart business man saying that? The only thing I could see that would have made him say that would be that he didn’t see how much in the state of flux the world really is in.
I read an article about new city bus program that will soon be used in my town, Altamonte Springs, Fl. In a city famous for traffic jams, our city officials hope to create a better way to move people around. Here’s how it will work. Using a computer at home, at work or at special places around the town, a rider would order a bus trip. The request would be dispatched by computer to a bus driver who would then pick up the rider at a particular stop within 12 minutes and go to the stop closest to the destination. Sounds good doesn’t it? Obviously the on-demand service has already been tried successfully in other cities.
My point is that we are living in a time of diverse change & all of us will have to adapt to it or live in the past, [if that will even be possible.] When you think about it, change is one of most uncomfortable things we do but life is constantly demanding it of us.
The network news media is now wrestling with the reality of the changing world where people no longer have to wait until six o’clock at night to find out what’s happening in the world. We now have 24 hour cable news not to mention the internet, or information highway that we all have access to.
Churches have also been faced with the necessity of change. Because of changes in the work place & lifestyles, old traditional ways have been supplanted with new ideas & concepts. Certainly the Gospel hasn’t changed but the way it’s piped to people has. Nowadays, a person can turn on satellite television & get preaching & teaching 24 hours a day. Many churches are going to Sunday morning only with cell groups meeting in different parts of their cities through the week. It’s not intrinsically bad or good it just is.
Change is just inevitable. At this moment your body is going through all sorts of changes. Your brain is changing. The Universe, including the earth, is changing. How the world does business & everything about our economies is changing. I remember when I traveled on the west coast in the early sixties; we didn’t telephone home to Florida but once a month because it was too expensive. Now we call with a cell phone from airplane, ships and trains, half way around the world, without hesitation. It’s hard for me to believe as I look back that things have changed so much in so short a time.
We all now have a choice. We can embrace the change that’s coming anyway, or we can hide from it. But unlike the poor people in the Indian Ocean when the Tsunami struck, we have been advised. We’ve been given a heads-up to what the future will be like. Either we prepare and cooperate with change by adapting and benefiting from it, or sadly, we’ll just be swept away.
We have learned that many changes are coming regardless of what we think or do or how we feel. We have seen that many changes happen fast but most, slowly. If we do something toward the things we want to change every day, we can change most anything we’d like to change, in time.
Markets change from bull to bear; weather changes, sometimes on a dime. The seasons change several times a year. Of course that’s cyclical in nature. Technology changes & when it does things never go back the way they were. Jobs change, management changes, people change, everything in life changes. If we look back, we’ll see that we’ve weathered many changes already in our lives. We may have resisted some change but you can probably look back & say, “thank God that changed & look at the great things that came of it.”
THE GREATEST CHANGES OF ALL ARE JUST AHEAD.
Jesus is coming back to the earth soon to take his church away & not long afterward we’ll all come back to earth with him & He’ll rule & reign forever.
Listen to 1 CORINTHIANS 15: 51, “BEHOLD I SHOW YOU A MYSTERY; WE SHALL NOT ALL SLEEP BUT WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED, IN A MOMENT, IN A TWINKLING OF AN EYE, AT THE LAST TRUMP: FOR THE TRUMPET SHALL SOUND, AND THE DEAD SHALL BE RAISED INCORRUPTIBLE, AND WE SHALL BE CHANGED.
FOR THIS CORRUPTIBLE MUST PUT ON INCORRUPTION AND THIS MORTAL MUST OUT ON IMMORTALITY.”
SO WHEN THIS CORRUPTIBLE SHALL HAVE OUT ON INCORRUPTION, AND THIS MORTAL SHALL HAVE PUT ON IMMORTALITY, THEN SHALL BE BROUGHT TO PASS THE SAYING THAT IS WRITTEN, OH DEATH WHERE IS THY STING? OH GRAVE WHERE IS THY VICTORY?
Finally we’ll be in his presence for all of eternity.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea….
Ugly, joyless, cloudy Christianity (isn’t that an oxymoron?) stalks the church of the twenty-first century like the plague. Has anyone noticed that spirit generated joy seems too often to be missing? Services are held, songs are sung, sermons are preached & prayers are prayed but the living Christ seems to be absent.
When you compare what we generally see today in religious circles with the early church there doesn’t seem to be much that is similar. No I haven’t gone negative but I was told that blogs were a place where you unburdened your heart & were totally candid so here I go. Or as Ronald Reagan would say; “There I go again.”
The early church was magnetic & appealing & I believe the ingredient they were working with was the heavenly dynamic of Spirit-generated, radiant joy.
Jesus was a man who glowed with joy. His Father said of Him in Hebrews 1:9—Thou hast loved righteousness & hated iniquity; there fore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Christianities first martyr had this joy on his face when he was arrested for the people in attendance “saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” (Acts 6:15)
It takes more than a church membership card, a dip under the water & a Christian background to produce radiant, joyful Christians. They can sprinkle you, squirt you, spray you, spit on you, baptize you frontward, backwards or sideways but it takes the power of the risen Lord & His Holy Spirit to produce this “unspeakable joy.”
The worst advertisement for Christianity is joyless people & the most convincing & compelling advertisement any church can have to attract people into its fellowship are glowing, joyous, radiant Christians.
I know you understand that I’m not talking about giddy, showy religiosity or shallow pompous superficial gaiety. The kind of joy I’m describing isn’t a work of the flesh nor can it be manufactured by man. I think there are at least three things that can produce this kind of overcoming joy in our lives.
1. An appetite for God.
Jesus said, -- Blessed are those who hunger & thirst after righteousness for they will be filled. (Matt. 5:6)
Joyful Christians are people who are hungry to know Christ more intimately. They are eager to grow in grace & want to be used by God more effectively. They are Bible-totters & you can see the hunger in their eyes for the things of God.
2. A joyful Christian hates sin & loves righteousness.
We saw in the verse in Hebrews that Jesus was exalted by His father because of His abhorrence of evil & love for holiness. Joy departs when sin enters. But when sin is confessed & forsaken joy returns. Following his confession, King David prayed, “Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation. (Psalm 51:12.)
It doesn’t have to be the sin of adultery or drunkenness, it can be the more “respectable sins” like gossip, slander, greed, grumbling & unkindness.
3. A joyful Christian will consistently listen to & for the voice of God.
This is one of those “reaching scenarios” but if I had been away from my wife for an extended length of time & were given the option of seeing her standing on a distant hill, or hearing her voice speaking to me, expressing the things she wanted to say & I hungered to hear, I’d take the option of hearing her voice.
I’ve never particularly hungered for a vision of Jesus because my God-given imagination lets me know all I need to know about what his personal vestige is like, but I do have an abiding hunger to hear His voice.
John 3:29 says….but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth & heareth rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegrooms voice; this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
Are you daily listening for the voice of your bridegroom with His Word open before you in the place of prayer? Have you allowed the strange voices of the world to muffle the voice of your heavenly bridegroom?
Stay with him a while each day; be still, get quiet & open His word, don’t be in a hurry. Don’t leave until you’ve heard His voice & know that sweet communion has been yours.
Then you will leave the place of prayer with total joy. Practice this & you’ll be a radiant, joyful Christian.
John
By John Stallings
Ugly, joyless, cloudy Christianity (isn’t that an oxymoron?) stalks the church of the twenty-first century like the plague. Has anyone noticed that spirit generated joy seems too often to be missing? Services are held, songs are sung, sermons are preached & prayers are prayed but the living Christ seems to be absent.
When you compare what we generally see today in religious circles with the early church there doesn’t seem to be much that is similar. No I haven’t gone negative but I was told that blogs were a place where you unburdened your heart & were totally candid so here I go. Or as Ronald Reagan would say; “There I go again.”
The early church was magnetic & appealing & I believe the ingredient they were working with was the heavenly dynamic of Spirit-generated, radiant joy.
Jesus was a man who glowed with joy. His Father said of Him in Hebrews 1:9—Thou hast loved righteousness & hated iniquity; there fore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Christianities first martyr had this joy on his face when he was arrested for the people in attendance “saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” (Acts 6:15)
It takes more than a church membership card, a dip under the water & a Christian background to produce radiant, joyful Christians. They can sprinkle you, squirt you, spray you, spit on you, baptize you frontward, backwards or sideways but it takes the power of the risen Lord & His Holy Spirit to produce this “unspeakable joy.”
The worst advertisement for Christianity is joyless people & the most convincing & compelling advertisement any church can have to attract people into its fellowship are glowing, joyous, radiant Christians.
I know you understand that I’m not talking about giddy, showy religiosity or shallow pompous superficial gaiety. The kind of joy I’m describing isn’t a work of the flesh nor can it be manufactured by man. I think there are at least three things that can produce this kind of overcoming joy in our lives.
1. An appetite for God.
Jesus said, -- Blessed are those who hunger & thirst after righteousness for they will be filled. (Matt. 5:6)
Joyful Christians are people who are hungry to know Christ more intimately. They are eager to grow in grace & want to be used by God more effectively. They are Bible-totters & you can see the hunger in their eyes for the things of God.
2. A joyful Christian hates sin & loves righteousness.
We saw in the verse in Hebrews that Jesus was exalted by His father because of His abhorrence of evil & love for holiness. Joy departs when sin enters. But when sin is confessed & forsaken joy returns. Following his confession, King David prayed, “Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation. (Psalm 51:12.)
It doesn’t have to be the sin of adultery or drunkenness, it can be the more “respectable sins” like gossip, slander, greed, grumbling & unkindness.
3. A joyful Christian will consistently listen to & for the voice of God.
This is one of those “reaching scenarios” but if I had been away from my wife for an extended length of time & were given the option of seeing her standing on a distant hill, or hearing her voice speaking to me, expressing the things she wanted to say & I hungered to hear, I’d take the option of hearing her voice.
I’ve never particularly hungered for a vision of Jesus because my God-given imagination lets me know all I need to know about what his personal vestige is like, but I do have an abiding hunger to hear His voice.
John 3:29 says….but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth & heareth rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegrooms voice; this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
Are you daily listening for the voice of your bridegroom with His Word open before you in the place of prayer? Have you allowed the strange voices of the world to muffle the voice of your heavenly bridegroom?
Stay with him a while each day; be still, get quiet & open His word, don’t be in a hurry. Don’t leave until you’ve heard His voice & know that sweet communion has been yours.
Then you will leave the place of prayer with total joy. Practice this & you’ll be a radiant, joyful Christian.
John
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
CHALLENGING OLD MIND-SETS
By John Stallings
No one puts new wine into old wineskins…. Luke 5:37
I recently read the story of a man who worked with refrigerated railroad box cars. His worst fear was that he’d someday accidentally get locked in one of the cars and freeze to death. His family, friends and working buddies all knew of his fear because he constantly talked about it. One night his worst fear came to pass and he inadvertently was locked in one of the cars.
When he was found the next morning, an autopsy showed he’d indeed frozen to death. He had found a piece of a paper sack and left a note saying, “It’s so very cold. It’s getting colder and colder, and I know I can’t last until morning.” The strange thing was that in that particular box car, the refrigeration wasn’t working and the temperature never got over 61 degrees all night. They found that the oxygen level in the car was plenty to keep a person alive. His mind and what it believed must have frozen him to death.
It’s amazing the power our minds have to create what we’re convinced of.
If you saw the movie, “Fiddler on the roof” you will remember the song, “Tradition.” I like the catchy tune but I especially was taken by the truth it teaches about the concept of different cultures and ways of speaking, thinking and doing things. So much of what we do is nothing more than ideas, concepts and traditions that were handed down to us from our ancestors and have little to do with sacredness. There’s nothing particularly wrong or right about them, they are just costumes.
There are few things as powerful as a fixed idea in the human mind.
Whether the idea is true or false, it can be almost equally as powerful when it gets lodged in our brain. In Romans 12 we read about the renewed mind and this renewal is imperative to be truly victorious in the Christian life.
In Ephesians 3:20 we read, Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.
What makes this verse so great is that we have the ability to do some rather large thinking and asking sometimes. But God is able to do much more than I could ever ask or think, and obviously, that’s a lot.
However, if we can’t ask or think it, how is God ever going to bring it to pass for us? If our minds are fixated or bogged down with small expectations, why do we even need God to be involved when He’s such a big God? His greatness only has a showcase in our lives when it’s something that is above what we can already conceptualize.
Have you ever considered some of the fixed, negative ideas you may be harboring in your mind? Thoughts that have established themselves and, though wrong, are actually setting the limits for what can happen for you?
Sometimes when thoughts get a foothold they can gradually become a stronghold in our minds. Then these thoughts can finally become strangleholds. Paul talks about strongholds in 2 Corinthians 10:4.
Romans 12:1-2 says, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind……
This tells us that to truly follow God, we must have renewed minds, and renewed thought patterns. Take for example,
OUR OWN SELF PORTRAIT
Most people would agree that a person will only go as far in life as their self-image will let them go. If our minds are filled with thoughts of inferiority we will act accordingly and never believe for the big and best things in life. What does your self-portrait look like? In reality, the ultimate victory of our lives won’t depend on how big and great God is. There’s no question about how big God is. There’s no question about how much power He has and what He’s able to do. The ultimate victory of our lives will depend on how much of God’s power and ability we will allow to work in us. Remember, as a man thinketh, so is he. Proverbs 23:7. When you think of yourself, do you see an image of a beaten down rumpled person trying to hang on, or do you see yourself as God sees you?
Let me give you a snap- shot of how God looks at us. In 2 Corinthians 2:14 we see God's portrait of us; “Now thanks be unto God who always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh the savior of his knowledge by us in every place, for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ.” God sees us ALWAYS TRIUMPHING.
Many people wrongly think God’s going to do it all, but He wants to do it through us. Think of this like this;--“without God we can’t and without us He won’t.” If we think God by divine fiat, will do everything for us, we’ll be sorely disappointed. The truth is, God will do His part but He expects us to do our part.
I heard about a man (whether it’s true or not, it makes a good point) who went into a church and prayed one day, asking God to please let him win the lottery. Every day he’d go into the church get down on his knees and beg God to give him a break and let him win the lottery. He did this each day for a week and at the end of the week as he prayed he hear God say, “would you please give me a break and go buy a lottery ticket.”
We must put forth the effort through reading; studying, prayer and meditation, to daily cultivate a renewal of our mind, keeping out the wrong thought patterns. As an example, take a person with lung cancer. What good would it do if God healed the person and they kept right on being the Marlboro Man, and continued to smoke? Cancer would still have an inroad into that life through the tobacco. No change of any kind will work for us unless we make a decision to change our mind-set, actions and habits. Let’s say a person is depressed and God worked a miracle and lifted the mental depression. If that person refused to meditate on God’s word, didn’t guard their thought life and allowed themselves to get spiritually and physically run-down, more than likely they’d go right back into a depressed condition. That’s what Romans 12 is all about; a renewal of our thinking. It’s really surprising how practical God is isn’t it?
WRONG IDEAS ABOUT PRAYER
Maybe, without realizing it you’ve let a wrong fixed idea get established about prayer. Some people have the idea that prayer is “doing penance.” If they want God to hear them they must utter so many “Hail Mary’s.” Somehow, they feel, if they expect God to hear them they must spend enough time in prayer that God will see they really love him. Some religions ritualistically turn their faces toward a certain place and make sure they do it five or six times a day. The truth is; God isn’t looking for us to pray for long stretches to prove our love for him. A better & more scriptural way to prove we love God would be to love one another. Our prayers needn’t be long drawn out drudgery, thinking it will get God’s attention.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:7, When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
If you have that idea fixed in our heads, you need to reprogram your mind with Gods thoughts, revealed in His word, so you can move on to a deeper, fuller prayer life. You may even have allowed yourself to think that fasting and starving yourself will remove guilt and make you feel more accepted and loved by God. The Bible teaches us the only thing that will remove guilt is the blood of Jesus Christ. Fasting has its place, and some stubborn things will only respond to fasting and prayer but we can’t get God’s approval and absolve guilt in that way. True prayer springs out of our relationship with God. I don’t spend time with my wife each day to keep from feeling guilty or to show her and others I’m a good husband. I spend time with her because she’s my wife and we have a close relationship. The same would be true in our prayer time with God.
OLD MYTHS CAN STILL PLAGUE OUR THINKING.
I heard that one little boy said; “a myth is a female moth.” We can get all sorts of wrong ideas. I often hear folk say, “God helps those who help themselves.” That sounds good but it’s a myth, and not scriptural. What about people who can’t help themselves? There are millions of people like that in the world. God expects us to do all we can and then he’ll step in and do the rest as we believe him. God “helpeth our infirmities”, which means that often He asks us to pick up one end of the log and he’ll lift the other.
What good does it do us if we cram great spiritual ideas and truths into our minds on top of old wrong, mythical, fixed ideas? I’m not being critical, but rather encouraging us to truly think Biblical and constantly renew our minds with God’s Word.
SOME HAVE WRONG FIXED IDEA’S ABOUT MONEY.
Many people don’t like to think about money and consequently don’t plan ahead. Many people reach retirement with nothing but what the government gives them. They think that when they get older, something magical will happen to supply their financial needs. Some have even allowed the fact that Jesus is coming soon to keep them from properly preparing and planning for their later years. Jesus never told us to be preoccupied with his coming, but to occupy till He comes, there’s a big difference. These folk soon see they were wrong, but by that time it’s too late to do them much good.
Some men even harbor mythical ideas about how much money they should earn. Their fathers only earned so much so they should only earn about that much. I heard about a man who went to his dad and showed him his first pay check as an insurance agent and his dad broke down and started to cry because it was so much more than he’d ever made. The grown son determined to never again make more money than his dad made. I think you’ll agree this is a serious problem but there are people who think this way. They settle for mediocrity rather than think big because they have been so ridiculed for wanting bigger things than their parents had. Such is the power of fixed ideas. Some people only pray for their needs, never their wants. Others look at it differently; they need everything they want.
SOME PEOPLE FEAR FINANCIAL RESOURCES
My parents were wonderful people, and instilled in me some good spiritual as well as practical knowledge, but to be frank, they were funny about money. They really didn’t earn enough and save much for their old age. My dad was a Pastor and never had a large salary, but one of his problems was that he wouldn’t stand up for himself on money issues. I sometimes got the idea that my parents were afraid of money; for what reason I really don’t know. I remember when my dad pastored in Orlando, Florida in the 1950’s and I was just a teenager. He was being paid a percentage of the tithes and as the church grew, his income grew. Though it wasn’t that much, my mother would be so nervous about what they earned that on the day of the annual business meeting, when a report of the Pastors salary was read, she’d have to go to the doctor and get medication to calm her down. They really weren’t getting paid all that much, it was just a fixed idea she had that it was too much money.
Once they were given a raise by the church [their percentage was raised] and my mother refused to take it, and they stayed at the same percentage. Can you imagine that? A few months later, my father got sick and was put in the hospital. Their insurance didn’t pay the entire bill so my mother went to the church treasurer and asked if they could get a small loan from the church to help pay the hospital bill. The wonderful man who served that church for many years as treasurer, went to the church safe, and pulled out an envelope and handed it to my mother. He explained to her that when they had refused the raise the church offered them; he went ahead and put the money aside, knowing they’d probably need it someday. I can hardly imagine that as I look back, but it happened. I never really asked her about it but my mother must have been afraid of money. I’ve had to be very vigilant in my own life to make sure I wasn’t letting any of those old wrong ideas get fixed in my thinking. I’ve always believed in and preached tithing and giving in all sorts of ways, but I also believe that the best way to help the poor is to not become one of them. Some people, like my parents, seem to think that money is dangerous and evil and if you’re not careful it will corrupt you. There’s an element of truth to that but by the same token, the Bible doesn’t teach that money is evil, just the love of it.
Some fear that a lot of money will somehow get them into trouble. As Christians, that’s an uncalled for response. Though it may have been that way in the past, we are now King’s kids and we have the wisdom and integrity to be proper stewards over our resources. It’s true that if you gave some people one million dollars they’d soon be over their heads because of poor management. They’d fail to pay their taxes and soon would be in trouble with the I.R.S. Also, disagreement about how money is spent is the number one cause of divorce, so obviously it can cause problems, but again, it goes back to wrong concepts about money.
MONEY GIVES YOU A VOICE.
In Ecce. 9: 14-15 theres an interesting little story about a wise but poor man who saved a little city from its enemy but because he was poor the people didn’t respect or remember him. In other words, because he himself wasn’t prosperous, the people discounted him. What’s interesting is that the same principle holds true to this day. If a person is poor, they have no voice nor are they really considered very much. A modern day twist on that same idea is that people say nowadays, “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you financially successful.” To bring balance to the question, I think we could correctly say that while money doesn’t insure that a person is spiritual or upstanding, if we are to be viable in our society, the principles of Biblical prosperity should be visible and working in our lives. You can ask any of the minorities and they’ll tell you it’s true. No finances, no voice. The story isn’t saying that the poor are worthless in God’s eyes, but have a difficult time getting their story heard. Pastors and missionaries have lived with that reality for years; if there’s no money, the work will not be done nor the Gospel preached. God wants money to come into our hands and He also wants us to have the right attitude toward it.
Another wrong way of thinking about money would be hoarding it & ignoring the needs of others, and the work of God.
A SCARCITY MENTALITY IS WRONG THINKING.
Some people have developed the idea that there is only so much wealth and not enough for everybody. Have you ever wondered why some people are jealous of those who move up in life and get new things? Most of the time it’s not that they just don’t want the other person to have what they acquire; it’s that they see only one big pie and if somebody gets a big piece of it, there’s less for them. This is wrong thinking. We should realize we all have our own pie and what someone else gets in no way detracts or diminishes what we may have if we position ourselves rightly. Again, it’s the limited thinking that gets in the way. Psalm 78:41 says when speaking of Israel, Yea they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. Let’s be sure we don’t do the same in our thinking.
If you took a pig and cleaned him all up and let him live in your house, we know that it wouldn’t be long until his old pig-ways would necessitate that you put him back outside. You’d have to change his nature to be able to coexist with a pig.
Obviously, you and I aren’t pigs, but still, we can’t really go where God wants to take us with our old nature and set patterns of wrong thinking. Again remember, For as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.
If we try to put spiritual ideas into a mind that hasn’t been renewed, we’ve got a confused situation, for the Bible says “the carnal mind cancels out spiritual thoughts and ideas.”
Let’s say a man wants to become a doctor, so he goes to medical school to prepare. He studies to cram medical jargon into his head and truly is good at reading, absorbing the material, and passing the tests. Because he does all the work and makes the grades, he finally gets his degree and his license to practice medicine. The only thing is, the man doesn’t really want to be a doctor, has no interest in good health and helping people obtain good health. He doesn’t buy into the idea that he must scrub and clean his hands after visiting each patient and won’t use a single modicum of care to follow up on his patients to see them through to health. He really has never bought into the truth that there are certain medical principle’s we all must follow in order to have optimum health. All he’s doing, although his head is full of doctor knowledge, is going through the charade pretending to be a true doctor. Would you want a man like that to be your physician? A man who doesn’t even believe what he’s doing is important and is only in it for the prestige and the financial rewards? He’s got all the head knowledge but after medical school he refuses to stay abreast and up to date on new medical findings. Maybe he even doubts the things he’s learned are true, and when nobodies looking, bends and breaks all the rules of ethics and good medicine. Even though he knew all the things he was supposed to know, he really wouldn’t be much good, would he?
This man never had a mind-changing experience that truly made a life time doctor out of him.
It’s the same thing with us as Christians in the realm of spiritual truth. We must not be Christians in name only. It’s important that we have been transformed and are so full of Christ, and then His way of thinking, that there’s no room for faulty superfluous, harmful ideas.
I have read that in order for a crab to continue to grow, they must occasionally throw off their old shell and grow and new ones. But the old shell represents the crabs home, security, and comfort. It’s risky for him to get rid of the old shell but if he doesn’t do it, he’ll cease to grow and finally die. God wants us to be crabby. Not in the sense that we’re cantankerous and hard to live with but in the sense that we, as the crab, are constantly growing and throwing off the non-productive “shells” that become irrelevant as we grow up in God.
Take a close look at your life and ask yourself if you are suffering because of limiting ideas that have taken root and have kept you from God’s best. Ideas that are like the crabs too small shell that he must throw off in order to insure his continued growth. There is a battle going on for our minds and if Satan can get a foothold there, he will shrink us, keep us small and can rob us of total victorious living.
Make a commitment today to return to God’s word, open your heart and mind and watch God lead you to new vista’s that are,
“EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY MORE THAN YOU COULD ASK OR THINK, ACCORDING TO THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN YOU.”
John
.
By John Stallings
No one puts new wine into old wineskins…. Luke 5:37
I recently read the story of a man who worked with refrigerated railroad box cars. His worst fear was that he’d someday accidentally get locked in one of the cars and freeze to death. His family, friends and working buddies all knew of his fear because he constantly talked about it. One night his worst fear came to pass and he inadvertently was locked in one of the cars.
When he was found the next morning, an autopsy showed he’d indeed frozen to death. He had found a piece of a paper sack and left a note saying, “It’s so very cold. It’s getting colder and colder, and I know I can’t last until morning.” The strange thing was that in that particular box car, the refrigeration wasn’t working and the temperature never got over 61 degrees all night. They found that the oxygen level in the car was plenty to keep a person alive. His mind and what it believed must have frozen him to death.
It’s amazing the power our minds have to create what we’re convinced of.
If you saw the movie, “Fiddler on the roof” you will remember the song, “Tradition.” I like the catchy tune but I especially was taken by the truth it teaches about the concept of different cultures and ways of speaking, thinking and doing things. So much of what we do is nothing more than ideas, concepts and traditions that were handed down to us from our ancestors and have little to do with sacredness. There’s nothing particularly wrong or right about them, they are just costumes.
There are few things as powerful as a fixed idea in the human mind.
Whether the idea is true or false, it can be almost equally as powerful when it gets lodged in our brain. In Romans 12 we read about the renewed mind and this renewal is imperative to be truly victorious in the Christian life.
In Ephesians 3:20 we read, Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.
What makes this verse so great is that we have the ability to do some rather large thinking and asking sometimes. But God is able to do much more than I could ever ask or think, and obviously, that’s a lot.
However, if we can’t ask or think it, how is God ever going to bring it to pass for us? If our minds are fixated or bogged down with small expectations, why do we even need God to be involved when He’s such a big God? His greatness only has a showcase in our lives when it’s something that is above what we can already conceptualize.
Have you ever considered some of the fixed, negative ideas you may be harboring in your mind? Thoughts that have established themselves and, though wrong, are actually setting the limits for what can happen for you?
Sometimes when thoughts get a foothold they can gradually become a stronghold in our minds. Then these thoughts can finally become strangleholds. Paul talks about strongholds in 2 Corinthians 10:4.
Romans 12:1-2 says, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind……
This tells us that to truly follow God, we must have renewed minds, and renewed thought patterns. Take for example,
OUR OWN SELF PORTRAIT
Most people would agree that a person will only go as far in life as their self-image will let them go. If our minds are filled with thoughts of inferiority we will act accordingly and never believe for the big and best things in life. What does your self-portrait look like? In reality, the ultimate victory of our lives won’t depend on how big and great God is. There’s no question about how big God is. There’s no question about how much power He has and what He’s able to do. The ultimate victory of our lives will depend on how much of God’s power and ability we will allow to work in us. Remember, as a man thinketh, so is he. Proverbs 23:7. When you think of yourself, do you see an image of a beaten down rumpled person trying to hang on, or do you see yourself as God sees you?
Let me give you a snap- shot of how God looks at us. In 2 Corinthians 2:14 we see God's portrait of us; “Now thanks be unto God who always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh the savior of his knowledge by us in every place, for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ.” God sees us ALWAYS TRIUMPHING.
Many people wrongly think God’s going to do it all, but He wants to do it through us. Think of this like this;--“without God we can’t and without us He won’t.” If we think God by divine fiat, will do everything for us, we’ll be sorely disappointed. The truth is, God will do His part but He expects us to do our part.
I heard about a man (whether it’s true or not, it makes a good point) who went into a church and prayed one day, asking God to please let him win the lottery. Every day he’d go into the church get down on his knees and beg God to give him a break and let him win the lottery. He did this each day for a week and at the end of the week as he prayed he hear God say, “would you please give me a break and go buy a lottery ticket.”
We must put forth the effort through reading; studying, prayer and meditation, to daily cultivate a renewal of our mind, keeping out the wrong thought patterns. As an example, take a person with lung cancer. What good would it do if God healed the person and they kept right on being the Marlboro Man, and continued to smoke? Cancer would still have an inroad into that life through the tobacco. No change of any kind will work for us unless we make a decision to change our mind-set, actions and habits. Let’s say a person is depressed and God worked a miracle and lifted the mental depression. If that person refused to meditate on God’s word, didn’t guard their thought life and allowed themselves to get spiritually and physically run-down, more than likely they’d go right back into a depressed condition. That’s what Romans 12 is all about; a renewal of our thinking. It’s really surprising how practical God is isn’t it?
WRONG IDEAS ABOUT PRAYER
Maybe, without realizing it you’ve let a wrong fixed idea get established about prayer. Some people have the idea that prayer is “doing penance.” If they want God to hear them they must utter so many “Hail Mary’s.” Somehow, they feel, if they expect God to hear them they must spend enough time in prayer that God will see they really love him. Some religions ritualistically turn their faces toward a certain place and make sure they do it five or six times a day. The truth is; God isn’t looking for us to pray for long stretches to prove our love for him. A better & more scriptural way to prove we love God would be to love one another. Our prayers needn’t be long drawn out drudgery, thinking it will get God’s attention.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:7, When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
If you have that idea fixed in our heads, you need to reprogram your mind with Gods thoughts, revealed in His word, so you can move on to a deeper, fuller prayer life. You may even have allowed yourself to think that fasting and starving yourself will remove guilt and make you feel more accepted and loved by God. The Bible teaches us the only thing that will remove guilt is the blood of Jesus Christ. Fasting has its place, and some stubborn things will only respond to fasting and prayer but we can’t get God’s approval and absolve guilt in that way. True prayer springs out of our relationship with God. I don’t spend time with my wife each day to keep from feeling guilty or to show her and others I’m a good husband. I spend time with her because she’s my wife and we have a close relationship. The same would be true in our prayer time with God.
OLD MYTHS CAN STILL PLAGUE OUR THINKING.
I heard that one little boy said; “a myth is a female moth.” We can get all sorts of wrong ideas. I often hear folk say, “God helps those who help themselves.” That sounds good but it’s a myth, and not scriptural. What about people who can’t help themselves? There are millions of people like that in the world. God expects us to do all we can and then he’ll step in and do the rest as we believe him. God “helpeth our infirmities”, which means that often He asks us to pick up one end of the log and he’ll lift the other.
What good does it do us if we cram great spiritual ideas and truths into our minds on top of old wrong, mythical, fixed ideas? I’m not being critical, but rather encouraging us to truly think Biblical and constantly renew our minds with God’s Word.
SOME HAVE WRONG FIXED IDEA’S ABOUT MONEY.
Many people don’t like to think about money and consequently don’t plan ahead. Many people reach retirement with nothing but what the government gives them. They think that when they get older, something magical will happen to supply their financial needs. Some have even allowed the fact that Jesus is coming soon to keep them from properly preparing and planning for their later years. Jesus never told us to be preoccupied with his coming, but to occupy till He comes, there’s a big difference. These folk soon see they were wrong, but by that time it’s too late to do them much good.
Some men even harbor mythical ideas about how much money they should earn. Their fathers only earned so much so they should only earn about that much. I heard about a man who went to his dad and showed him his first pay check as an insurance agent and his dad broke down and started to cry because it was so much more than he’d ever made. The grown son determined to never again make more money than his dad made. I think you’ll agree this is a serious problem but there are people who think this way. They settle for mediocrity rather than think big because they have been so ridiculed for wanting bigger things than their parents had. Such is the power of fixed ideas. Some people only pray for their needs, never their wants. Others look at it differently; they need everything they want.
SOME PEOPLE FEAR FINANCIAL RESOURCES
My parents were wonderful people, and instilled in me some good spiritual as well as practical knowledge, but to be frank, they were funny about money. They really didn’t earn enough and save much for their old age. My dad was a Pastor and never had a large salary, but one of his problems was that he wouldn’t stand up for himself on money issues. I sometimes got the idea that my parents were afraid of money; for what reason I really don’t know. I remember when my dad pastored in Orlando, Florida in the 1950’s and I was just a teenager. He was being paid a percentage of the tithes and as the church grew, his income grew. Though it wasn’t that much, my mother would be so nervous about what they earned that on the day of the annual business meeting, when a report of the Pastors salary was read, she’d have to go to the doctor and get medication to calm her down. They really weren’t getting paid all that much, it was just a fixed idea she had that it was too much money.
Once they were given a raise by the church [their percentage was raised] and my mother refused to take it, and they stayed at the same percentage. Can you imagine that? A few months later, my father got sick and was put in the hospital. Their insurance didn’t pay the entire bill so my mother went to the church treasurer and asked if they could get a small loan from the church to help pay the hospital bill. The wonderful man who served that church for many years as treasurer, went to the church safe, and pulled out an envelope and handed it to my mother. He explained to her that when they had refused the raise the church offered them; he went ahead and put the money aside, knowing they’d probably need it someday. I can hardly imagine that as I look back, but it happened. I never really asked her about it but my mother must have been afraid of money. I’ve had to be very vigilant in my own life to make sure I wasn’t letting any of those old wrong ideas get fixed in my thinking. I’ve always believed in and preached tithing and giving in all sorts of ways, but I also believe that the best way to help the poor is to not become one of them. Some people, like my parents, seem to think that money is dangerous and evil and if you’re not careful it will corrupt you. There’s an element of truth to that but by the same token, the Bible doesn’t teach that money is evil, just the love of it.
Some fear that a lot of money will somehow get them into trouble. As Christians, that’s an uncalled for response. Though it may have been that way in the past, we are now King’s kids and we have the wisdom and integrity to be proper stewards over our resources. It’s true that if you gave some people one million dollars they’d soon be over their heads because of poor management. They’d fail to pay their taxes and soon would be in trouble with the I.R.S. Also, disagreement about how money is spent is the number one cause of divorce, so obviously it can cause problems, but again, it goes back to wrong concepts about money.
MONEY GIVES YOU A VOICE.
In Ecce. 9: 14-15 theres an interesting little story about a wise but poor man who saved a little city from its enemy but because he was poor the people didn’t respect or remember him. In other words, because he himself wasn’t prosperous, the people discounted him. What’s interesting is that the same principle holds true to this day. If a person is poor, they have no voice nor are they really considered very much. A modern day twist on that same idea is that people say nowadays, “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you financially successful.” To bring balance to the question, I think we could correctly say that while money doesn’t insure that a person is spiritual or upstanding, if we are to be viable in our society, the principles of Biblical prosperity should be visible and working in our lives. You can ask any of the minorities and they’ll tell you it’s true. No finances, no voice. The story isn’t saying that the poor are worthless in God’s eyes, but have a difficult time getting their story heard. Pastors and missionaries have lived with that reality for years; if there’s no money, the work will not be done nor the Gospel preached. God wants money to come into our hands and He also wants us to have the right attitude toward it.
Another wrong way of thinking about money would be hoarding it & ignoring the needs of others, and the work of God.
A SCARCITY MENTALITY IS WRONG THINKING.
Some people have developed the idea that there is only so much wealth and not enough for everybody. Have you ever wondered why some people are jealous of those who move up in life and get new things? Most of the time it’s not that they just don’t want the other person to have what they acquire; it’s that they see only one big pie and if somebody gets a big piece of it, there’s less for them. This is wrong thinking. We should realize we all have our own pie and what someone else gets in no way detracts or diminishes what we may have if we position ourselves rightly. Again, it’s the limited thinking that gets in the way. Psalm 78:41 says when speaking of Israel, Yea they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. Let’s be sure we don’t do the same in our thinking.
If you took a pig and cleaned him all up and let him live in your house, we know that it wouldn’t be long until his old pig-ways would necessitate that you put him back outside. You’d have to change his nature to be able to coexist with a pig.
Obviously, you and I aren’t pigs, but still, we can’t really go where God wants to take us with our old nature and set patterns of wrong thinking. Again remember, For as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.
If we try to put spiritual ideas into a mind that hasn’t been renewed, we’ve got a confused situation, for the Bible says “the carnal mind cancels out spiritual thoughts and ideas.”
Let’s say a man wants to become a doctor, so he goes to medical school to prepare. He studies to cram medical jargon into his head and truly is good at reading, absorbing the material, and passing the tests. Because he does all the work and makes the grades, he finally gets his degree and his license to practice medicine. The only thing is, the man doesn’t really want to be a doctor, has no interest in good health and helping people obtain good health. He doesn’t buy into the idea that he must scrub and clean his hands after visiting each patient and won’t use a single modicum of care to follow up on his patients to see them through to health. He really has never bought into the truth that there are certain medical principle’s we all must follow in order to have optimum health. All he’s doing, although his head is full of doctor knowledge, is going through the charade pretending to be a true doctor. Would you want a man like that to be your physician? A man who doesn’t even believe what he’s doing is important and is only in it for the prestige and the financial rewards? He’s got all the head knowledge but after medical school he refuses to stay abreast and up to date on new medical findings. Maybe he even doubts the things he’s learned are true, and when nobodies looking, bends and breaks all the rules of ethics and good medicine. Even though he knew all the things he was supposed to know, he really wouldn’t be much good, would he?
This man never had a mind-changing experience that truly made a life time doctor out of him.
It’s the same thing with us as Christians in the realm of spiritual truth. We must not be Christians in name only. It’s important that we have been transformed and are so full of Christ, and then His way of thinking, that there’s no room for faulty superfluous, harmful ideas.
I have read that in order for a crab to continue to grow, they must occasionally throw off their old shell and grow and new ones. But the old shell represents the crabs home, security, and comfort. It’s risky for him to get rid of the old shell but if he doesn’t do it, he’ll cease to grow and finally die. God wants us to be crabby. Not in the sense that we’re cantankerous and hard to live with but in the sense that we, as the crab, are constantly growing and throwing off the non-productive “shells” that become irrelevant as we grow up in God.
Take a close look at your life and ask yourself if you are suffering because of limiting ideas that have taken root and have kept you from God’s best. Ideas that are like the crabs too small shell that he must throw off in order to insure his continued growth. There is a battle going on for our minds and if Satan can get a foothold there, he will shrink us, keep us small and can rob us of total victorious living.
Make a commitment today to return to God’s word, open your heart and mind and watch God lead you to new vista’s that are,
“EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY MORE THAN YOU COULD ASK OR THINK, ACCORDING TO THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN YOU.”
John
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