Quickaholic Christianity in a world of MCFaith in MCGod.
By John Stallings
The joke isn’t original with me but I’ve often said, I’d have been a Doctor but I didn’t have the patience. I don’t like to wait. I’ve left long lines because I got tired of waiting. I’ve stood by my microwave oven & patted my foot waiting for water to boil. I bought a computer & soon afterward, though it placed an information hi-way right at my fingertips, I decided it wasn’t fast enough, so we opted for high-speed.
Not only do we live in the fast lane, we want things instantaneously. Our great-grandparents used to wait a week for a train but we get upset if we miss one blade in a revolving door. Look at the T.V ads; “do you want to lose 30 pounds in 30 days?" “Would you like fabulous pecs or abs in 10 days?" Or, “visit our restaurant & if you’d not greeted with a smile in three minutes you get the meal free.”
Quick & easy, no fuss, muss & no bother, that’s what we want; instant potatoes, instant money, instant relief, quick fixes etc. We want our Doctors, lawyers & other professionals to have a magic wand. The order of the day is express marts, express credit & express isles. But one thing we don’t like is to face the fact that the speed at which we do things, in the final analysis affects the quality.
Unfortunately this impatience has invaded the church as well. Some people see God as a bubble-gum machine, -- in goes the penny & out comes the candy. Others see Him as a cosmic bellhop just waiting for us to ask for something, and then springing into action on our behalf. There are no express lanes with God. There is no “instant Christian growth.” There are no “religious shortcuts” nor “push button answers.”
Beware of religious charlatans who talk of “creating your own reality,” “exalting self to the level of the divine.” When “ministers” talk like that, they’ve marched off the spiritual map. “Ten easy steps” if it’s mentioned in the same sentence with solving spiritual problems should be just as suspect as “ten easy payments.” There may be two easy ones, the first & the last, but there are at least eight hard ones in there.
BE READY TO WAIT ON THE LORD.
One thing people forget about God is that He isn’t a time dweller. And since He doesn’t dwell in time He doesn’t see things as we do. We are like the boy watching the parade through a knot-hole in the fence. He can only see a patch here & there. But when his father pulls him up & lets him sit on the fence, he can look one way & see the end of the parade then look the other way & see the beginning.
God “sits on the circle of the earth” so He sees history as it marches by as a parade.
Noah waited for the waters to recede.
Daniel waited in a den of Lions—all night.
Sarah waited for a child in her barrenness.
Jacob waited for Rebecca’s hand 14 years.
Joseph waited in jail 13 years plus a couple of decades to reunite with his family.
The people of Israel waited in captivity 450 years then 40 years in the wilderness.
Jonah waited in a fish’s belly.
Mary waited for the baby Jesus.
Simeon waited to see the Messiah, and then he could die.
Paul wrote beautiful letters as he waited in prison, time & again.
Scripture is full of waiting.
PS.25:5—For thee I wait all the day long.
PS.130:6----My soul waits for the Lord.
Hosea 12:6—Wait continually for your God.
Romans 8:25—If we wait for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
The Bridesmaids—5 had extra oil for their lamps—5 had no plan to wait so they missed the Bridegroom.
To sum it up, waiting is one of the hardest things God sometimes puts us through. He teaches us patience; trust in Him, & perseverance through even the toughest trials. Jesus is our anchor & promises to keep us even in the strongest storms. When your trial comes, cry out to God. It may seem He’s gone to Key West & forgotten your cell-phone number but when we pray, He hears.
Psalm 34:15 declares that-- His ears are attentive to the cries of His people & His eyes are on the righteous.
Isaiah 30:19 declares--…..when He hears from heaven, the answers on the way.
Isaiah 57:15 says---…..“I live in a high & holy place but also with him who is contrite & lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly & to revive the heart of the contrite.”
When you’ve done your part, be still, be quite, trust Him, He’s never failed. Trust Him with your life like you trust Him with your soul.
John
Friday, April 27, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Myths about God
By John Stallings
I hope this blog doesn’t cause anyone to pull a theological hammy but there are some myths about God that are fairly well entrenched. I’d like to share a few with you and do a little debunking. What we have here is just a little food for thought. The first myth that is widely believed is;
1. “God is a gentleman.”
This one is almost funny. First of all, God isn’t a man, and He's certainly not a gentleman. Before you pull your bottom lip over your head, hear me out. Isaiah told us that God’s ways aren’t our ways. I won’t belabor this point but even a cursory reading of God’s word reveals God doing things like giving King Saul orders to totally wipe out a people called the Amalakites. Saul, thinking like you & I think occasionally, felt it was, to say the least a little unreasonable if not downright unthinkable; so he interjected human reasoning into it. He thought it would be nice to take their King & put a collar and chain on him and lead him around like a pet. He’d have himself a “King-on-a-string.” Also he’d save the best livestock because it didn’t seem reasonable to him to carry out God’s orders and kill perfectly good animals.
The Amalikites had been causing trouble for 500 years. They had harassed Israel since they first came to the Holy Land. God finally saw they were incorrigibles so He ordered their extinction. Here we encounter a seemingly vengeful, capricious, cruel and ruthless God. He is of all things demanding the annihilation of a whole group of people. This of course was a bloody proposition.
Let’s be honest. What Saul couldn’t see is what we often can’t see and that is that God’s judgment is always an act of mercy. Down deep, we have a desire for a comfortable, domesticated, housebroken and manageable God. Unfortunately you can search the pages of the Bible and you won’t find a God like that. God is a wholly, Holy God. If we ever wonder what God thinks about sin all we have to do is look at Golgotha’s chalky brow and see Jesus hanging on the cross to satisfy the justice of this Holy, sin-hating God.
I spoke to a man recently who informed me that he believed in heaven but not in hell. He was a strong believer in Christ’s death on the cross to redeem all mankind. My message to him was that Calvary and a belief in hell were a package deal-- really a tandem issue. He didn’t understand. I went on to share with him that Calvary makes no sense without being coupled with the reality of a literal burning hell. To be candid, Calvary would have been a cosmic joke if it weren’t for the fact that Jesus died to save us from something terrible. If we think about that for a little bit, we’ll see it. Christ left us enough great teaching to save a thousand worlds but that alone wasn’t enough. His substitutionary death at Calvary is the thing that paid mankind’s sin debt in full and broke down the middle wall of partition between God and man.
Saul’s lack of complete obedience to God brought about his unwillingness to deal with God’s enemies in the way God commanded him to do it in 1 Sam.15. But we only have to read to the thirtieth chapter to see the surviving Amalikites were running amuck all over Israel wreaking havoc. They even attacked and burned David’s home town of Ziclag & took his wife and family hostage. Obviously God knew what He was doing. Here’s another myth;
2. “God wants all things done “decently and in order.”
This scriptural nugget of truth is usually used in regards to spiritual worship. But the question arises here; who decides what “decently and in order” is? I have been invited to homes to eat and the table set before us was fit for a king. They brought out grannies China and really did it up in grand fashion. Now you could tell by the very demeanor of these good folk that this was their version of “in order.”
However I’ve been in other homes where there were six or eight children. We all gathered around a big table and dipped spaghetti & meat sauce out of humongous bowls. By the time all that gang had gotten through eating there was spaghetti on the floor, the walls and believe it or not, I’ve seen food stains on ceilings. I never asked because I really didn’t want to think about how it got there. The parents never changed the expression on their faces while this was happening and you could easily see they were doing business as usual. This to them was “in order” & what mattered was that everyone was getting fed. I should be ashamed to say it I guess but somehow I’m totally at home & relaxed in a setting like this and no, I wasn’t raised by wolves.
Sometimes people will be critical of a worship service & feel if the people make a noise, say amen, or don’t sit like they’re petrified, they aren’t “in order.” Or others who like a more relaxed church may go into a church where the people sit quietly, & be irritated because the people aren’t livelier. I have a feeling that in God’s sight there’s plenty of room for diversity in worship & we need not be too concerned about offending Him if our hearts are right. Some people say, “You don’t have to yell, God’s not deaf.” That’s very true & He’s not nervous either. Some preachers talk in a conversational tone & some are loud but really all that amounts to is preaching style. Many times we get hung-up on style when the main thing is the message. Another myth about God is;
3. “God won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”
This one is sort of funny to me too, & anyone who’d think that obviously hasn’t read their Bible. I read that King Nebuchadnezzar was sent out into the fields to graze for seven years. If you read Isaiah chapter 20 you’ll see that God told Isaiah to strip down & get totally naked & go into the streets & preach for three years. Can you imagine him eating a nice breakfast & as soon as he was finished he began pulling off his robe or whatever he wore? He wife asked what he was doing & he answered “I’m getting ready to go to work.”
The New Testament Saul, later to become Paul didn’t exactly volunteer to be smitten down on the Damascus turnpike, blinded & taken to a house in Damascus to wait for God’s orders. God invaded his world in what has to be the greatest conversion in the history of Christianity. Saul of course became willing but at first I’m sure he thought God was about to kill him. Jonah is another example of a man who had to be made willing to take the preaching assignment God had mapped out for him. It took Whale University to straighten him out.
I understand the idea behind this myth. We realize that Jesus stands at our hearts door & knocks, waiting for us to open our lives to Him, & again that’s certainly scriptural. But we shouldn’t push it too far & allow ourselves to buy into a totally erroneous concept of the God we serve. While He has blessed us with free moral agency, He loves us enough to move sovereignly in our lives at any time He chooses. Another myth is;
4. “God won’t contradict common sense.”
Really? To disprove this one we can look at any number of examples in God’s Word. When Jesus spat on blind people eyes, or made a mud paddy & mashed it on their eyes & told them to go wash, was that common sense? I don’t think so. When God told Naaman through his prophet Elisha to go dip seven times in the muddy river Jordon, was that common sense? When God told Hosea to go marry a prostitute was that common sense? I don’t think so. The last myth I’ll deal with is;
5. “God has no sense of humor, He never laughs.”
We’re told in Proverbs 1:26 that someday God will laugh at the calamity that comes upon those who disobey Him.
Listen to the Amplified Bible—Psalm 2:1-4, --"Why do the nations assemble with commotion, uproar & confusion of voices, & why do the people imagine, meditate upon & devise an empty scheme? The kings of the earth take their places; the rulers take council together against the Lord & His Anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ. They say, Let us break their bands of restraint asunder & cast their cords of control from us.
He who sits in the heavens LAUGHS; the Lord has them in derision & in supreme contempt He mocks them."
Some people will tell you that God is a Marquis De God, mean & harsh who delights in inflicting pain on us. Others will tell you that He is a hum-bug, a fraud, not the all-powerful all knowing deity we see in the Bible. Some say God is a sugar-n-spice-n-everything nice “little miss sunshine” God.
Between the pages of the Bible we meet the true & living God, not a mythical God of human mental creation. But a God who provides for His people & teaches them His ways.
Listen to Isaiah 55:6---"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways."
As we look into the future, one thing is certain, you and I need to get to know God better because knowing Him is foundational to everything else in life.
For- until we know Him we haven’t begun to live.
John
By John Stallings
I hope this blog doesn’t cause anyone to pull a theological hammy but there are some myths about God that are fairly well entrenched. I’d like to share a few with you and do a little debunking. What we have here is just a little food for thought. The first myth that is widely believed is;
1. “God is a gentleman.”
This one is almost funny. First of all, God isn’t a man, and He's certainly not a gentleman. Before you pull your bottom lip over your head, hear me out. Isaiah told us that God’s ways aren’t our ways. I won’t belabor this point but even a cursory reading of God’s word reveals God doing things like giving King Saul orders to totally wipe out a people called the Amalakites. Saul, thinking like you & I think occasionally, felt it was, to say the least a little unreasonable if not downright unthinkable; so he interjected human reasoning into it. He thought it would be nice to take their King & put a collar and chain on him and lead him around like a pet. He’d have himself a “King-on-a-string.” Also he’d save the best livestock because it didn’t seem reasonable to him to carry out God’s orders and kill perfectly good animals.
The Amalikites had been causing trouble for 500 years. They had harassed Israel since they first came to the Holy Land. God finally saw they were incorrigibles so He ordered their extinction. Here we encounter a seemingly vengeful, capricious, cruel and ruthless God. He is of all things demanding the annihilation of a whole group of people. This of course was a bloody proposition.
Let’s be honest. What Saul couldn’t see is what we often can’t see and that is that God’s judgment is always an act of mercy. Down deep, we have a desire for a comfortable, domesticated, housebroken and manageable God. Unfortunately you can search the pages of the Bible and you won’t find a God like that. God is a wholly, Holy God. If we ever wonder what God thinks about sin all we have to do is look at Golgotha’s chalky brow and see Jesus hanging on the cross to satisfy the justice of this Holy, sin-hating God.
I spoke to a man recently who informed me that he believed in heaven but not in hell. He was a strong believer in Christ’s death on the cross to redeem all mankind. My message to him was that Calvary and a belief in hell were a package deal-- really a tandem issue. He didn’t understand. I went on to share with him that Calvary makes no sense without being coupled with the reality of a literal burning hell. To be candid, Calvary would have been a cosmic joke if it weren’t for the fact that Jesus died to save us from something terrible. If we think about that for a little bit, we’ll see it. Christ left us enough great teaching to save a thousand worlds but that alone wasn’t enough. His substitutionary death at Calvary is the thing that paid mankind’s sin debt in full and broke down the middle wall of partition between God and man.
Saul’s lack of complete obedience to God brought about his unwillingness to deal with God’s enemies in the way God commanded him to do it in 1 Sam.15. But we only have to read to the thirtieth chapter to see the surviving Amalikites were running amuck all over Israel wreaking havoc. They even attacked and burned David’s home town of Ziclag & took his wife and family hostage. Obviously God knew what He was doing. Here’s another myth;
2. “God wants all things done “decently and in order.”
This scriptural nugget of truth is usually used in regards to spiritual worship. But the question arises here; who decides what “decently and in order” is? I have been invited to homes to eat and the table set before us was fit for a king. They brought out grannies China and really did it up in grand fashion. Now you could tell by the very demeanor of these good folk that this was their version of “in order.”
However I’ve been in other homes where there were six or eight children. We all gathered around a big table and dipped spaghetti & meat sauce out of humongous bowls. By the time all that gang had gotten through eating there was spaghetti on the floor, the walls and believe it or not, I’ve seen food stains on ceilings. I never asked because I really didn’t want to think about how it got there. The parents never changed the expression on their faces while this was happening and you could easily see they were doing business as usual. This to them was “in order” & what mattered was that everyone was getting fed. I should be ashamed to say it I guess but somehow I’m totally at home & relaxed in a setting like this and no, I wasn’t raised by wolves.
Sometimes people will be critical of a worship service & feel if the people make a noise, say amen, or don’t sit like they’re petrified, they aren’t “in order.” Or others who like a more relaxed church may go into a church where the people sit quietly, & be irritated because the people aren’t livelier. I have a feeling that in God’s sight there’s plenty of room for diversity in worship & we need not be too concerned about offending Him if our hearts are right. Some people say, “You don’t have to yell, God’s not deaf.” That’s very true & He’s not nervous either. Some preachers talk in a conversational tone & some are loud but really all that amounts to is preaching style. Many times we get hung-up on style when the main thing is the message. Another myth about God is;
3. “God won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”
This one is sort of funny to me too, & anyone who’d think that obviously hasn’t read their Bible. I read that King Nebuchadnezzar was sent out into the fields to graze for seven years. If you read Isaiah chapter 20 you’ll see that God told Isaiah to strip down & get totally naked & go into the streets & preach for three years. Can you imagine him eating a nice breakfast & as soon as he was finished he began pulling off his robe or whatever he wore? He wife asked what he was doing & he answered “I’m getting ready to go to work.”
The New Testament Saul, later to become Paul didn’t exactly volunteer to be smitten down on the Damascus turnpike, blinded & taken to a house in Damascus to wait for God’s orders. God invaded his world in what has to be the greatest conversion in the history of Christianity. Saul of course became willing but at first I’m sure he thought God was about to kill him. Jonah is another example of a man who had to be made willing to take the preaching assignment God had mapped out for him. It took Whale University to straighten him out.
I understand the idea behind this myth. We realize that Jesus stands at our hearts door & knocks, waiting for us to open our lives to Him, & again that’s certainly scriptural. But we shouldn’t push it too far & allow ourselves to buy into a totally erroneous concept of the God we serve. While He has blessed us with free moral agency, He loves us enough to move sovereignly in our lives at any time He chooses. Another myth is;
4. “God won’t contradict common sense.”
Really? To disprove this one we can look at any number of examples in God’s Word. When Jesus spat on blind people eyes, or made a mud paddy & mashed it on their eyes & told them to go wash, was that common sense? I don’t think so. When God told Naaman through his prophet Elisha to go dip seven times in the muddy river Jordon, was that common sense? When God told Hosea to go marry a prostitute was that common sense? I don’t think so. The last myth I’ll deal with is;
5. “God has no sense of humor, He never laughs.”
We’re told in Proverbs 1:26 that someday God will laugh at the calamity that comes upon those who disobey Him.
Listen to the Amplified Bible—Psalm 2:1-4, --"Why do the nations assemble with commotion, uproar & confusion of voices, & why do the people imagine, meditate upon & devise an empty scheme? The kings of the earth take their places; the rulers take council together against the Lord & His Anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ. They say, Let us break their bands of restraint asunder & cast their cords of control from us.
He who sits in the heavens LAUGHS; the Lord has them in derision & in supreme contempt He mocks them."
Some people will tell you that God is a Marquis De God, mean & harsh who delights in inflicting pain on us. Others will tell you that He is a hum-bug, a fraud, not the all-powerful all knowing deity we see in the Bible. Some say God is a sugar-n-spice-n-everything nice “little miss sunshine” God.
Between the pages of the Bible we meet the true & living God, not a mythical God of human mental creation. But a God who provides for His people & teaches them His ways.
Listen to Isaiah 55:6---"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways."
As we look into the future, one thing is certain, you and I need to get to know God better because knowing Him is foundational to everything else in life.
For- until we know Him we haven’t begun to live.
John
Saturday, April 21, 2007
IS THE FIGHT BEING BRED OUT OF AMERICANS?
By John Stallings
I have read that there are schools in the U.S who punish kids who try to defend themselves when they’re attacked by other students. They are simply told they’re as much of the problem as the attacker, and punished accordingly. I don’t know exactly what the kid is supposed to do in such a case but I assume they are to call for help. My first thought is—lots-o-luck! I personally have never felt that anyone wins a street fight but that’s a far cry from removing a person’s option if not their right to self defense.
I don’t believe there’s a person in this country who agonizes more over the blood spilt in the Iraq war or for that matter any war, than I. By nature I don’t like fights of any kind but by the same token it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that when a people refuse to fight for their rights they inevitably lose them.
Can it be true that the welfare mentality in this country is breeding into us the idea that the Government is supposed to take care of us & if they don’t or can’t then it’s just too bad? The obvious answer is that the government can’t protect us & if we don’t take that responsibility, we’re probably at some point going to be in trouble. Before you judge me and say “well brother, have faith, the Lord will take care of us,” understand that I believe that too, & have lived a lifetime under His divine protection. However there’s a difference in faith and presumption. God thought enough of our brain to wrap a skull around it and He expects us to use it.
Further, Christianity isn’t a pacifist’s religion & we learn by reading God’s Word that sometimes we’re expected to fight. When Peter cut off Malcus’s ear, Jesus put the man’s ear back on but He didn’t take Peter’s sword away from him. Sometimes when Jesus sent the Disciples out He told them to take a sword.
This week the Senate’s Majority leader Harry Reid raised the white flag and told the world that America has lost the war in Iraq & that we don’t have the capability of defeating the terrorists. His exact words were,” The war is lost; the troop surge is not accomplishing anything.” Don’t you just know that Osama broke into a big wide grin when he heard that? Can’t you just hear them saying, “hang on boys, it’s just a matter of time here in Iraq and we can get on with our work in dismantling their homeland.” Does the word ignoramus come to anyone’s mind?
Mr. Reid is helping to assure that our soldiers lose by dragging his feet on sufficiently funding the war. Is this upsetting anyone? No wonder Solomon said “Wisdom is the principle thing.” Where has wisdom gone these days? How hard would it have been for these people to have taken another tack and said, “We don’t agree on everything but we aren’t going to let our boys and girls lose this war? We will fight this thing like we’d fight cancer. Wherever it goes we’ll go get it and burn every vestige of it out of existence.” That’s the way doctors fight cancer & that’s the only way to fight terrorists. Period.
I don’t know what the outcome of this war will be. But I do know this; if Reid and company force us out of Iraq, if we don’t finish the fight, America’s defeat will be assured. Am I only pointing out the obvious when I say that the defeatists in Washington will have to bear the blame?
But what will that kind of conduct portend for us in future confrontations with crazy world leaders who want to bluff and bully us? What if we are blackmailed by a country threatening to blow New York or L.A off the map if we don’t give in to their demands? Will our leaders be so “shell-shocked” and convinced that Americans don’t want any kind of confrontation that they will just surrender our national sovereignty rather than be destroyed?
Has the fight been effectively bred out of us? If I didn’t turn that over to God I wouldn’t be sleeping much these nights. I’m sleeping very well.
John
By John Stallings
I have read that there are schools in the U.S who punish kids who try to defend themselves when they’re attacked by other students. They are simply told they’re as much of the problem as the attacker, and punished accordingly. I don’t know exactly what the kid is supposed to do in such a case but I assume they are to call for help. My first thought is—lots-o-luck! I personally have never felt that anyone wins a street fight but that’s a far cry from removing a person’s option if not their right to self defense.
I don’t believe there’s a person in this country who agonizes more over the blood spilt in the Iraq war or for that matter any war, than I. By nature I don’t like fights of any kind but by the same token it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that when a people refuse to fight for their rights they inevitably lose them.
Can it be true that the welfare mentality in this country is breeding into us the idea that the Government is supposed to take care of us & if they don’t or can’t then it’s just too bad? The obvious answer is that the government can’t protect us & if we don’t take that responsibility, we’re probably at some point going to be in trouble. Before you judge me and say “well brother, have faith, the Lord will take care of us,” understand that I believe that too, & have lived a lifetime under His divine protection. However there’s a difference in faith and presumption. God thought enough of our brain to wrap a skull around it and He expects us to use it.
Further, Christianity isn’t a pacifist’s religion & we learn by reading God’s Word that sometimes we’re expected to fight. When Peter cut off Malcus’s ear, Jesus put the man’s ear back on but He didn’t take Peter’s sword away from him. Sometimes when Jesus sent the Disciples out He told them to take a sword.
This week the Senate’s Majority leader Harry Reid raised the white flag and told the world that America has lost the war in Iraq & that we don’t have the capability of defeating the terrorists. His exact words were,” The war is lost; the troop surge is not accomplishing anything.” Don’t you just know that Osama broke into a big wide grin when he heard that? Can’t you just hear them saying, “hang on boys, it’s just a matter of time here in Iraq and we can get on with our work in dismantling their homeland.” Does the word ignoramus come to anyone’s mind?
Mr. Reid is helping to assure that our soldiers lose by dragging his feet on sufficiently funding the war. Is this upsetting anyone? No wonder Solomon said “Wisdom is the principle thing.” Where has wisdom gone these days? How hard would it have been for these people to have taken another tack and said, “We don’t agree on everything but we aren’t going to let our boys and girls lose this war? We will fight this thing like we’d fight cancer. Wherever it goes we’ll go get it and burn every vestige of it out of existence.” That’s the way doctors fight cancer & that’s the only way to fight terrorists. Period.
I don’t know what the outcome of this war will be. But I do know this; if Reid and company force us out of Iraq, if we don’t finish the fight, America’s defeat will be assured. Am I only pointing out the obvious when I say that the defeatists in Washington will have to bear the blame?
But what will that kind of conduct portend for us in future confrontations with crazy world leaders who want to bluff and bully us? What if we are blackmailed by a country threatening to blow New York or L.A off the map if we don’t give in to their demands? Will our leaders be so “shell-shocked” and convinced that Americans don’t want any kind of confrontation that they will just surrender our national sovereignty rather than be destroyed?
Has the fight been effectively bred out of us? If I didn’t turn that over to God I wouldn’t be sleeping much these nights. I’m sleeping very well.
John
Friday, April 20, 2007
BEWARE THE EVENING WOLVES
By John Stallings
Habakkuk 1:8 speaks of “The fierce evening wolves.” A little research on the subject reveals that these evening wolves of Habakkuk’s day would come out when the shades of night began to fall & devour unwary prey. The evening was a time when animals & even human beings would be weary from the toil of the long day in the burning Sun & looking for a little rest in the cool of the evening.
Habakkuk was using the wolves as an analogy of the enemies of his people & how they would swoop in at the most inopportune moments to attack; a moment when the people were least expecting problems.
Likewise we fight an enemy who attacks our minds & emotions at the worst possible times. Times when we are the most exhausted, vulnerable & discouraged & much less likely to put up a fight.
The other day I was reading a very disquieting piece about discouraged pastors & other Christian workers who are quitting at the rate of 1,000 every month in the U.S. They opt out. 50% of those who finish Seminary leave the ministry within five years after graduation. …..50% of planted churches don’t survive the first few years…50-70% of clergy spouses work outside the home…33% of all pastors have been fired at least one time…The average church in the U.S. has 90 people or fewer in attendance…Pastors spend up to 40% of their time dealing with “negatives”….51% of churches in the U.S. have had a major conflict that has hurt attendance…Seven people or less in a church can cause a major disharmony & it only takes a week of contention to destroy a decade of church contentment.”
One thing that surprised me was a good percentage of men who leave the ministry become Funeral Directors. But then again as I write these words it doesn’t surprise me that much & I could even think of a funny line or two but will resist the temptation to write them.
I’m not going to try to draw a lot of conclusions about the aforementioned but will let you draw your own. I have tasted the bitter & the sweet in over fifty years of ministry & can attest to the fact that “sheep bite.”
We might even draw the conclusion that many who leave the ministry were never truly called. Others I’m sure were called but lacked the faith to continue, not understanding that when God calls he’ll make it happen.
Maybe you aren’t in the ministry but can understand what “the evening wolves” are all about because you’ve been attacked by them & have been tempted to give up on your dream. We tend to look at all our shortcomings which are very real, but we must look to the Lord who has said in many ways & places in Scripture: “I am the Lord & the word which I speak will come to pass.” Ezekiel 12:25
It’s when we’re tired & hurting that the wolves will come. After all that’s what they do—attack in “the evening.” If we’re not careful we’ll tend to be like the two disciples who walked the road to Emmaus & “had trusted” & “had hoped” that Jesus would redeem Israel. (Luke 24:21) But Jesus showed up & walked with them that day & that’s what He’ll do for us to show that when all seems lost, He’ll see us through.
Joseph had a dream & when they threw him into a pit the dream went with him. He was put in prison but the dream went with him. It seemed all was lost but in retrospect we know it wasn’t. Really, nothing was lost over the thirteen years Joseph was imprisoned because his dream was a God-thing. I’m sure the evening wolves came around during those years but Joseph kept his eyes on God which is what we must do.
Do you have a dream or do you know someone who does (maybe like your pastor?)
Don’t let the evening wolves destroy that dream. By that I mean, stop focusing on the problems. They may be real but so is God.
I wrote a song years ago that goes like this;
STOP DWELLING ON THE PROBLEM,
JUST REMEMBER WHO JESUS IS.
STOP DWELLING ON THE PROBLEM,
JUST REMEMBER WHAT JESUS DID.
YOU’LL NEVER BE REALLY FREE,
YOU’LL NEVER HAVE VICTORY,
TILL YOU- STOP DWELLING ON THE PROBLEM,
AND MAGNIFY THE LORD WITH ME.--------JAS.
By John Stallings
Habakkuk 1:8 speaks of “The fierce evening wolves.” A little research on the subject reveals that these evening wolves of Habakkuk’s day would come out when the shades of night began to fall & devour unwary prey. The evening was a time when animals & even human beings would be weary from the toil of the long day in the burning Sun & looking for a little rest in the cool of the evening.
Habakkuk was using the wolves as an analogy of the enemies of his people & how they would swoop in at the most inopportune moments to attack; a moment when the people were least expecting problems.
Likewise we fight an enemy who attacks our minds & emotions at the worst possible times. Times when we are the most exhausted, vulnerable & discouraged & much less likely to put up a fight.
The other day I was reading a very disquieting piece about discouraged pastors & other Christian workers who are quitting at the rate of 1,000 every month in the U.S. They opt out. 50% of those who finish Seminary leave the ministry within five years after graduation. …..50% of planted churches don’t survive the first few years…50-70% of clergy spouses work outside the home…33% of all pastors have been fired at least one time…The average church in the U.S. has 90 people or fewer in attendance…Pastors spend up to 40% of their time dealing with “negatives”….51% of churches in the U.S. have had a major conflict that has hurt attendance…Seven people or less in a church can cause a major disharmony & it only takes a week of contention to destroy a decade of church contentment.”
One thing that surprised me was a good percentage of men who leave the ministry become Funeral Directors. But then again as I write these words it doesn’t surprise me that much & I could even think of a funny line or two but will resist the temptation to write them.
I’m not going to try to draw a lot of conclusions about the aforementioned but will let you draw your own. I have tasted the bitter & the sweet in over fifty years of ministry & can attest to the fact that “sheep bite.”
We might even draw the conclusion that many who leave the ministry were never truly called. Others I’m sure were called but lacked the faith to continue, not understanding that when God calls he’ll make it happen.
Maybe you aren’t in the ministry but can understand what “the evening wolves” are all about because you’ve been attacked by them & have been tempted to give up on your dream. We tend to look at all our shortcomings which are very real, but we must look to the Lord who has said in many ways & places in Scripture: “I am the Lord & the word which I speak will come to pass.” Ezekiel 12:25
It’s when we’re tired & hurting that the wolves will come. After all that’s what they do—attack in “the evening.” If we’re not careful we’ll tend to be like the two disciples who walked the road to Emmaus & “had trusted” & “had hoped” that Jesus would redeem Israel. (Luke 24:21) But Jesus showed up & walked with them that day & that’s what He’ll do for us to show that when all seems lost, He’ll see us through.
Joseph had a dream & when they threw him into a pit the dream went with him. He was put in prison but the dream went with him. It seemed all was lost but in retrospect we know it wasn’t. Really, nothing was lost over the thirteen years Joseph was imprisoned because his dream was a God-thing. I’m sure the evening wolves came around during those years but Joseph kept his eyes on God which is what we must do.
Do you have a dream or do you know someone who does (maybe like your pastor?)
Don’t let the evening wolves destroy that dream. By that I mean, stop focusing on the problems. They may be real but so is God.
I wrote a song years ago that goes like this;
STOP DWELLING ON THE PROBLEM,
JUST REMEMBER WHO JESUS IS.
STOP DWELLING ON THE PROBLEM,
JUST REMEMBER WHAT JESUS DID.
YOU’LL NEVER BE REALLY FREE,
YOU’LL NEVER HAVE VICTORY,
TILL YOU- STOP DWELLING ON THE PROBLEM,
AND MAGNIFY THE LORD WITH ME.--------JAS.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
THE BLACKSBURG TRAGEDY
By John Stallings
It’s natural for us to have questions about tragedies such as what happened at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Tragedies have a way of stopping us in our tracks & jolting us out of complacency. When the tragedies are natural disasters even though they are devastating to us, we can get a grip because we realize we live on the face of a planet that by its very nature is volatile & unpredictable.
However when a tragedy like the one at Virginia Tech occurs & over thirty people are premeditatedly executed, we have a very different response. Now we are faced with the cold hard fact of how dangerous man is. Though it shocks & amazes people who look at things through spiritual eyes, it must be even more difficult for people who are uncomfortable with the fact that evil exists in this world. That brings things too close to home & forces us to focus on our nature as fallen beings. Now we’re talking about things in the spirit realm, like it or not & that makes the carnal man jumpy.
Good people disagree & in the weeks & months to come this tragedy will be examined & a hundred different conclusions will be reached. For some the big issue will be gun control.
Others will see the tragedy as an ethnicity problem, while others will view it as a class issue because part of the note the young man left spoke disparagingly of “the rich kids.” From what I glean he also had nothing good to say about the female gender. The answer to this dilemma will be missed by the media & sad to say much of the nation, because the true answer is the problem of hate fueled anger, fostered by sin in the human heart.
I don’t know the details of the young man's life who committed this horrible mass murder, nor many of the other details surrounding this horrendous tragedy so in lieu of a post-mortem on the situation, I’m going to suggest a few broad lessons we can take from this & other tragedies that occur.
· TRAGEDY REMINDS US OF THE FRAGILE GRIP WE HAVE ON LIFE
In another century an American man by the name of Horatio Spafford was invited with his family to join D.L Moody & his singer Ira Sankey in several crusades in Europe. He sent his wife & four daughters ahead on a ship planning to join them in two weeks. Their ship never made it but collided with an English sailing ship & sank in 20 minutes. Spafford’s wife Anna was able to save herself but her four girls drowned & she was forced to send her husband a telegraph saying “Saved alone.”
Spafford boarded the next available ship to be near his grieving wife. When the ship passed near the spot where his daughters died, Spafford penned these precious words:
WHEN PEACE LIKE A RIVER ATTENDETH MY WAY,
WHEN SORROWS LIKE SEA BILLOWS ROLL,
WHAT EVER MY LOT, THOU HAST TAUGHT ME TO SAY,
IT IS WELL , IT IS WELL, WITH MY SOUL.
Every one of us has been impacted by tragedy to some degree whether it is illness, death or any of the thousands of things that can touch humanity. These things serve to remind us just how fragile & fleeting our lives are, but we should always remember that Jesus is more than adequate to take care of any & every situation we may face.
James 4:14 says, “Whereas, ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life”? It is even as a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
I spoke to a young man one time about accepting Christ & he informed me that he planned to do so someday but not now. When I pressed him with the fact that life is fragile, he told me that the people in his family lived into their eighties & since he was in his early twenties, he was sixty years from eternity. I explained to this young man that isn’t the way things really work. Eternity is a line that is drawn a few inches from where we stand. We all can step over the line at any moment, at any age. People cross into eternity as babies, as teenagers as well as in middle age & extreme old- age.
All it takes to cross the line into eternity is to have an accident, or sudden death to come, & it can come in a thousand different ways.
· Methuselah lived 969 years, but he died.
· Noah lived 950 years but he died.
· Moses lived to be 120 years old, but he died.
· Joseph lived to 110 years old but he died.
· Jesus lived to the age of 33 but he died. He was raised after the third day.
· John F. Kennedy, a powerful president, handsome & wealthy, died at 47.
· Bobby Kennedy, Americas Attorney General, died at 42.
· Elvis Presley, one of the most beloved entertainers on earth died at 42.
· A few years ago a man wrote a book entitled “How to live to be 100. He died at 69, not making it three-fourths of the way.
· Comedians Bob Hope & George Burns lived to be 100 & died a few weeks later.
· One of the oldest persons in America recently died in her sleep at 115.
· The rich, the poor, the young the old, the famous & the unknown, the educated the uneducated, the sinful, the righteous, they all die.
Hebrews 9:27 says “And it is appointed unto man once to die & after this the judgment.
· TRAGEDY REMINDS US WE LIVE IN A WORLD THROWN OUT OF ALIGNMENT BY SIN.
Our world is tragedy & accident prone. The fact is that we live in a fallen, spoiled world. Paul reminds us that even natural disasters while they aren’t the direct result of sin, they are caused by the presence of sin in the world & further explains that the earth is in bondage to decay.
Listen to Romans 8:22, For we know that the whole creation groaneth & travaileth in pain together until now.
Ours is a fractured ecosystem & disasters are a reminder of the imbalance brought into the world by sin.
Thank God, our world has retained much of its natural beauty, but still it has been deformed & distorted by sin. When Adam & Eve sinned, they opened the flood gates to allow sin in the world & they weren’t the only ones changed; the natural world was also changed.
God created a perfect world in harmony with His will, to be inhabited by perfect people to live in harmony with Him, but when men & women chose to reject God’s authority over their lives, disaster struck & we’ve lived with the cataclysmic consequences ever since.
· SIN HAS SHIFTED THE NATURAL WORLD OFF BALANCE.
Even more important, humanity’s relationship with God was affected & we stand at odds with God. Now we all have death in our future & that’s why, as Jesus said,
… Unless ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.
· TRAGEDY REMINDS US THAT MOTHER NATURE ISN’T AS DANGEROUS AS HUMAN NATURE.
When we saw the pillaging & looting of New Orleans after the fact of the storm, we realized that the human element was going to be as destructive, or more so, than Katrina.
When these terrible things happen like the Virginia Tech tragedy & on other college campuses, we have to stop & remember that every vestige of God has been evicted from our American educational system. The religion of our day, if you look at what’s taught in the public schools, is SECULAR HUMANISM. A word like Humanism sounds good; like a plus for humanity. However when you study it, you find the concept totally leaves God out, & replaces man as his own God.
For example, Humanism teaches that a child is born a blank slate. A child is born absolutely without an agenda, waiting for those who raise the child to “make marks” on their slate.
The Bible, however, teaches exactly the opposite. The Bible teaches that each child is born a sinner, & very soon in their lives they’ll require a savior. To show how absurd humanism is; has there ever been a parent who didn’t quickly learn that a child doesn’t have to be taught to manipulate? Hasn’t every parent been lied to by a small child? Doesn’t every parent know that nothing makes a child thirstier than to be told to go to bed?
Jeremiah 17:7 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?
Most of the blame for the bad behavior in all our schools & colleges has to go to the unregenerate nature of man, as well as the teaching of Secular Humanism, that teaches our young that they came from monkey’s, so they may as well act like animals.
If a person is taught that they came from nothing & are headed for nothing, --nothing very good can be expected from them.
· TRAGEDY REMINDS US OF JUDGEMENT TO COME.
If you think scenarios like what happened at Virginia Tech aren’t something already predicted in the Bible read 2 Timothy 3:1-7. Even though natural disasters may be flukes of nature, and not specifically Gods judgment, that doesn’t mean they’re not a “shadow of things to come.”
Listen to Peter as he not only reminds us of the patience of God, but also of the judgment to come;
· The Lord is not slack concerning His promises as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3; 9.
We should make no mistake; a final judgment is coming & tragedies like these remind us of the greatest disaster many will ever experience. It’s a day only known by God but it’s on His calendar.
· TRAGEDY TEACHES US THAT WE SHOULD MAKE SURE OF OUR SALVATION.
We inhabit a planet racing headlong toward judgment. After describing God’s patience, Peter continues; ----BUT THE DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT; IN THE WHICH THE HEAVENS SHALL PASS AWAY WITH A GREAT NOISE & THE ELEMENTS SHALL MELT WITH FERVENT HEAT, & THE EARTH ALSO & THE WORKS THAT ARE THEREIN SHALL BE BURNED UP. – 2 PETER 3:10
· GOD IS BIGGER THAN ANY TRAGEDY WE”LL EVER FACE.
Just look at Job. He was hit by a “hurricane.” Satan killed his family & took everything he possessed. Job was wise enough not to charge God foolishly & after a 42 chapter delay; God restored to him twice what he lost.
In Acts 27 we read about a tragic storm Paul endured on a ship for two weeks, but God brought him through it and not a man on the ship was lost. Storms as well as other disasters usually have a time limit on them & they will pass. “Tough times never last, tough people do.”
· FIRST, WE NEED TO MAKE SURE OF OUR RELATIONSHIP TO GOD.
We must be prepared to meet God at any moment. Isn’t it strange how we prepare for so many things except eternity? Getting to know God isn’t just believing in His existence, it’s having a personal relationship with Him.
· SECOND, WE NEED TO LEARN HOW TO WALK WITH GOD IN OUR DAILY LIVES NO MATTER WHERE WE ARE.
In Matt. 28:20 Christ promised, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. The Lord must be real to us if we are to remain faithful to Him in the hour of crisis.
· THIRD, WE NEED TO READ & MEMORIZE SCRIPTURE.
Verses like “I can do all things through Christ which strengthenth me.” Phil.4:13. Also scriptures like Rom. 8:31-39 are good to hide in our hearts.
· FOURTH, WE NEED TO MAKE PRAYER OUR PRIORITY.
All of us have a devil to fight & we must be a people of prayer. The best way to survive crisis & the “evil day” is to deepen our spiritual life. Eph.6:13.
Here’s a good prayer to pray;
Dear God, I know I can’t face any disaster without you. Please walk with me in these uncertain times & help me find the strength & peace that I need in you in my hour of need. AMEN!
John
By John Stallings
It’s natural for us to have questions about tragedies such as what happened at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Tragedies have a way of stopping us in our tracks & jolting us out of complacency. When the tragedies are natural disasters even though they are devastating to us, we can get a grip because we realize we live on the face of a planet that by its very nature is volatile & unpredictable.
However when a tragedy like the one at Virginia Tech occurs & over thirty people are premeditatedly executed, we have a very different response. Now we are faced with the cold hard fact of how dangerous man is. Though it shocks & amazes people who look at things through spiritual eyes, it must be even more difficult for people who are uncomfortable with the fact that evil exists in this world. That brings things too close to home & forces us to focus on our nature as fallen beings. Now we’re talking about things in the spirit realm, like it or not & that makes the carnal man jumpy.
Good people disagree & in the weeks & months to come this tragedy will be examined & a hundred different conclusions will be reached. For some the big issue will be gun control.
Others will see the tragedy as an ethnicity problem, while others will view it as a class issue because part of the note the young man left spoke disparagingly of “the rich kids.” From what I glean he also had nothing good to say about the female gender. The answer to this dilemma will be missed by the media & sad to say much of the nation, because the true answer is the problem of hate fueled anger, fostered by sin in the human heart.
I don’t know the details of the young man's life who committed this horrible mass murder, nor many of the other details surrounding this horrendous tragedy so in lieu of a post-mortem on the situation, I’m going to suggest a few broad lessons we can take from this & other tragedies that occur.
· TRAGEDY REMINDS US OF THE FRAGILE GRIP WE HAVE ON LIFE
In another century an American man by the name of Horatio Spafford was invited with his family to join D.L Moody & his singer Ira Sankey in several crusades in Europe. He sent his wife & four daughters ahead on a ship planning to join them in two weeks. Their ship never made it but collided with an English sailing ship & sank in 20 minutes. Spafford’s wife Anna was able to save herself but her four girls drowned & she was forced to send her husband a telegraph saying “Saved alone.”
Spafford boarded the next available ship to be near his grieving wife. When the ship passed near the spot where his daughters died, Spafford penned these precious words:
WHEN PEACE LIKE A RIVER ATTENDETH MY WAY,
WHEN SORROWS LIKE SEA BILLOWS ROLL,
WHAT EVER MY LOT, THOU HAST TAUGHT ME TO SAY,
IT IS WELL , IT IS WELL, WITH MY SOUL.
Every one of us has been impacted by tragedy to some degree whether it is illness, death or any of the thousands of things that can touch humanity. These things serve to remind us just how fragile & fleeting our lives are, but we should always remember that Jesus is more than adequate to take care of any & every situation we may face.
James 4:14 says, “Whereas, ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life”? It is even as a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
I spoke to a young man one time about accepting Christ & he informed me that he planned to do so someday but not now. When I pressed him with the fact that life is fragile, he told me that the people in his family lived into their eighties & since he was in his early twenties, he was sixty years from eternity. I explained to this young man that isn’t the way things really work. Eternity is a line that is drawn a few inches from where we stand. We all can step over the line at any moment, at any age. People cross into eternity as babies, as teenagers as well as in middle age & extreme old- age.
All it takes to cross the line into eternity is to have an accident, or sudden death to come, & it can come in a thousand different ways.
· Methuselah lived 969 years, but he died.
· Noah lived 950 years but he died.
· Moses lived to be 120 years old, but he died.
· Joseph lived to 110 years old but he died.
· Jesus lived to the age of 33 but he died. He was raised after the third day.
· John F. Kennedy, a powerful president, handsome & wealthy, died at 47.
· Bobby Kennedy, Americas Attorney General, died at 42.
· Elvis Presley, one of the most beloved entertainers on earth died at 42.
· A few years ago a man wrote a book entitled “How to live to be 100. He died at 69, not making it three-fourths of the way.
· Comedians Bob Hope & George Burns lived to be 100 & died a few weeks later.
· One of the oldest persons in America recently died in her sleep at 115.
· The rich, the poor, the young the old, the famous & the unknown, the educated the uneducated, the sinful, the righteous, they all die.
Hebrews 9:27 says “And it is appointed unto man once to die & after this the judgment.
· TRAGEDY REMINDS US WE LIVE IN A WORLD THROWN OUT OF ALIGNMENT BY SIN.
Our world is tragedy & accident prone. The fact is that we live in a fallen, spoiled world. Paul reminds us that even natural disasters while they aren’t the direct result of sin, they are caused by the presence of sin in the world & further explains that the earth is in bondage to decay.
Listen to Romans 8:22, For we know that the whole creation groaneth & travaileth in pain together until now.
Ours is a fractured ecosystem & disasters are a reminder of the imbalance brought into the world by sin.
Thank God, our world has retained much of its natural beauty, but still it has been deformed & distorted by sin. When Adam & Eve sinned, they opened the flood gates to allow sin in the world & they weren’t the only ones changed; the natural world was also changed.
God created a perfect world in harmony with His will, to be inhabited by perfect people to live in harmony with Him, but when men & women chose to reject God’s authority over their lives, disaster struck & we’ve lived with the cataclysmic consequences ever since.
· SIN HAS SHIFTED THE NATURAL WORLD OFF BALANCE.
Even more important, humanity’s relationship with God was affected & we stand at odds with God. Now we all have death in our future & that’s why, as Jesus said,
… Unless ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.
· TRAGEDY REMINDS US THAT MOTHER NATURE ISN’T AS DANGEROUS AS HUMAN NATURE.
When we saw the pillaging & looting of New Orleans after the fact of the storm, we realized that the human element was going to be as destructive, or more so, than Katrina.
When these terrible things happen like the Virginia Tech tragedy & on other college campuses, we have to stop & remember that every vestige of God has been evicted from our American educational system. The religion of our day, if you look at what’s taught in the public schools, is SECULAR HUMANISM. A word like Humanism sounds good; like a plus for humanity. However when you study it, you find the concept totally leaves God out, & replaces man as his own God.
For example, Humanism teaches that a child is born a blank slate. A child is born absolutely without an agenda, waiting for those who raise the child to “make marks” on their slate.
The Bible, however, teaches exactly the opposite. The Bible teaches that each child is born a sinner, & very soon in their lives they’ll require a savior. To show how absurd humanism is; has there ever been a parent who didn’t quickly learn that a child doesn’t have to be taught to manipulate? Hasn’t every parent been lied to by a small child? Doesn’t every parent know that nothing makes a child thirstier than to be told to go to bed?
Jeremiah 17:7 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?
Most of the blame for the bad behavior in all our schools & colleges has to go to the unregenerate nature of man, as well as the teaching of Secular Humanism, that teaches our young that they came from monkey’s, so they may as well act like animals.
If a person is taught that they came from nothing & are headed for nothing, --nothing very good can be expected from them.
· TRAGEDY REMINDS US OF JUDGEMENT TO COME.
If you think scenarios like what happened at Virginia Tech aren’t something already predicted in the Bible read 2 Timothy 3:1-7. Even though natural disasters may be flukes of nature, and not specifically Gods judgment, that doesn’t mean they’re not a “shadow of things to come.”
Listen to Peter as he not only reminds us of the patience of God, but also of the judgment to come;
· The Lord is not slack concerning His promises as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3; 9.
We should make no mistake; a final judgment is coming & tragedies like these remind us of the greatest disaster many will ever experience. It’s a day only known by God but it’s on His calendar.
· TRAGEDY TEACHES US THAT WE SHOULD MAKE SURE OF OUR SALVATION.
We inhabit a planet racing headlong toward judgment. After describing God’s patience, Peter continues; ----BUT THE DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT; IN THE WHICH THE HEAVENS SHALL PASS AWAY WITH A GREAT NOISE & THE ELEMENTS SHALL MELT WITH FERVENT HEAT, & THE EARTH ALSO & THE WORKS THAT ARE THEREIN SHALL BE BURNED UP. – 2 PETER 3:10
· GOD IS BIGGER THAN ANY TRAGEDY WE”LL EVER FACE.
Just look at Job. He was hit by a “hurricane.” Satan killed his family & took everything he possessed. Job was wise enough not to charge God foolishly & after a 42 chapter delay; God restored to him twice what he lost.
In Acts 27 we read about a tragic storm Paul endured on a ship for two weeks, but God brought him through it and not a man on the ship was lost. Storms as well as other disasters usually have a time limit on them & they will pass. “Tough times never last, tough people do.”
· FIRST, WE NEED TO MAKE SURE OF OUR RELATIONSHIP TO GOD.
We must be prepared to meet God at any moment. Isn’t it strange how we prepare for so many things except eternity? Getting to know God isn’t just believing in His existence, it’s having a personal relationship with Him.
· SECOND, WE NEED TO LEARN HOW TO WALK WITH GOD IN OUR DAILY LIVES NO MATTER WHERE WE ARE.
In Matt. 28:20 Christ promised, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. The Lord must be real to us if we are to remain faithful to Him in the hour of crisis.
· THIRD, WE NEED TO READ & MEMORIZE SCRIPTURE.
Verses like “I can do all things through Christ which strengthenth me.” Phil.4:13. Also scriptures like Rom. 8:31-39 are good to hide in our hearts.
· FOURTH, WE NEED TO MAKE PRAYER OUR PRIORITY.
All of us have a devil to fight & we must be a people of prayer. The best way to survive crisis & the “evil day” is to deepen our spiritual life. Eph.6:13.
Here’s a good prayer to pray;
Dear God, I know I can’t face any disaster without you. Please walk with me in these uncertain times & help me find the strength & peace that I need in you in my hour of need. AMEN!
John
Monday, April 16, 2007
SO MANY KINDS OF TEARS
When I visited the museum in Jerusalem, in one display there is a collection of tiny cups.” What are they for?” I asked. Our guide explained it to me. These little ceramic cups or goblets were sacramental vessels, cups of tears. People cried into them.
I also learned that the people of ancient Israel kept two kinds of tear- cups, those for tears of joy and those for tears of sorrow. These ancient Israelites weren’t afraid to cry. They considered the act of crying an act of love; evidence that they were alive and cared-cared deeply. The fuller your cup, the more people respected you because you were a great-hearted person. Life had touched you more deeply-the pain of it and the joy of it.
What are tears? The chemist would a say they are a combination of sodium chloride, phosphate of lime, mucus and water. The pastor would say that tears are the bleeding of the broken heart. The police officer would say that tears are a sign of weakness.
The Bible is full of tears.
A FARMERS TEARS are mentioned in Psalm 126:5. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” In lamentation we are advised to let tears run down like a river.
A SINNERS TEARS are mentioned In Luke 7:38, when a sinful woman kneels at Jesus feet and washes them with her tears.
A KINGS TEARS are mentioned in 2 Kings 20:5 when King Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and wept, and begged God to prolong his life and got a fifteen year extension.
A MIGHTY PREACHERS TEARS are mentioned in Acts 20:19, when The Apostle Paul prayed and wept over the people of God day and night. May God help we who preach today to have tender hearts and moistened eyes.
A FATHERS TEARS are mentioned in Mark 9:24, when a man comes to Jesus concerned about his son. He cries to Jesus, “Lord I do believe, help thou my mine unbelief.” Someone has said that when children are young they step on our toes but when they a grown they step on our hearts. If you’re a parent you know it’s true.
We should not be embarrassed by our tears. Crying is part of being human. It reminds us of the relationship between our body and our mind, sort of a self-verification. Tears also remind us that we can’t always be expected to act in a totally rational manner, because when tears want to come, they come.
Sometimes we cry because we are saddened for what’s happened to us and sometimes we cry out of compassion for others and their pain. There are so many different kinds of tears. Someone’s wife has left them. A mother has died or a spouse has cancer. A lifelong friend has deserted you. Or more likely, you just break down and don’t know exactly why. Maybe something crazy happens and there you go, crying. Usually if I cry, I’m furious with myself about it but deep inside I know it just shows humanity.
You know, it’s not such a bad idea to save our tears in a cup. Those tears would remind us of some of the things we should have done and didn’t with those we love. Tears remind us of what could and should have been. Indeed crying is a healing thing and nothing to be ashamed of. In Psalm 56:8, David request’s that God keep his tears in a bottle.
Tears are sometimes terribly negative, reminding us of our failures and wrong doings. Tears can also be signs of frustration when we simply don’t know what else to do. Life presents us with situations beyond our capability to handle. Our tears remind us that we are so bankrupt that we must turn to God for help and strength.
Our tears are often a message that something needs to be done. When I counsel someone and they start to cry, I have often asked, “Why are you crying?” Are you sadden or frustrated by something? Separation, estrangement, acts done in anger toward someone; all cause tears to well up in us. But our tears are also asking us a question, what can we do to make things better?
Tears can also be harbingers of hope and promise. With tears we can unite with others and show our vulnerability one to another. It’s funny how tears can flow like rain and not only fill our own cups but fill the cups of others. Friend, if you’re going to move through this life and not lose your sanity, you’re going to need that tear cup. Just put it up to your eyes, empty your tears into it and go on and do what you have to do in life.
Our Savior left two things on this earth that were a part of Himself; His tears and His blood. With those two liquids He showed us He was touched by our infirmities and that He had a great desire to cleanse us from sin and iniquity. Jesus wept over Lazarus death when He knew He was going to raise him from the dead. Some people say that Jesus cried because He saw Lazarus on the streets of gold and was conflicted about bringing him back, to someday die again. I don’t know about that but I do know that Jesus wept. I think it’s far more likely that a reading of the text shows the answer to why Jesus wept. In John 11:33-35 we read that at Lazarus’s tomb, Mary and the others were crying. When Jesus saw their tears He responded with His own tears of sympathy. We also know that in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed with strong crying and tears.
When my grandmother died in 1964, I went to her funeral in Lakeland Florida. Immediately after the funeral I left to conduct a revival in Miami. I really didn’t think about her much for several months. Later that year I was preaching in a small town surrounded by mountains in rural Virginia. One day I was sitting on the front porch the old historic hotel where we stayed and for some reason started to think about my grandmother. Out of nowhere a grief net dropped over me and I started weeping uncontrollably. I was glad we were just about the only people staying at that old hotel because if anyone had seen me, they’d have thought I was dying. For maybe an hour I was a total mess. Frankly, my grandmother and I hadn’t had that great a relationship in my childhood years. Because she stayed with my sister and me when my parents would go out of town, I had some left-over childhood authority issues with her. Really, it was nothing all that serious.
In retrospect, I came to the realization that the explanation for my tears on that day was simple. I had never spoken to my grandmother about those childhood days, nor had a sense of closure about them. I was grieving for the lost opportunity to make things right with her before she died. On that day my tears reminded me of what could have been. Through tears we can go back to the past and be bound together with others no longer here and be healed and made whole again. Though I didn’t get to have that talk with my grandmother about our problems as an adult, somehow after that weeping experience I’ve had the assurance that she knew, and knows what was in my heart. What a marvelous thing these tears, for out of them can spring hope and new beginnings.
Finally, we read in Revelation 21:4, that in heaven someday,… God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. Many have wondered what this means. It simply means that there’s a better day coming for all of Gods children. Weeping and sorrow will not last forever. Trials and heartaches will come to an end one of these days. God’s children are going home and when we arrive, God will take out His great handkerchief of grace and all of our tears will be gone.
# He’ll wipe away tears of death. We’ve all been hurt by death, but no more. Death has been abolished where we’re going. Never again will we follow and hearse to a grave yard. Never again will deaths cold icy grip touch us and our loved ones.
# He’ll wipe away tears of Despair. Families and individuals lie in shambles because of the touch and taint of sin, but a day will come when Jesus Himself will wipe all those tears away.
# He’ll wipe away tears of distance. Sometimes the devil will whisper in our ears, “He’s not coming. Yes He exists, but He’s not concerned with this world or you and your pain.” But I want to remind you that the devil is a liar. One day Jesus will bridge the distance between us and Himself and will come to take us home. I remind you that we serve an honest and steadfast God who will do what He says He’ll do.
Friend, you and I will have burdens and tears as long as we walk in this world. Mankind seems to be born to tears. But heaven is in her last day operation and Jesus is even now making a last minute check of the banquet tables which hold the marriage supper of the Lamb. Heavens clock trembles toward the midnight hour and the day is close when Christ will leap from the battlements of the sky to claim His bride. Then God will wipe all our tears away forever.
AND AFTER HE DOES, THEY WILL NEVER RETURN AGAIN.
John Stallings
When I visited the museum in Jerusalem, in one display there is a collection of tiny cups.” What are they for?” I asked. Our guide explained it to me. These little ceramic cups or goblets were sacramental vessels, cups of tears. People cried into them.
I also learned that the people of ancient Israel kept two kinds of tear- cups, those for tears of joy and those for tears of sorrow. These ancient Israelites weren’t afraid to cry. They considered the act of crying an act of love; evidence that they were alive and cared-cared deeply. The fuller your cup, the more people respected you because you were a great-hearted person. Life had touched you more deeply-the pain of it and the joy of it.
What are tears? The chemist would a say they are a combination of sodium chloride, phosphate of lime, mucus and water. The pastor would say that tears are the bleeding of the broken heart. The police officer would say that tears are a sign of weakness.
The Bible is full of tears.
A FARMERS TEARS are mentioned in Psalm 126:5. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” In lamentation we are advised to let tears run down like a river.
A SINNERS TEARS are mentioned In Luke 7:38, when a sinful woman kneels at Jesus feet and washes them with her tears.
A KINGS TEARS are mentioned in 2 Kings 20:5 when King Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and wept, and begged God to prolong his life and got a fifteen year extension.
A MIGHTY PREACHERS TEARS are mentioned in Acts 20:19, when The Apostle Paul prayed and wept over the people of God day and night. May God help we who preach today to have tender hearts and moistened eyes.
A FATHERS TEARS are mentioned in Mark 9:24, when a man comes to Jesus concerned about his son. He cries to Jesus, “Lord I do believe, help thou my mine unbelief.” Someone has said that when children are young they step on our toes but when they a grown they step on our hearts. If you’re a parent you know it’s true.
We should not be embarrassed by our tears. Crying is part of being human. It reminds us of the relationship between our body and our mind, sort of a self-verification. Tears also remind us that we can’t always be expected to act in a totally rational manner, because when tears want to come, they come.
Sometimes we cry because we are saddened for what’s happened to us and sometimes we cry out of compassion for others and their pain. There are so many different kinds of tears. Someone’s wife has left them. A mother has died or a spouse has cancer. A lifelong friend has deserted you. Or more likely, you just break down and don’t know exactly why. Maybe something crazy happens and there you go, crying. Usually if I cry, I’m furious with myself about it but deep inside I know it just shows humanity.
You know, it’s not such a bad idea to save our tears in a cup. Those tears would remind us of some of the things we should have done and didn’t with those we love. Tears remind us of what could and should have been. Indeed crying is a healing thing and nothing to be ashamed of. In Psalm 56:8, David request’s that God keep his tears in a bottle.
Tears are sometimes terribly negative, reminding us of our failures and wrong doings. Tears can also be signs of frustration when we simply don’t know what else to do. Life presents us with situations beyond our capability to handle. Our tears remind us that we are so bankrupt that we must turn to God for help and strength.
Our tears are often a message that something needs to be done. When I counsel someone and they start to cry, I have often asked, “Why are you crying?” Are you sadden or frustrated by something? Separation, estrangement, acts done in anger toward someone; all cause tears to well up in us. But our tears are also asking us a question, what can we do to make things better?
Tears can also be harbingers of hope and promise. With tears we can unite with others and show our vulnerability one to another. It’s funny how tears can flow like rain and not only fill our own cups but fill the cups of others. Friend, if you’re going to move through this life and not lose your sanity, you’re going to need that tear cup. Just put it up to your eyes, empty your tears into it and go on and do what you have to do in life.
Our Savior left two things on this earth that were a part of Himself; His tears and His blood. With those two liquids He showed us He was touched by our infirmities and that He had a great desire to cleanse us from sin and iniquity. Jesus wept over Lazarus death when He knew He was going to raise him from the dead. Some people say that Jesus cried because He saw Lazarus on the streets of gold and was conflicted about bringing him back, to someday die again. I don’t know about that but I do know that Jesus wept. I think it’s far more likely that a reading of the text shows the answer to why Jesus wept. In John 11:33-35 we read that at Lazarus’s tomb, Mary and the others were crying. When Jesus saw their tears He responded with His own tears of sympathy. We also know that in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed with strong crying and tears.
When my grandmother died in 1964, I went to her funeral in Lakeland Florida. Immediately after the funeral I left to conduct a revival in Miami. I really didn’t think about her much for several months. Later that year I was preaching in a small town surrounded by mountains in rural Virginia. One day I was sitting on the front porch the old historic hotel where we stayed and for some reason started to think about my grandmother. Out of nowhere a grief net dropped over me and I started weeping uncontrollably. I was glad we were just about the only people staying at that old hotel because if anyone had seen me, they’d have thought I was dying. For maybe an hour I was a total mess. Frankly, my grandmother and I hadn’t had that great a relationship in my childhood years. Because she stayed with my sister and me when my parents would go out of town, I had some left-over childhood authority issues with her. Really, it was nothing all that serious.
In retrospect, I came to the realization that the explanation for my tears on that day was simple. I had never spoken to my grandmother about those childhood days, nor had a sense of closure about them. I was grieving for the lost opportunity to make things right with her before she died. On that day my tears reminded me of what could have been. Through tears we can go back to the past and be bound together with others no longer here and be healed and made whole again. Though I didn’t get to have that talk with my grandmother about our problems as an adult, somehow after that weeping experience I’ve had the assurance that she knew, and knows what was in my heart. What a marvelous thing these tears, for out of them can spring hope and new beginnings.
Finally, we read in Revelation 21:4, that in heaven someday,… God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. Many have wondered what this means. It simply means that there’s a better day coming for all of Gods children. Weeping and sorrow will not last forever. Trials and heartaches will come to an end one of these days. God’s children are going home and when we arrive, God will take out His great handkerchief of grace and all of our tears will be gone.
# He’ll wipe away tears of death. We’ve all been hurt by death, but no more. Death has been abolished where we’re going. Never again will we follow and hearse to a grave yard. Never again will deaths cold icy grip touch us and our loved ones.
# He’ll wipe away tears of Despair. Families and individuals lie in shambles because of the touch and taint of sin, but a day will come when Jesus Himself will wipe all those tears away.
# He’ll wipe away tears of distance. Sometimes the devil will whisper in our ears, “He’s not coming. Yes He exists, but He’s not concerned with this world or you and your pain.” But I want to remind you that the devil is a liar. One day Jesus will bridge the distance between us and Himself and will come to take us home. I remind you that we serve an honest and steadfast God who will do what He says He’ll do.
Friend, you and I will have burdens and tears as long as we walk in this world. Mankind seems to be born to tears. But heaven is in her last day operation and Jesus is even now making a last minute check of the banquet tables which hold the marriage supper of the Lamb. Heavens clock trembles toward the midnight hour and the day is close when Christ will leap from the battlements of the sky to claim His bride. Then God will wipe all our tears away forever.
AND AFTER HE DOES, THEY WILL NEVER RETURN AGAIN.
John Stallings
Monday, April 9, 2007
A great Easter Sunday in Winter Garden, Florida
Juda & I enjoyed a great Sunday as pulpit guests at a great church in Winter Garden, Florida. We have been there as interim pastors for six weeks & have agreed to stay as long as they need us. Only God knows if this will be weeks or months. Whatever is to come is in His hands & we as always are happy to be fuel on His fires. As God allows & directs, we'll be sharing daily on this blog, articles perhaps not as long as you've been used to getting from us but nontheless fresh, juicy insights from our hearts.
Excitedly serving Him,
John & Juda Stallings
Excitedly serving Him,
John & Juda Stallings
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