"I Hope You Dance"

By John Stallings


…It may be that the Lord will work for us---1. Samuel 14:6

"I hope you dance!”

That sounds funny; especially coming from me, a man with two left feet who can’t dance, & would probably have all the grace of a drunken elephant or a man being electrocuted on the dance floor.

Let me explain. I’ve seldom danced because in the home & church where I was raised, dancing was looked on as worldly. My mother told teachers to teach her children to read & write & she’d take care of their social graces.

I do however, remember going to a Junior High School Dance once. I don’t remember why I was there but I know that I was, & in that brief time, although I sat-it-out, I saw the psychology of the dance experience. It was an opportunity for social interaction centered mostly on mingling, & boys asking girls to dance. At this dance, the fear of failure & rejection was almost palpable. There was the dance floor with plenty of room, & some were dancing while others were sitting in chairs along the walls. Frankly I was happy that my parents frowned on dancing because in later years it gave me a cop-out & as a bonus I could look “spiritual.”

To me, the whole dance experience is a little picture of life so I use the title.

 You’ve probably heard the song “I hope you dance,” it’s been a popular country song over the last few years. When you listen to the lyrics, you understand that dancing, at least in the mind of the writer, has more to do with involvement in life than actual dancing. One line says, “If you get a chance to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.” “Dancing” means taking initiative & not sitting on the sidelines of life never accomplishing or enjoying anything. It means thinking about our potential & the legacy we want to leave in this world. It means to sing more-- laugh more-- learn more-- love more-- & live more. “Dance.”

You might wonder how my one experience at a Junior High School Dance could stick with me for fifty plus years & I wonder the same thing. I remember sitting on the sidelines with other shy students like myself, though we’d never have admitted being shy. I also remember there wasn’t a lack of pretty girls, & how ineffectual we wallflowers felt though it was never spoken. I’m sure the girls who weren’t all that busy on the floor probably had the same sinking feeling in their stomachs we guys had.

Looking back, maybe the wallflowers had come to the dance from a long string of failures. Maybe the terror of looking foolish kept us from venturing out & taking a risk to ask a girl to dance. Maybe we felt the others were the real “players” & we were fakes. (Maybe we didn’t know how to dance.) Anyway, I do remember that I left with a keen sense of disappointment in myself that I hadn’t participated. The dance floor was right there, but for me there may as well have been a moat between me & it, filled with hungry crocodiles. Thankfully as time progressed I was able to shake this awful shyness for it’s certain that nothing much will happen in a life unless an individual finds some initiative.

 INITIATIVE IS A CRUCIAL COMPONENT IN LIFE.

One definition of the word initiative is, “The willingness to do the thing that needs to be done without being prodded.”


 In 1 Sam. 14 we have a very interesting story of Saul & his son Jonathan. This is a great story finding Israel at war with the Philistines. Actually to say they were at war would be pushing it because Israel had a small army & was hesitant to go meet the enemy. You’ve got King Saul sitting under a pomegranate tree on the sidelines & you’ve got his son Jonathan out on the “dance-floor.” Basically what you have here is a stalemate. King Saul was still waiting to “see what God would do.” Then Saul’s son Jonathon said to his young armor-bearer, “Let’s slip over to the other side & get a look at the enemy. Maybe we can move this thing off dead center.”

JONATHAN’S ACTION WAS IN FAITH, NOT AN ACT OF PRESUMPTION.

Notice that he said, “It may be that the Lord will work for us.” He didn’t utter a big pronouncement that God had spoken to him & he had God’s word that they’d be successful. He said, “It may be that God will help us.” There are times for making public pronouncements of strong faith, but sometimes its best not to trumpet loudly what we see & feel God is showing us. One sure way to lose credibility is to always be making big predictions about things that never pan out.

On the other hand, many people won’t make a move unless they feel a great emotional upheaval. They feel that unless God shakes their world or gives a great dream or revelation, it’s not time to move on a project.

But I like what Jonathan said & the attitude he had.

He said, “There’s a need, there’s an enemy out there mocking God & his people. The others are resting & waiting on God-knows-what; why don’t we just slip out of the camp & move closer to the enemy & it just may be that God will use us. God is so big He doesn’t need a great big army, He is able to do it with just us two, & He may do it. Let’s go put Him to the test.”

This idea of Jonathan’s came from the Lord. It worked for him as he & his armor bearer went up & fought the Philistines. They acted as guerrilla’s & slew 20 of the advanced guards of the garrison & the others panicked & ran. It was indeed a bold plan.

Boldness can be called faith; with the provision that the Holy Spirit is around you & working in you.

Every couple of decades in the history of Israel you have episodes like this where the people would make the decision to follow God & amazing things would happen. You’d think stories like Jonathon’s would have been enough to bring them to the dance floor for the rest of their lives but it didn’t. It never did. There was always this tension, this ying-yang where they would pursue lives of glorious victory, then next thing you know something would happen & they’d be back one the sidelines living in defeat again.

CONSIDER WITH ME SOME INITIATIVE SUFFOCATERS;

• THE MIRAGE SYNDROME.

If you’ve lived very long you are familiar with “the Mirage syndrome.” This syndrome plays itself out again & again in our lives. Because as Christians we are naturally hopeful people, we look forward with anticipation to our future. From a distance things can look so hopeful & bright. We can see in our minds eye the great victories ahead, but often when we actually arrive & see up-close what looked so rosy from a distance, we’re disappointed. Life can be like that.

I can remember when I first started traveling as an evangelist. We would be invited to a church hundreds of miles away & the Pastor would write us telling about his church. As the time grew near we’d begin to picture the church in our minds. Youth & inexperience were also part of this syndrome. It may sound funny but I’d usually picture the church sitting up on a hill beautifully landscaped with grass & flowers. I’d imagine meeting the pastor & he’d always be slightly graying with an almost angelic smile on his face as he reached out to shake our hands & greet us. I’d see the room where we’d stay while there & picture it so beautifully appointed & comfortable. I’d then see in my mind the people & imagine how loving, supportive & friendly they’d be. Well, I could go on but I think by now you have my point.

The passing of the years slowly taught us that these lovely “mirages” we conjured up in our minds were just that; they were mirages. While there were great men of God out there, great churches & sweet people, most of the time the reality was quite different than the mirage we constructed in our imaginations. This often happens when missionaries go to the field for the first time, especially if they expect that because they are crossing an ocean, things will be somehow glossier. Usually the truth is the exact opposite. Some people look on the call of God as some kind of magical existence; & it is awesome if the individual has a true calling on their life.

 But ministry isn’t for the faint of heart. Many times I have prayed for the sick when my back was hurting so bad I could hardly stand up. Some might ask why I would pray for the sick with my back hurting & my answer is, “God heals the sick.” They may then say. “Well why didn’t he heal you?” My answer is, He has healed me, He is healing me & He will heal me in the future.

When we are let-down & disillusioned by life a few times, the next step can be spiritual burn-out, unless we understand that in serving God, sometimes things happen we don’t & can’t understand. That’s where faith comes in. When we can explain & understand everything, we have no need for faith. Faith is what we hold on to when we don’t understand what’s going on. The truth is; God never promised us a rose garden. Without a balanced-faith outlook, we can grow weary of the dance-floor & suddenly the sidelines look safe, comfortable & alluring.

 Then it becomes easy to lose our initiative. If we’re not careful we’ll end up under a pomegranate tree letting life pass us by with nothing to do but look back in regret, wondering what it would have been like if we’d stayed engaged with life a little longer.

•  FEAR AND DOUBT ARE INITIATIVE SUFFOCATERS.

In Leviticus 26:3-13 God relates to Israel the kinds of things he has for them & let’s them know His promises aren’t mirages but the real thing.

Listen;

If ye walk in my statutes & keep my commandments & do them, then I will give you rain in due season & the land shall yield her increase & the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach into the vintage & the vintage shall reach into the sowing time & ye shall eat your bread to the full & dwell in your land safely. And I will give you peace in the land & ye shall lie down & none shall make you afraid; & I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies & they shall fall before you by the sword. For I will have respect for you, & make you fruitful; & I will walk among you & I will be your God & ye shall be my people.

If God’s people could find the initiative to dwell with God, he would give them great things, not a mirage, but life beyond their imagination. In sending Jesus to the earth, God shows an “initiative deficient” people what initiative really looks like. Jesus took our long line of failures that haunt us & He took them to the cross with Him & was raised from the dead to give us all new life; Life on the “dance floor” with Him. If we want to “dance-in-life, we only have to take His outstretched hand.

 JOHNATHAN “GOT BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM HIS FRIEND.”

I would like to know more about Jonathan’s armor bearer but we’re not told his name. In the Bible there are lots of nameless hero’s, but one day I’m sure we’ll hear their names called aloud in the presence of God.

God seems to like to work by two. Look at Moses & Aaron, Saul & Jonathan, Peter & John, Paul & Barnabas, Paul & Timothy, Paul & Silas, etc. The 70 were sent out two-by-two. God understands us & knows that none of us likes to work alone. This is one reason marriage is such a wonderful thing. I’ll tell you this much; I’ll charge any army with my wife by my side but without her, my chances would be slim to none. One can put a thousand to flight but two can put ten-thousand to flight. I think it rather unnatural for us to want to face things in life totally alone.

Jonathan must have known that his armor-bearer’s faith was as strong as his own. We all need support from people of like precious faith. If Jonathon’s armor-bearer had been negative, he could have turned Jonathon back. If the armor-bearer was afraid of death he could have said, “Hey. Let’s be careful! Let’s not do something foolish! You know we didn’t tell the king about it, we have no back-up! They might kill us. Etc. etc. He would have turned Jonathon back & God wouldn’t have used them that day. You can easily see why Gideon let all the fearful men go home & only chose 300 to fight. It was for the same reason.

· Choose your companions carefully for they very well may be the difference between your success & failure.

We need people around us that will build our faith & not drag us down. I wouldn’t waste my time nor would I advise anyone else to waste theirs in a church that believed that the days of miracles are over. The Bible says that “Iron sharpens iron,” therefore we should choose carefully who we associate with.

Jonathon & his armor-bearer, operating as guerrilla’s, first slew the advanced guards then took the enemy garrison & put the whole Philistine host to flight, thousands of them.

God gave us this story for a reason. Jesus said, If two on earth shall agree as touching anything, it shall be done. One of worst things we can do as Christians is to isolate ourselves & think we can make it alone. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. The sower & the reaper go together.

Peter didn’t tell the lame man to look at him, he said, “Look on us.”

•  LOOK AT THE WORD INFLUENCE & YOU’LL FIND THE WORD “FLU” RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT.

• All of us have the flu. By that I mean influence. We may not have influence with a lot of folk but we all have some influence. When you look at this story you quickly see that Jonathan didn’t have a very large sphere of influence. Actually, when he left to go to battle, no one even knew he’d left. He had no position, authority or power. He was just a kid with a sword whom no one missed when he left. All he took with him was a kid who was another person no one missed. He was a younger kid to carry his stuff. Nobody would have given them a chance or thought that their single act of faith & courage would “influence” a whole nation.

Jonathan didn’t try to convince the army of six-hundred; he didn’t wake up his father & try to convince him. He knew he had no influence there so he just used the small influence he had & influenced his young helper. He said, “Hey, why don’t we go over there & see if we can pick a fight with those bad-boys? Maybe God will give us the victory.” His armor-bearer said, “Go ahead & do what your heart & soul tell you to do, I’ve got your back.”

That folks is a picture of influence. Not position & power, but heart & soul. Many times we feel powerless to make a difference because we think the resources we have at our disposal aren’t big enough, strong enough, or good enough. We don’t have enough money or we don’t have the right connections or aren’t in the right position yet. And so we do nothing, believing we are powerless, when in truth God has placed all the people & resources we need right in front of us. Jonathon didn’t try to wield his authority; he just used his inspiration & influence.

Ask yourself who’s in your sphere of influence. Jonathan had one scrawny kid & a sword & God used them to route an army of thousands & change a nation from oppression to freedom. Just a little light shown in the right way & the darkness will flee.

Reread Matthew, Mark, Luke & John again & watch how Jesus used influence. Jesus seemed to shy away from titles & position & used relationships; very close relationships. Reread those books & watch how a ragtag group of fishermen were transformed & how they were influenced by one man & consequently changed the world.

•  IN-FLU-ENCE IS CONTAGIOUS.

We are all “carriers” & will use our influence for good or ill. We make a choice each & every day what we’ll do with what we have.

Frankly I’d like to say that I’ve spent every moment of every day; every week, month & year of my life on the dance-floor. I can’t say that, & I won’t. But for each & every opportunity I’ve missed & for whatever reason I missed it, I grieve. And I know why I grieve. Because God didn’t create me to sit on the sidelines, He created me to dance. He took that great initiative 2,000 years ago & He’s just getting started. He’s still working on me. He’s still working to “take the led” out of my feet & make me a more proficient dancer. After all, Moses didn’t really get started until he was 80.

I admit I’ve been caught under the pomegranate tree a few times but by His grace, no more. He graciously invites us & all we have to do is reach out & take His outstretched hand & go with Him to the dance-floor.


· WILL YOU JOIN ME?


· WILL YOU LEAVE THE SIDELINES?


· WE CAN GET OUT FROM UNDER THE POMEGRANATE TREE.


Blessings,


John

Skin In The Game

By John Stallings


We hear the term “skin in the game” bantered about these days, but what exactly does it mean?

Renowned investor Warren Buffet coined the metaphorical phrase, referring to a situation in which high-ranking insiders use their money to buy stock in the company they are running.

The idea behind “skin in the game” is to ensure that corporations are managed by like-minded individuals who share a stake in the company. Executives can talk all they want but the best vote of confidence is putting one’s own money [skin] on the line just like outside investors.

You may remember president Obama using the phrase during an interview with George Stephanopoulos. The statement was made in relation to the economy & his feeling that everyone was going to have to have skin in the game, i.e. - be willing to make sacrifices for the benefit of the nation.

Of course the skin of which Obama speaks is money we’ll all have to contribute whether we like it or not.

Many things went wrong in the run up to the American housing bust but the rapid growth in little or no down payment loans was without a doubt one of the biggest contributors to the crash. The lack of “skin in the game” altered homeowner’s attitudes & also meant zero breathing room standing between them & serious financial trouble, & putting them one emergency away from foreclosure or bankruptcy.

SPORTS

If you are a sports fan, you will know that at any sports event there are two groups of people; the fans in the bleachers & the players on the court or field. You will also know that one of the major differences between the players & the fans is; the players have skin in the game. While the fans pay the price of a ticket to gain admission to the event, they have nowhere near the investment the players have.

The big difference in players & fans is-- bruises, cuts, torn ligaments & sometimes much more serious, even life-altering & life-threatening injuries. Players have skin in the game, [to put it mildly.]

I remember seeing a football game years ago on T.V when a player was so torn up they patched him up on the sidelines & sent him back into the game with blood seeping through the bandages.

WHEN JESUS ALMOST LOST HIS LUNCH

Jesus created this universe with His word. He made every cell in our bodies, every microbe, every elephant, every petunia, & every asteroid. Jesus is sovereign ruler over all creation. But this majestic Jesus, this almighty God, this transcendent creator, this redeemer who defied death, can still get sick to His stomach.

According to Revelation chapter three, the Laodicean church almost made Jesus lose His lunch or as we say, throw-up. This church had accumulated much wealth. They needed nothing & had pushed Jesus into the periphery of their lives. Jesus saw that their possessions had become a key stumbling block to them, so much so that their love for Him had cooled. They no longer had skin in their game.

Jesus told these Lackadaisical Laodiceans in essence, “You guys think you’ve become “all that” but you’d better invest in the gold that I have & trade in your Brooks Brothers suits for a white robe of servant hood. You need to get some of my eye-salve & put it on your eyes so you can really see, then repent & get your act together & get on fire for God again.”

Not only did Jesus find Himself on the periphery of this church, it got so pronounced He actually found Himself outside the church.

There’s a parable-type story of a bum who wanted to go to church. He chose a big down-town church & went in & sat down. It wasn’t long before some of the affluent church folk complained about his unkempt appearance & less than pleasant odors coming from his direction. The ushers escorted the man to the back door & gave him the old “bums-rush” & he ended up sitting on the curb in front of the church. As he sat there feeling sorry for himself, Jesus came & sat down beside him & said, “Don’t feel bad, I’ve been trying to get into that church for years myself.”

Who can forget that famous picture of Jesus standing outside the Laoicean church knocking on the door? They had shoved Him out of His church. Maybe He’d gone outside to lose His lunch, I don’t know. This Laodicean bunch is a type of the end-time or present day church. The last time I checked, the survey said 18% of church goers are carrying the financial load of the church so it would seem that few have skin in the game when it comes to the work of God.

When you walk into a church you walk on tither’s carpet & sit on tither’s pews. Tither’s air-conditioning or heat keeps the atmosphere comfortable & cozy. Practically everything you see or hear in that church is made possible by tithers, not people who give now & then, when they feel like it.

The church has gotten financially lazy which leads to spiritual lukewarmness & suddenly Christ is on the outside trying to get back in.

Many people who attend church are such spiritual babies the preacher has to walk on egg shells to keep from hurting their feelings; consequently pastors feed spiritual mashed bananas from the pulpit then rush to the back door to burp the babies on their way out. Laodicea-ism has come to the church. Being a father myself, I’ve never been against the use of pacifiers but I always said I’d never part a mustache to put one in.

THE COSMIC CHRIST

After man fell, God could have chosen to watch & see what would happen to His creation. However, God didn’t stand back & say, “Let’s see what they do.” But rather He said, “Let them see what I do.” God acted in a profound way & every Christmas we celebrate the fact that God, in Christ, put skin in the game.

Jesus moved into our neighborhood & nothing will ever be the same. He was willing to take on the living conditions of the time: the smell, the poverty, the ravages of disease & discomfort. Jesus wasn’t offered anything better on this earth because of who He was.

Jesus didn’t just show up one day. He was announced for many centuries in many different ways. We are told—In the beginning was the Word.—according to John’s gospel. Jesus was present on creation day & participated in creation; all of it, the suns, galaxies, planets the earth & all that’s in it. Yes- Jesus was “The guy from Galilee,” but He is also the Divine Creator of all things. This Cosmic Christ is nothing less than Emmanuel---God with us! God in human skin.

PAUL

Paul’s conversion to Christ was quite spectacular. He had skin in the game from the first moment he met Christ. He was stricken down & blinded by a great light. I’ve heard people say God won’t force a person to do anything against their will. I understand what they’re trying to say, & it’s true in some ways but let’s be real here. If Paul had put up any resistance, I have no doubt God would have said, “O.K then, here’s a tin-cup & Main Street is two blocks south.” King Nebuchadnezzar didn’t particularly want to leave his throne & graze with the animals in the fields eating grass for seven years either but because of his pride, that was God’s solution.

Paul had to learn in the hard school of experience what God told Ananias when he sent him to heal Paul’s eyes & welcome him into the church; “What great things thou must suffer for Jesus’ sake!”

Let’s look at the catalogue of things Paul had to suffer;

…..In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

Of the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night & a day have I been in the deep.

In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness. In perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.

In weariness & painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger & thirst, in fastings often, in cold & nakedness. Beside these things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
Who is weak, & I am not weak? Who is offended, & I burn not? If I must needs glory I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.—2 Cor.11:23-30

Chapter six of the same Epistle & verse four—But in all things approving ourselves as ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in necessities, in distresses. In stripes, in imprisonments, in watchings, in fastings.

By pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned. By the word of truth. By the power of God. By the armor of righteousness on the right hand & on the left. By honor & dishonor, by evil report & good report: as deceivers & yet true:

As unknown & yet well known: as dying & behold we live: as chastened & not killed: as sorrowful yet as rejoicing: as poor yet making many rich: as having nothing & yet possessing all things.-2 Cor.6:4-10

We see in no uncertain terms that from the first day Paul met Christ until he laid his head on the Roman chop-block, he had serious skin in the game.

JOB

If ever a mortal man had skin in the game it was Job. Job was hand-picked by God to suffer. Job was given a larger assignment than Adam faced & Adam failed abjectly. Job’s test was greater because it was more severe & lasted longer. He went through his ordeal with boils all over him & he hadn’t just come out of God’s creation factory like Adam.

One day Job was resting in a hammock under a shade tree, & by the time a few messengers had visited bad news on him everything he had was gone. And to make things worse, there was zero insurance on any of it.

The way the economy is right now you may feel things couldn’t get worse, but what if you lost your house, your car, your children, & your job? They were all gone. It would be pretty tough wouldn’t it? This would be especially hard if you’d been serving God with all your heart as Job had. You’d start to wonder wouldn’t you?

We find the richest man in the East, now totally broke with no bail-out on the horizon, his body having been transformed into one hurting, aching, stinging wound, sitting in the town dump, scraping his skin with a broken piece of pottery. To gain access to Job, Satan told God….Skin for skin, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life. Job 2:4

I realize I’m only broad stroking Job’s story here but I remind you that Job’s trials didn’t last forever. Job 42:10 tells us that God gave him twice as much as he had before. Job was compensated for his ordeal & lived into ripe old age.

Friend, no matter what has or will happen in your life, keep believing & know that God someday will restore what you’ve lost with double for your trouble. Furthermore, “When we all get to heaven” we’ll all be more than compensated for what we’ve been through. Have faith in God. Listen to Revelation 2:10—Be faithful even to the point of death, & I will give you the crown of life.

JEREMIAH

In Jeremiah chapter 32, the invasion of Jerusalem is imminent. The enemy is outside the walls. Jeremiah the prophet could have justifiably been running around shouting “I told you so,” but he was involved in a real estate transaction. What? That’s right. Nothing major, no improved real estate, no houses or hotels, just a field. But it’s a field that very well may be under the invading army’s feet as he speaks.

For Jeremiah to do this at this time would have been the same as if a German Jew had bought a house in downtown Berlin, documented it with proper witnesses & then gotten on the train to Auschwitz.

Why would Jeremiah do this? Why?

Jeremiah was putting some skin in the game; the game of trust, hope & faith in the future. Part of his job was to give the people the bad news of coming invasion, & the barbarians were at the gates. The other part of his job was to say to them, “when all feels lost, this too shall pass, this land is still ours & in the future we’ll once again be part of it.”

Hope! Jeremiah buying land in the midst of an invasion thereby saying; “though this is catastrophic, & changes the way Israel must think of themselves, they’ll always be the children of God.”

Jeremiah had been an honest man & a prophet of God. He hadn’t promised peace like the other prophets had done. There would be a price for Israel’s sins, especially idolatry. But then at the behest of his uncle & cousin he buys a plot of land in Anathoth, land which would be lost to the family unless he, the most senior male member bought it.

Realistically, the land would be of no value to Jeremiah so he’s giving good money for worthless land. But what Jeremiah is doing is showing that while he doesn’t have faith in the ingenuity of kings, he still believes in the compassion of God for His people.

Israel had been warned over & over again about her sins but she wouldn’t repent. The result is severe & the people are taken into exile in Babylonia. However, judgment will not be the final word. There will ultimately be mercy, & restoration & God’s people ultimately will be back in their land.

IS AMERICA NOW UNDERGOING GOD’S JUDGMENT?

Can you see parallels between ancient Israel & modern day America? If not, I believe you will. Our beloved country is steadily moving down the road of rejecting the wise & loving words of God in favor of the fickle & changing opinions of man.

Is there hope that we will see the ultimate preservation & restoration of the America we’ve known? It would take a turning back to God of such astronomical proportions that it would shake the nation to its very foundation. [-2 Chronicles 7:14]

WHAT KIND OF NATION ARE WE NOW LIVING IN?

Look at the symptoms of “moral rot” that occur when people reject God & cling to moral relativism that’s being fostered in our nation by so-called enlightened elitists, a mindless mass media, & post-modern “wise men” who bemoan & are offended by the word “sin” as irrelevant & outdated.

Millions of precious unborn babies continue to be aborted, same sex relationships are sanctioned, Christian symbols continue to be removed from government buildings & pornography in America is more profitable than our auto industry & all of professional sports combined. The “anything goes” worldview is becoming more & more mainstream. We’ve “sown the wind,” & are “reaping the whirlwind.”

Will America survive this? A better question would be, “will America come back to being “One nation under God,” or will we continue to reject the One who created the rights we hold dear?

Over 230 years ago a group of good men decided to put their “skin in the game” to create a country. These men were willing to fight for what they believed in: God-given rights, liberty [freedom with responsibility] prosperity based on hard work & honesty, the right to private property, freedom of speech & religion & freedom from repressive & tyrannical governments. Most of these men lost their lives or their sons & their property but their honor remained intact. Would it surprise you to learn that of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, half of them had Seminary Degrees? Many of the rest of them were non-degreed lay-preachers.

OUR BRAVE MEN & WOMEN WHO’RE RISKING THEIR ALL FOR US

My hat is off to General Petraeus, the other leaders, & mostly the sacrificial service of the brave young Americans whose efforts have wrought immense progress in Iraq. They have not only put skin in the game but every other body-part they possessed.

There will be other attacks & set-backs. Al Qaeda is not defeated. But progress has been substantial & the recent surge has no doubt helped to shorten the war. The unwillingness of many of our national leaders, especially Obama, to recognize it openly & publically shows them for the small spirits they are & I think is quite a revealing commentary on their character.

God is mentioned in the Constitutional preamble of all 50 states. Upon what was our government based? The existence of God, all men are created equal, the unalienable God-given rights, the providence of God in guiding the affairs of men & the need for government to protect our God-given rights. Why are practically none of these things taught to our children in school?

If God doesn’t exist, as so many believe, then there are no God-given rights & the government becomes the highest authority. Who would better protect your God-given rights? A Christian or a secular humanist? President Kennedy said, “The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”

Harry Truman, who could always be counted on to “lay the axe at the root of the tree” said, “If we don’t have proper fundamental background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in the rights of anybody except the state.”

If Americans were asked what kind of government we were patterned after most of them would say democracy & they’d be wrong. America was & is a constitutional republic. If we were a pure democracy 51% could vote to create a virtual dictatorship. Engraved on the Jefferson memorial in D.C are these words by Thomas Jefferson;

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of the nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God?”

Doesn’t there seem to you to be a concern in the hearts & minds of our founding fathers that the nation they fought so hard to build, --the nation where so much earnest skin was put in the game & on the line,-- that the people of this fledgling country would someday forget where we came from & who made us great? That fact jumps out at me as I study the words of our founding fathers.

America is the longest standing constitutional republic in the history of the world. Yet if we continue to lose our God-given way of life, if we stand by & watch God not only marginalized but kicked out of the public square, if we are willing to witness the slow undoing of Christianity & Biblical morality, if we forget we’re One nation under God, we’ll be, in the words of Ronald Reagan, “not a nation under God but a nation gone under.”

Think & pray about that with me.


Blessings,


John

Thanks For Nothing

By John Stallings


Most prophets heard from God and then spoke to the people, but not Habakkuk; he spoke to God alone.

He pours out his heart to God with questions and complaints, and God gives him answers. But in the last few verses of his little book, after all his frustrating questions and musings, Habakkuk springs forth in a classic song of praise that boggles the imagination.

 Listen to him in chapter 3:17-19. “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive tree shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; and the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord is my strength and he will make my feet like hinds feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.”

What the prophet is saying in this passage is, he’s made a decision that no matter what happens to him, or what the circumstances, he’s going to praise God for it, even if it’s thanks for nothing.

When I was a kid, one of my major malfunctions was that I didn’t want to do things unless I felt like it. Studying, chores, anything you can mention were all done when I felt like it [or as I liked to refer to it, when the spirit moved me.] One day my father took me aside and explained to me that although I had a plan, my plan was flawed because it was the “no-plan plan” and it wasn’t going to work. He then introduced me to another plan; the, you have to do what needs to be done no matter how you feel, plan.

I was a child then and that’s the way most children want to do things, by the way they feel. As we grow, we begin to realize that if we let our emotions rule, they will move us all over the map and consequently many important things won’t get done. That’s a recipe for a life in shambles. Babies need feeding, farm animals needed looking after, crops need gathering, our work is waiting and how we feel is mostly irrelevant.

Maturity forces us to put our feelings and emotions on the back burner and move to another level. We learn that we posses a higher, stronger force and it’s called the human will and we begin to approach things by saying “I will do what I need to do.” And what an awesome power our will is.

As adults, here’s the way we operate; by sheer force of will [and the grace of God] we spend the day working at whatever we need to do that day, in order of its importance. We will do all this without consorting with our feelings because, unless we’re sick in bed, they have almost nothing to do with the work that must be done. What we can’t get done today, we’ll work on tomorrow. The most important things we have to do become the center- piece of our lives and everything else is organized around that. We’ve found, by hard experience that our success is embedded in our daily [for the most part, non-emotional,] regular schedule. Live or die, sink or swim, we do the basic’s and we do them everyday. Sound familiar? When I adopted that plan many years ago, a funny thing happened. My feelings, which used to try to rule me, found out I was going on in spite of them and they got in line and have rarely ever bothered me and never stopped me.


There’s a constant war going on within us between our flesh and spirit. Our flesh wants to dominate and do the pleasant things but our spirit wants to do the right, necessary things. The "Good-time devil" is always pulling on our coattail.Habakkuk is saying in this passage that no matter how disappointed he is, no matter how hurt he feels, no matter how he might feel physically or emotionally that day, he, through an act of his will is going to direct his soul to be thankful and praise God anyway.

 Even if it’s, “thanks for nothing.”LET’S DETERMINE TO PRAISE GOD ANYWAY.

Praise God for what and who he is rather than what he may seem to be doing or not doing. This attitude brings us into a sphere where we will get to know God in a deeper way and our hearts open to receive untold blessings.

In Psalm 118:24 the psalmist says, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” It doesn’t matter what the day brings, we should rejoice for God gave us the day as a gift.

In Psalm 116:17 the psalmist says,”I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord.” That means I may not feel like it but I know its right for me to praise him because I’m way behind in my praising anyway.

In Psalm 103; 1 the psalmist says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me bless his Holy name.”Here the psalmist is giving his soul instructions and directions to bless the Lord.

In Acts sixteen, Paul and Silas had been arrested, badly beaten and thrown in jail. At mid-night Paul called out, “Silas, can you hear me son? Silas said, “yes Paul I can hear you, what’s on your mind”? Paul said, “Son I think it’s time for us to have a praise and prayer service.” Silas said, “Paul, you must have a little fever, or you may have struck your head on the way in, we’re a thousand miles from home and nobody knows where we are. We’re going to die in this jail so let’s not sing now; I’m one hurting, pulsating wound and truthfully I don’t feel like singing.” Paul answered, “You’re right son, and we’re going to rot in this jail if we don’t start praising God.” The Bible says that at midnight Paul and Silas sang and praised God. Two men who didn’t feel like praising, two men who had good reason not to praise, two men who were little more than open, stinging wounds sang and praised God anyway. They could have said, “When we feel better we’ll praise” but they praised and the praises went up and hit the throne of God and came back down in the form of an earthquake, rattling the prison where they were incarcerated. I can just hear Silas say, “Paul I think I felt something.” Paul said “so did I son, one more verse and I think we’ll have it.” The praises of Paul and Silas, though seemingly for nothing, caused that jail to break open and Gods men to be set free.

Praise, like an airplane, lifts us above the dark clouds where we can see the shining silver of their other side. Praise lifts us above our petty desires and frustrations and puts our pain into perspective. Health and strength flows into us because our minds are brought into a positive place, putting us in a position to receive more from God.

Through praise we are reminded that the same God who spins the planets loves and cares for us. We, almost by definition were made to be vessels of praise. We see it constantly at sports events and award shows where man is praising man; that is our nature, but God created us for and covets our fellowship and praise unto him.


DO YOU WANT TO SEE A MIRACLE? - DO THIS!

Plant a seed, almost any seed. Put it in the earth anywhere it can get oxygen, water and fertilizer. Now watch what happens. Even if it’s under a mountain, under concrete or asphalt, if you give it basic requirements, it will burst forth and bud. It will push a mountain or any other impediment aside and spring forth from the ground. You will see a miracle. Your small seed could be a giant oak tree.

WANT TO SEE ANOTHER MIRACLE? -DO THIS.

Plant a seed of praise. Plant it in the darkest circumstance, under a mountain of difficulty or a wall that seems to separate you from your destiny. Speak forth your song of praise, and do it in every circumstance. Do it in the darkest hours of your life when the sun refuses to shine. Do it when your last friend has forsaken you and your life lies in shambles at your feet. Do it when you’ve laid your loved one in a new made grave and you come home to imagine the echoing sound of their footsteps in your hall way. Do it when life has stolen your last shred of health and strength and will to go on. Do it. Just do it and stand back and watch what happens. God will break through into your circumstances and show out in unfathomable ways for you are building him a house of praise to reside in. “He inhabits the praises of his children. Psalm 22:3.

IF WE WILL DO THIS, WHAT SEEMED TO BE NOTHING, WILL SOON BECOME MORE THAN WE COULD ASK OR THINK,

And we will exclaim with Habakkuk, “He will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk on my high places.”

“Praise ye the Lord, Praise the Lord O my soul. While I live will I praise the Lord. I will sing praises to my God while I have any being.” Psalm 146; 1&2.John

Blessings,

John

OPTIONS

By John Stallings

In 1957, I stood in my father’s church in Orlando Florida.


It was my last service for awhile in my home church. I was leaving for Bible College the next day.

I went to the alter that night in response to a call for students who were leaving for school. We stood as the church offered a prayer for all of us. I will never forget that night. I was eighteen years old and about to leave home for the first time for an extended stay. However, leaving home wasn’t my real concern that evening.

The real issue of my heart was the commitment I was about to make. Up to now I had gone to church and lived a Christian life pretty much as a normal course of things. I had gotten along just fine. I had dated Christian girls, had good Christian friends & I’m sure being a church kid had kept me out of a lot of trouble. But now I was looking at something else; something very different. I was about to embark on a course of schooling that would fence me in as far as where I could go & what I could do with my life.

I felt I had a call to the Ministry & had actually been preaching since I was fifteen.

This night however, what I felt was different. I was wavering a little bit. Was I actually going to make this my life’s choice? Once I started studying in Bible College, this was going to be the education for my life’s work. Now things were getting serious. The choice I was making now would affect whom I would marry, the kind of car I’d drive & the house I’d live in. It would effect how much money I’d make and the friends I’d have for the rest of my life.

Since I’ve been in the Ministry now for over fifty years I know I made the right decision. I’m grateful that moment of truth turned into a wonderful life’s choice. But on that night in 1957, I was in the valley of decision. All kinds of thoughts were running through my mind. All kinds of options presented themselves and clambered for attention. But I wasn’t the first and certainly wouldn’t be the last to ever be faced with a dilemma like this.

In John 6:66-71, Jesus was ministering to a large crowd and while He was in the process of preaching, his crowd started to leave. He was preaching to them about total commitment to Him. He was saying it involved the symbolic eating of His flesh and drinking of his blood. In one way, it was a rather gruesome discourse & it showed in the response. He was quickly losing His crowd.

As people were leaving, Jesus turned to the twelve and asked “are you going to leave also?” Then Peter spoke up, as he so often did & said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. He was saying, - "Lord, we’ve seen too much, we’ve seen you heal the sick, raise the dead, & walk on the water. We’ve looked around & checked our options and listened to other teachers but no one else is talking about eternal life. "

Much the same kind of quandary the disciples felt was happening to me that night in 1957 when I had that gut wrenching soul- searching experience. Yes, there were other options for me as a young man but I had seen up-close, the reality of serving Jesus & the difference it made in a life. I’d seen people leave the Church & go out into the world & return, bruised, battered & beaten. After a detour into a life of sin I’d seen them stand with tears in their eyes explaining how they’d drifted away from God & were almost destroyed. I’d seen people’s lives wrecked by sin and then seen God turn it all around for them. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what sin does to lives. I knew this very well.

I was quiet aware that a life without Jesus was a life mis-spent. However, I’d be less than honest if I didn’t say that there are options to serving Jesus. During my wavering I’d been presented with many of them. The entire world knows that Christianity has as its symbol a man hanging on a cross. Christianity has been called the bloody religion. It offends many people so much that in some places songs about the blood of Jesus have been expunged from song books.

This was the problem that day so long ago that caused the people to turn from Jesus. Eat his body, drink his blood? Really? So they left to find a more comfortable, palatable set of religious teachings. They wanted, before they committed to Christianity, to check out the options. Those so- called alternatives are still there today, so let’s take a look at a few of them. The Bible also calls them “strange fires.” It’s interesting that in the Bible, God’s power is symbolized by fire and false teachings are called;


STRANGE FIRE

Leviticus 10:1&2 tells about strange fire that men offered up to God that He didn’t accept. “And Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron took either of them his censer and put fire therein and put incense fire thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord which He commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord.”

That’s how God looks at these religious substitutes or options. Remember the first commandment; Thou shalt have no other God’s before me?” The first strange fire is;

GOOD WORKS!

Just live a good life, that’s all it takes to save you. I have an elderly acquaintance that I walk with at a Mall I sometimes go to for exercise. He’s a retired judge & I often talk to him about spiritual things & try to answer any questions he has.

The good judge is very frustrated with Christianity. He says, “Look John, I try to be a good man, that’s all I can do. If I pass a cripple & he has a pan out for money, I always give money. I don’t lie, cheat or steal. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a good man. And then I turn on T.V & the preachers are saying that all my good works are worth nothing.” I explain to him that Christianity teaches something entirely different than just being good. We’re saved by putting our faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. It is a living relationship with a living savior. It seems that the gospel is too simple for this man & he stumbles over that simplicity.

The Bible tells us that our good works can’t get us into heaven. Revelation 14:13 Says, “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from hence forth. Yea for they do rest from their labors and their works do follow them.” Our good works are important but they don’t lead us to heaven, they follow us.

Ephesians 2: 8-9 says, “By grace are ye saved by faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.”

But people even in our spiritually enlightened age still think that if they do good they’ll end up in a good place & if they do bad they’ll end up in a bad place. The feeling still exists that says “if I try to be good I’m O.K.” Using a baseball analogy, good works, as far as their ability to save us are like a high fly ball hit into the hands of a center fielder: it looks great but it means nothing. In other words we keep doing good but never quite measure up in Gods eyes. This then is the “good works option.” Another strange fire or option is;

FALSE RELIGION

We have Scientology, Unity, Spiritism, E.S.P, Transcendental Mediation, Mind control, Clairvoyance, Telepathy, Self realization, Unification church, Witchcraft, Satan worship, U. F. Ology, Black Muslims, Free masonry, Hare Krishna, Pantheism, Islam, Palm readers, All Eastern religions, Astrological signs, plus many more. All these are strange fires/options.

The problem with all these religions is that they too are all performance based; based on good works. Some think if you say so many prayers you are on your way to earning salvation. Some say if you adopt children that can help get you to heaven. Some build hospitals and care for the sick as a means of working their way to heaven. All of that is obviously good but can’t buy salvation.

In Acts 4:12 Scripture says;

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” The Bible is very clear on the matter of what it takes to go to heaven. Let’s look at the strange fire of;

REINCARNATION

Reincarnation says we are constantly re-born and keep coming back in other forms. However, the Bible says in Hebrews 9:27 “It is appointed to man once to die and after that the judgment.” There you have it, according to God’s Word we get only one life on earth, & then we are judged. Then there’s the strange fire of;

MORAL FREEDOM

Some people say, “I’ll just throw off all restraints and be free. Yeah, that’s the answer, freedom.” In 2 Timothy, 3:4 the Bible says:

“In the last days men shall be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God”

This sounds a lot like our day. The problem with moral freedom is that sin has a binding nature. The people I’ve seen try the freedom route have ended up in chains of bondage. Bob Dylan wrote a song on this subject, - “You gotta serve somebody.” How true that is.

Christ doesn’t bind us He frees us. Galatians 5:1 says” Stand fast in the liberty where in Christ has made you free and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage.” Jesus Christ alone can give the kind of freedom our souls yearn for.

Another strange fire is;

NEW AGE OR NEW BEGINNINGS

This teaching says, all you need to do is start over. Get a new spouse, a new house, new kids, & a new town. If you can just get out of your environment you’ll solve your problems. All you really need is a good vacation. But the problem with that is that we keep taking our miserable selves every where we go. Wherever we go, there we are. No matter how many changes you make it’s the same old you. There has to be a heart change.

Man can dabble in many mystic movements that are out there but none have the power to change him. Imagine a man who starts to slow down physically and lose all his strength. His hands can’t grip anything, they are too weak. His feet & legs are getting too weak to walk. His eyes are getting weak & blurry and finally he goes to the doctor. The doctor checks him out and says, “Well sir, it’s your heart.” The man argues with the doctor, telling him it’s not his heart, it’s his hands; it’s his feet, & his eyes. But the doctor says “sir I’m sorry, your heart is failing & you must have a new one.” That man would then have to be put in line to wait for a new heart. If the operation was successful, the bill will be astronomically high.

Spiritually, we are all born in need of a new heart for we are all born sinners. The only answer is to come as a child, confess our sins to God & receive by faith a new heart & a new life in Christ. It’s that simple. That’s why the Gospel is called good news. And best of all its free. Maintenance on our new heart however will involve daily exercise, preferably knee exercises.

Then there is the strange fire of;

HALF-HEARTED COMMITMENT!

This option says, “I’m not going to abandon the faith but neither am I selling all out for Christ.” I don’t intend to be a religious nut. I want comfortable Christianity. After all, you don’t have to be all that religious to go to heaven.” Well, you don’t need religion but you do need Christ to go to heaven. If you could do part of it yourself, you’d be your own co-Savior.

But what good is a half hearted anything? Would you want to watch a half hearted team play football? No! You want to see a man who takes five yards to fall down when they tackle him, don’t you? Would we send up a half hearted Astronaut on the space shuttle? Would you go to a half hearted doctor? Of course not.

Christ has said that to follow him we must be willing to give up everything else & let Him be the single focus of our lives. He has also promised that if we do that, He’ll add to our lives all the abundance we need to live the greatest, most fulfilling life a person can experience on this earth. When you take a good look at all the strange fires & so called options, you soon know that only Jesus can offer you real joy in this life & the life to come.

One last fire the world has to offer is the;

NO FIRE OPTION.

The Hindu answer is to kill all fire & passion. Just get all blanked out & have no feelings towards anything. Do it with drugs, meditation or whatever works. The problem with that is, man needs some kind of fire in his life. God made us that way. We need passion. We are drawn to it like a moth to the flame. We will have fire. Life for us would be unbearable & intolerable without fire. Indeed to man, to have no passion is almost the same as death. God understands this & that’s why we read in Deuteronomy 4:24: “For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire.”

God’s fire is the only fire that purges & cleanses us & gives power over all the devices of Satan.

Multitudes have tried to satisfy the soul by purchasing things & staying busy & a myriad of other substitutions. It doesn’t work. People all over the world are looking for a “god” to fill the void of their lives.

The fact is, without God, life is exactly as Solomon described it in Ecclesiastes 1, vanity & emptiness. Pleasure, education, a job, wealth, these alone can never give meaning to life.

People are trying different solutions but there is only one answer. Are you seeking something real?

This is a time when the economic circumstances are causing us to consider our lives. If you’ve trusted in “things” in the past I invite you to leave them behind & trust in Jesus Christ. Only Jesus can satisfy the soul. He’s the only real option. He said;

….I am come that they might have life & that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10



Blessings,


John



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