By John Stallings
Like many of you, I was captured by grace at a very young age.
By the time I was six I realized that Jesus loved me & died on the cross to save me. So I gave Him my heart & life & was born into the family of God.
As you might expect, I had no spiritual vocabulary & no spiritual teeth. I didn’t understand all there was to know about Jesus & still don’t. If you’d put a gun on me I couldn’t have told you what repentance or faith was. I had received the spirit of adoption whereby I could cry Abba Father or "Da-da" according to Romans 8:15, but that’s about it. I think I was pretty much a normal baby, spiritually & physically.
I remember my first “little man's” haircut & remember crying to get out of the barber chair. My kinfolk never let me forget that I was so scared all I could sobbingly say was “Feet on floor daddy, feet on floor.”Though my parents never said much about it, I can imagine the relief when I slowly began to grow up, though I also have a feeling it took quite a long time. One of the phrases I can remember hearing most from my childhood was “Johnny, be a big-boy.” Come on son, be a big-boy for daddy, or mommy.”
I can also remember that sentiment being impressed on me in non-verbal, somewhat painful ways that centered on the place where I sat down. One of the reasons a baby takes so much care is because in their world, it’s all about them & their needs. They’re always getting hurt, if not really hurt they’re getting their feelings hurt & they’re always making a mess for someone else to clean up. As much as we love our babies, we have to admit that in the home, if there’s a problem, it usually centers around the babies.
Have you ever noticed that the same is true in a church? You can count on spiritual babies to be at the center of just about every church disturbance. Acts chapter 15: 36-41 gives us a rare glimpse behind the scenes into the inner working of perhaps the greatest missionary team the Holy Spirit ever put together.This little glimpse into the lives of Paul & Barnabas shows the humanity yet spiritual maturity of the two men.
Paul needs no introduction anywhere because He’s without doubt one of the icons of Holy Writ. Barnabas however isn’t as well known but it’s good to remember that his name meant “Son of consolation” or “Encourager.” It’s rather special to be named after a gift of the spirit. i.e. Romans 12:8.Barnabas was responsible for over half the books of the New Testament. Paul wrote 13 of them, & Barnabas was the man who brought Paul to the brethren in Jerusalem. Acts 9:26-27. Mark wrote one & no doubt it was Barnabas who loved & encouraged him to continue in the faith. That’s 14, over half of the 27 books.
Have you ever heard the term “kinfolk’s complex?” The word we use today is nepotism. What both terms refer to is a prejudicial, biased leaning toward family. This problem is at the root of what’s happening in this story.On Paul & Barnabas’ first missionary trip together, John Mark the cousin of Barnabas accompanied them. Somewhere along the way John Mark decided to leave the team & return to his home in Jerusalem. We’re not told the reason for his departure however some have theorized the fires of resistance to the gospel were so hot, John Mark allowed fear to cause him to tuck-tail & run.When a second campaign was planned Barnabas suggests taking John Mark along as helper. Paul promptly nixed the idea. The scripture tells us that “sharp contention” developed between Barnabas & Paul over John Mark. Barnabas says he goes, Paul says he doesn’t go. They couldn’t agree so they split up.
As far as I’m able to discern, the two remarkable men never saw each other again.It’s impossible to read this drama & not be moved. The encouraging thing is the break-up didn’t come over doctrine. The rupture involved a personal dispute based on a judgment call. To their credit Paul nor Barnabas didn’t allow the conflict to distract them from their respective efforts of spreading the gospel. They were big-boys & exhibited “big-boy” maturity. Too often we can act like babies when we have a disagreement.If you ever raised kids you know the most glorious day was when the kids could sit at a table & feed themselves. We knew then they were becoming big boys & girls. I think God has the same feeling when He sees His kids growing up & not reacting to a speed-bump like it was a mountain.
THERE ARE TIMES WHEN SPIRITUAL MINDS & HEARTS WILL DISAGREE.
The important thing is to stay focused on the work of God. Because of the disagreement, Barnabas chose his cousin John Mark & they formed an evangelistic team. Paul chose Silas & both teams went on the road.Which team was most successful? As far as we know they were both equally successful. Some have said that Paul was just too stubborn in the matter. However we read in Acts 15:40 that the Church commended Paul & Silas, but no such commendation came for Barnabas & John Mark.Paul may have been motivated more by experience, cool logic & rationality, while Barnabas was guided by a kindred familiarity & a warm heart. Most of can relate to Barnabas and Mark here because we’ve all needed a second chance .
It’s interesting to note that later on Paul writes to Timothy & says,--Get Mark & bring him with you, for he is profitable to me in the ministry.—2 Tim.4:11. Sounds to me like "uncle Barney" got some vindication here.
We're looking here at a case of brass tacks Christian maturity. We are allowed to closely inspect how God’s choice men dealt with disagreements. Let’s look at some of the aspects of the way Paul & Barnabas settled their dispute & see what we might glean & utilize the next time we have a problem with a family member, Christian friend or worker.I think you’ll agree that 95% of our problems will be less than Paul & Barnabas’ situation so let’s see how we can disagree & still be like Jesus. Let’s see what “Big-Boy” Christianity is all about.
1. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION BEFORE YOU DISAGREE.
We’ve looked closely at Paul & Barnabas’ problem & see the simple story; they disagreed over taking John Mark on this missionary trip. It’s all laid out rather simply for us don’t you agree?Proverbs 18:13 says,--he that answereth a matter before he hears it, it is folly & shame to him.
The following ad was placed in a newspaper,
“Wendell Walsh has a sewing machine for sale. It belongs to the lady who loves with him.—Ph. 359-4704 Address 67 Walnut street.”The next day the following ad appeared.—“Wendell Walsh no longer has a sewing machine for sale. I have smashed it. The owner did not love with me; she’s an elderly lady who lived in my upstairs apartment. Please don’t call 359-4704, it’s been disconnected. Please don’t go to 67 Walnut Street, I no longer live there.”What a mess, & all the confusion was caused by the mix-up of two letters, I & O.
So much pain is caused on a daily basis because someone got their facts wrong. You may remember the news story about a young woman in a beauty pageant who was crowned queen & as she walked around with the crown on her head the judges started comparing notes because they knew she wasn’t the one they voted # ONE. It was embarrassing for all concerned when they had to back-peddle & remove the crown from one woman’s head & place it on the real winners head, all because of a mistake in counting.
Paul Harvey told about one of the top national credit reporters who messed up a woman’s credit & it took her ten years to get them to clean up their mistake. After all those years of suffering the credit company finally found [admitted to] their problem & the woman was given millions in compensation, but not before wrecking her good name & her emotions in the process.It’s almost impossible to overstate the importance of having our facts straight before we allow our opinions to jell, especially when it’s something we are telling to others as the truth. There’ll be plenty of time to disagree, but first get the truth.
2. DON’T INFLATE THE IMPORTANCE OF ONE DISAGREEMENT.
Paul & Barnabas didn't over inflate the importance of the disagreement they had. How do I know that? As we’ve already stated, Paul & Barnabas had the love & grace to sit down, spread out a map & say, “You go here & I’ll go there.” Every battle isn’t Armageddon & it’s always wise to choose our battles.If you’re having a disagreement with someone, here are a few pointers that should help;
1. Check your motive. Is your problem a valid point or is it a personality problem.
2. Check your spiritual fruit. Love, joy, peace, etc.Don’t go into a disagreement until you know your love level is higher than the disagreement level.Read & reread 1 Corinthians 13.
3. Have you lifted this up to God in prayer? Prayer will set our hearts & minds right.
4. Have you searched the scriptures on this matter?—Do you know what the bible teaches about it?
5. If you disagree, don’t be disagreeable. Our positions don’t get us into trouble, our dispositions do.
3. ISOLATE THE TRUE ISSUE & STAY ON THE POINT. DON’T BROADEN THE AGENDA.
A couple [I’m sure all married folk have experienced this, I know I have] will be out driving & get into an argument over directions. Maybe the man will turn on the wrong street or make some other mistake the wife feels will put them off course. It’s important to remember it’s just that one corned not all corners for the rest of our lives.And it’s extremely important to remember that our mother-in-law has nothing to do with this corner.A couple can get into a disagreement over the wife spending money on clothes & & then she’ll say to the husband, “Well, you bought a new shotgun & you already had two guns.” Then the man might say, “I don’t like your old momma anyway.” Where did momma come from? Money, money, money, momma. Once it gets to this point old Satan has a heyday.
A person in church might come by the pastor & say, “I think the music was a little loud this morning. And while I’m at it, your tie was a little too flashy last Sunday.” I’ve seen this spirit get loose & go on to say, “And I don’t like your hair, your shoes, clothes, your car, house or kids.”You see what that is? It’s broadening the agenda.
I’m sure you know that a church of any size will have an agenda for their annual business meeting. The meeting has to be announced far enough in advance for all the folk to plan for it. Then the pastor & deacons will take all the business of the church & formulate an agenda for the meeting.As a rule after a certain time no new business will be intertained simply becaause if it wasn’t done this way, you’d have people getting up during the meeting & bringing up things that would lead the proceedings far a -field. Precious time would be wasted & people would leave all dazed & confused. Centuries of experience has taught that even the best of God’s people can get into strife if meetings like this aren’t conducted in a timely, planned & deliberate way.
Paul said,--Avoid foolish & unlearned questions for they gender strife. 2 Tim 2:23. We don’t see this happening with Paul & Barnabas. As far as we know they stayed on the one issue, worked it out & never moved out of peace.
4. LEARN HOW TO BE HONEST WITHOUT BEING BRUTAL.
In John 4:7-39, when Jesus sat down at the well & talked to the woman, he could have taken the truth & destroyed her with it. She’d had five husbands & was shacked up with one she wasn’t married to. If Jesus had thrown her past in her face, she’d have shriveled up but he didn’t. He could have said, “woman, don’t go telling people you’ve been talking to me,” but He didn’t. He allowed her to act as a messenger to go into her little town & tell the story of this man who’d told her all she’d ever done. Many people came out to see Jesus & became believers because of her testimony.
I heard about a lady who mastered the art of telling the truth without being brutal. Her husband told her one day, “Honey, I wish I could be smart, educated & handsome for you because you deserve that kind of husband.” She answered, “But I don’t want someone smart, educated & handsome, I want you.”
A young man told his dad he felt everybody in the world hated him. The dad said, “That’s silly son, everyone hasn’t met you yet.
If you watch the news at all you know that in our country, you can’t do things that appear brutal. Even if a person is caught mistreating a dog or cat, they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Human nature recoils if we see a human being or animal being treated unfairly. Though I love the animals & believe in treating them with kindness, I have a problem with the fact that we can kill unborn babies with fewer problems than we have when cats & dogs are mistreated. But "don’t be cruel" is always a good motto.We shouldn’t make statements like; “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” or “you’re as strong as an Ox & almost as smart,” or “honey, I wish you’d lose a little weight, when you walk in front of the TV we miss three episodes.” It’s much better to learn to say; “I may be wrong but here’s what I think.”
5. NEVER BREAK YOUR PLOW OVER A STUMP!
This is a very “old school” illustration that comes from the farming culture. My father was raised on a South Georgia farm & he shared many philosophies with me that originated on “dirt poor” farms.My grandfather used to teach his sons that some of the richest soil had stumps growing in it. What the farmer had to do was plow around the stumps instead of hitting them with his relativity fragile plow. This might seem like a no-brainer because anyone can see how unwise it would be to intentionally use a light plow on an entrenched & sturdy stump. The stumps were deeply embedded & rock solid. If a farmer tried to pull one of them up with his plow he’d not only tear- up his plow but He’d break down the horse or mule pulling the plow. So the farmer would simply plow around stumps.
There will be “stumps” growing in every field we’ll ever work in be it the ministry or a secular business. These stumps will be of the human variety. They aren’t of themselves demonic, but Satan sets them in your path trying to get you to do or say something you’ll regret. It might be a kindly old aunt, grandmother, mother-in-law, boss, neighbor or any other person “planted” in your field.I remember in the first church I pastored there was a “stump” in the form of a little old lady who’d been in the church for fifty years. She was against me from the day I arrived in town & she’d sit in the congregation & glare at me when I preached. Looking back she was the best friend I ever had because at least I always knew where she stood & she kept me sharp. I would study and pray an extra hour just with sister……in mind. I knew she was looking for any mistake I might make & she’d trumpet it to the high heavens.
I challenge you to look at your life & pin-point the stumps in your “field.” Again, they aren’t necessarily Satanic, they may be some of best folk you’ll ever meet, but God has chosen to use them to challenge, chisel, sand-paper, test your patience & polish you up.We should remember that the more serious the issue, the higher our love level must be.
Paul took the time to totally expound on love in 1 Corinthians 13. He not only tells us what love is, he tells us what love isn’t. Everything you & I do & say must be filtered through that chapter & everything good we might accomplish, even if it’s being burned at the stake, If it’s not done in love, it won't count.If you need another proof-text to show if you’re dealing in love or if others are dealing with you in love, apply James’ test;
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality, and without hypocrisy.-James 3:17
If we’re going to have any friends, hold a job long or live in anything closely resembling peace & happiness, we’ll all have to plow around a stump now & then. But some gorgeous & nutritious crops are grown in some awfully stump-filled farm land.
6. IF YOU HAVE A DISAGREEMENT WITH SOMEONE, AND IT TURNS INTO A POINT OF SEPARATION, MAYBE NOBODY WAS WRONG. MAYBE A SEPARATION IS GOOD EVEN IN GOD’S EYES.
The bible doesn’t say Paul & Barnabas were at odds about everything & on every point for life; they just had a difference of opinion on one point. Obviously God blessed both these ministering teams.Paul didn’t write poison-pen letters to the churches against Barnabas. Barnabas didn’t send letters saying “Don’t listen to Paul. I know him & he’s a scoundrel.” They just split up “and the church rolled on.”
Some churches like to Baptize by totally dunking the individual & that seems to me to be the bible way. But when you think about it, others want to sprinkle them with water. Some want to baptize folk back ways, front ways or sideways. There was such as drought in Georgia recently the Baptists were sprinkling, the Methodist’s & Episcopals were spraying from a bottle & the Catholics were offering handiwipes. Maybe I’m wrong but it seems to me whether we squirt-em, spray-em, sprinkle-em or dunk-em, we should find a way to meet in the middle because in the final analysis, we’re all heading for the same heaven.
WHAT IS ‘BIG-BOY’ CHRISTIANITY? IT’S LOOKING FOR THINGS WE CAN AGREE ON & AS MUCH AS IS POSSIBLE, LIVING PEACEFULLY.
Let me tell you about the biggest baby in the bible.We find him in Jonah 4:1-11. Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, “God! I knew it-when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!So, God, if you won’t kill them, kill me! I’m better off dead!”God said, “What do you have to be angry about?”
But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city.God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up.But then God sent a worm.
By the dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: “I’m better off dead!”Then God said to Jonah, “What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?”Jonah said, “Plenty of right. It’s made me angry enough to die.”God said, “What’s this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planter or watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can’t I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don’t yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?”
This big baby named Jonah was mad at God for blessing & forgiving the people he’d preached to.
What a contrast to the words of Jesus on the cross;
“Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."
Jonah---Not a very BIG-BOY!!
BLESSINGS,
John
Friday, September 16, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
"I Hope You Dance.."
By John Stallings
“I HOPE YOU DANCE!”
That sounds funny; especially coming from 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, “I hope you dance.” You’ve probably heard the Lee Ann Womack song -it’s been a popular country song over the last few years. I believe it was writen by a man/woman team and I'm sorry I don't have their names as I write this. Anyway, when you listen to the lyrics, you understand that dancing, at least in the mind of the writers, 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 breaks out of their shell & finds some initiative.
INITIATIVE IS A CRUCIAL COMPONENT IN LIFE
One definition of initiative is, “The willingness to do the thing that needs to be done without being prodded.”
• In 1 Sam. 14 there’s a very interesting story of Saul & his son Jonathan. This story finds 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 “Mexican Stand-off.” 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 the needle on this thing and get it off dead center.”
JONATHAN’S ACTION WAS IN FAITH, NOT AN ACT OF PRESUMPTION
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 it's 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 experience 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. “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 the 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 mind's 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. 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?” Here’s the truth - “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.”-[Sounds like another good song-title!] 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.
• JONATHAN AND HIS “NAMELESS ARMOR-BEARER”
I’d 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 like 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. Doubters can suck all the “spiritual oxygen” out of any room.
• 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.
Peter didn’t tell the lame man –“look at me”, 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, meaning 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 the 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 Hombres? 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 ladies and gentlemen 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 lead” 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
“I HOPE YOU DANCE!”
That sounds funny; especially coming from 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, “I hope you dance.” You’ve probably heard the Lee Ann Womack song -it’s been a popular country song over the last few years. I believe it was writen by a man/woman team and I'm sorry I don't have their names as I write this. Anyway, when you listen to the lyrics, you understand that dancing, at least in the mind of the writers, 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 breaks out of their shell & finds some initiative.
INITIATIVE IS A CRUCIAL COMPONENT IN LIFE
One definition of initiative is, “The willingness to do the thing that needs to be done without being prodded.”
• In 1 Sam. 14 there’s a very interesting story of Saul & his son Jonathan. This story finds 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 “Mexican Stand-off.” 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 the needle on this thing and get it off dead center.”
JONATHAN’S ACTION WAS IN FAITH, NOT AN ACT OF PRESUMPTION
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 it's 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 experience 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. “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 the 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 mind's 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. 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?” Here’s the truth - “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.”-[Sounds like another good song-title!] 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.
• JONATHAN AND HIS “NAMELESS ARMOR-BEARER”
I’d 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 like 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. Doubters can suck all the “spiritual oxygen” out of any room.
• 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.
Peter didn’t tell the lame man –“look at me”, 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, meaning 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 the 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 Hombres? 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 ladies and gentlemen 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 lead” 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
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Gifted-Not Spiritual!
When we hear of the failure of a well known Christian, we are perplexed and wonder why and how it happened.
When someone well known is mentioned on the six o’clock news and their failure is spread across the T.V screens and newspapers, we are shocked and mourn for them, which is as it should be. We should also go to prayer for them, whether or not the story being told is true.
If what we’re hearing has actually happened, we’re shocked because the newness of the revelation has caught us unprepared. However, in truth we are usually hearing about it, not unlike cancer, in its late stages. Rarely does a story emerge about an individual in the germinating phase of their failure. That person doubtless had been pursuing the course of action and going down that road for years. We are just finding it out.
Though we often hear the term, “Falling into sin” it’s a misnomer in many ways, for these falls almost always take time. It is unfortunate that these things happen in the Kingdom of God because when one Christian stumbles all of us are wounded by it. But Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians helps us to better understand that God has put his rich treasure of Grace and power into earthen vessels.
Paul writes; “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” 2 Cor.4:7
What a sobering and humbling thought.
Again, Paul is reminding us in this verse that there is a human element that we all constantly contend with. One Bible translation of the above verse says;
“We have this treasure in Jars of Clay.”
While there is no question about the reality of the powerful treasure we are given, scripture reminds us that the containers of this marvelous power are only clay.
Let me share with you a concept that might sound strange: gifted not spiritual. Does it sound like an oxymoron to hear the words in the same sentence? Does the idea of an individual exercising a Gift such as the Gifts of Healing, or the Gift of Faith or Prophesy, and not be what God calls a” Spiritual person” seem crazy? How could such a thing be true?
In 1 Corinthians 3:1 the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul tells the Corinthian church,
“I could not write unto you as Spiritual but as unto carnal”.
You certainly couldn’t accuse this Corinthian church of not exercising the gifts for they possessed them and they were certainly in use. However, according to Paul they were “not spiritual.” Having made that statement, let’s chase it for a bit and see just what Paul meant.
IT’S OBVIOUS THAT THE GIFTS GOD GAVE THE EARLY CHURCH ARE AVAILABLE TODAY.
Romans 11:29 makes it clear that:
The gifts and callings of God are without repentance.
Meaning when God in His sovereignty gives the gifts, He does not revoke them. Since the gifts were given to the early church, his promise was that they wouldn’t be withdrawn. Moreover, these gifts can’t, as some have supposed, have ended with the Apostles for they were never called the Gifts of the Apostles, but rather were the “Gifts of the Spirit.”
Certainly we know the Holy Spirit hasn’t died, so we can rightly say that Gods gifts are still resident within the Church. Many theologians, through a process of dispensations, like a mailman sorting mail, arbitrarily place the gifts in the dispensation where they feel they belong; unfortunately not the one you and I live in. This seems convenient but is dead wrong.
However it’s important to remember, and this confuses folk; just because a person uses one of the spiritual gifts doesn’t mean that individual is spiritually mature or for that matter their lives are pleasing to God. What it does mean, clear and simple, is that God by divine fiat has chosen to use that person. No gift or the exercise of that gift marks a person as “someone special.”
THE GIFT TELLS LITTLE ABOUT THE ONE WHO HAS IT, BUT RATHER TELLS US ABOUT THE ONE WHO GAVE IT.
If someone gave me a $500,000 Bentley and I drove it around arrogantly, it would make me look foolish because the car would say nothing about me; rather it would speak of the person who gifted me.
The following story is rather lengthy but I believe it sheds much light on the subject before us.
In the mid-seventies, I went to conduct a revival in a church in Florida. When I arrived the people were still buzzing with excitement about the evangelist who had ministered for them a few months earlier. This man, whom I had met briefly earlier that year, was used in The Gift of the Word of Knowledge. He had the ability to give folk knowledge about themselves that only they and their doctor or those close to them could possibly know. He didn’t preach much, once in awhile he’d have a message but he was very clear with the people; “I don’t preach sermons like other preachers.” This was always fine with the folk who came and the revival he conducted in this particular church went on for seven weeks. The Pastor showed me the check book where this man’s checks had been written to him nightly (he couldn’t wait until the end of the week to be paid as most other preachers do.)
I was stunned to see that the checks he received were hundreds, sometimes thousands each and every night. I certainly didn’t begrudge this minister the money he received but it was far more than most churches that size could normally pay an Evangelist. This man would come to the service each night and when introduced, he would begin bringing people up to the platform and giving them information about themselves he obviously couldn’t have known.
During the mid-seventies, he was a sensation everywhere he went. He wasn’t always correct about people. There were nights he didn’t seem to “have it” and everyone understood but the fact of the matter was that he was right on target much of the time. Remember Paul said;—We prophesy in part—and even Paul himself acknowledged- we see through a glass darkly.
After the first service of my meeting in this church, one of the church leaders came up to me and asked, “Brother, Is that all you do?” I was a little confused and asked what he meant. He asked again if that was “all I did.” I answered that what I do each night, unless God led me otherwise, was to sing my songs, preach the Word of God and expect signs to follow and have people Saved, Healed and Blessed. I continued to tell the brother that I always preached the Word and when the Word was preached we could expect exciting signs to follow. Just as in Bible days, “signs and wonders follow the believers." While some do, I never felt led of God to advertise myself as a specialist. If the manifestation of a “gift” was what the people expected of me, they would be disappointed if the gift wasn’t evident in each & every service, therefore presenting a temptation to “try to force the gift to operate & therefore try to achieve what God isn’t doing.” This seemed to be what their last evangelist was doing.
Also, some of the things God showed me about particular folk in the church had a negative side & were better presented within the context of a sermon, therefore taking the “personal sting” out of the revelation. If God prompted me to do it more openly, I would as always have a keen listening ear.
MULTIPLE GIFTS RESIDENT IN ONE PERSON NOT UNUSUAL
In 2 Timothy 4:1-2 Paul mentions several gifts that Timothy should be exercising. He says,
“Preach the word”—Be instant in season & out of season”---
“reprove, rebuke, exhort,”---
“With all longsuffering--- & doctrine.”
Several gifts of the spirit or a “gift-mix” are contained in that short passage. Many times within one sermon there can be a stretch of five minutes or more of pure prophesy embedded in the message for those with ears to hear. But the good brother didn’t try to hide his disappointment over the fact that preaching & singing was for the most part “all I did.”
During that week I met several other nice folk who had been so enraptured by their former Evangelist’s ministry that they could hardly speak of anything else. Since the Pastor had been an old friend of mine I tactfully questioned him about the effects this Evangelist had on his church. I quickly discerned that almost anything I said was construed to be jealousy on my part of that Evangelist’s ministry. I was there for two weeks and immensely enjoyed it. At the close of the meetings, my offering wasn’t as much as the former evangelist was given however the folk did give generously and my needs were more than met. We had, I felt a very well attended, successful series of meetings and a lot happened during those days. The Pastor and the people were happy and invited me back soon. After I left, I said very little about the experience to anyone figuring anything I said might be construed as “sour grapes.”
I left that town troubled in my spirit, for there was something I knew about this Evangelist that I hadn’t mentioned. That information was not exactly unknown among the ministers I knew either, but really was old news, not of much significance. I knew from unimpeachable sources that this man, a few years back had been discovered in a motel with another man and two women who weren’t their wives, having a drunken party. The reason this knowledge wasn’t all that important was that he had confessed it all and was, as far as I knew, in right standing now with God, his wife, and fellow ministers.
From time to time after that meeting in Florida, I would hear stories about the evangelist most of them centering on his lengthy, successful, lucrative revivals. I knew that in some places he had to rent u-haul trucks to take away from the cities all the things people lavished on him. Because he had this gift operating in his ministry, nothing else seemed to be important and pockets turned inside out for him everywhere he went. Some folk would be so enamored with this man they gave him just about everything they had. I also knew that some emptied their bank account and their church stepped in and paid their household bills after the meetings. All I could do was just ponder these things in my heart, and though they troubled me, put them aside & move on.
Thirteen years went by. One day I turned on my T.V and to my horror, saw this evangelist on one of the major Christian talk shows laughing & talking with the host. I was floored and said to my wife “This is the beginning of the end for him,” calling the name of the T.V host, who also was an old friend of mine. I knew there was nothing I could have told him that the host of that show didn’t already know so I had no alternative but to stare dumbfounded into the T.V.
In a few weeks the T.V host was exposed for an affair and his life and ministry were turned upside down, all conveniently arranged by this evangelist. Not long afterward, the evangelist was driving a cab in a southern city and hit the news because he was arrested on two DUIs within a short time.Some time back he died of complications of AIDS.
Now, can I say that this man wasn’t using a true gift of God? No! I could not, nor would not! In all probability he was exercising a spiritual gift that God had at one time bestowed on him, for remember, those gifts aren’t taken back by God. Obviously he had no spiritual fruit but many times we suspend our search for spiritual fruit feeling we’ll be called “critical.”
THIS DOESN’T REFLECT ON THE REALITY OF THE GIFTS
What I’m saying here might make some feel uncomfortable feeling it reflects on the magnificent gifts of God. But think about it this way; while it’s extremely hurtful to God and the body of Christ to have a preacher or any Christian to fall and turn away from what they know is real, if a preacher who preaches a strong the Salvation message backslides, it isn’t a reflection on the Salvation message. What has gone wrong is the failure of that individual and nothing more. What we must teach is that we need to see the fruit of any person’s life before we can know whether or not that person is in sync with spiritual reality.
In Matthew 7; 21; Jesus said “NOT EVERY ONE THAT SAITH UNTO ME LORD LORD SHALL INTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. BUT HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS HEAVEN. MANY WILL SAY UNTO ME IN THAT DAY, LORD LORD HAVE WE NOT PROPHESIED IN THY NAME? AND HAVE WE NOT CAST OUT DEVILS? AND IN THY NAME DONE MANY WONDERFUL WORKS? AND THEN I WILL PROFESS ONTO THEM I NEVER KNEW YOU; DEPART FROM ME YE THAT WORK INIQUITY.”
Think about that. Jesus doesn’t say, ‘No, you never did any of those things." He just says -"depart from me, I never knew you.” What I am saying here isn’t meant as a negative regarding the Gifts of the Spirit but rather it’s a call for understanding and balance. We get so carried away with a gift and the person who uses it that we can forget that it tells little about the user of the gift but the giver of it, and doesn’t assure that the user of the gift is in right standing with the giver.
If a preacher who was known to not believe gifts are operative in our day were to say these things, folk would automatically reject it feeling that what he said was biased. However I was raised in churches that believe in these gifts as do I. The Bible never says “by their gifts shall ye know them” but rather;
“by their fruits shall ye know them.”
CHARISMA WITHOUT CHARACTER IS DANGEROUS
Unfortunately we often turn that around backwards and say “by their gifts shall ye know them,” which is obviously in error. Charisma without Character is very dangerous and folk fitting that description consistently do damage to the body of Christ.
I personally have known men who were either in jail or preaching. As soon as they are let out of jail they will go somewhere and start a church and believe me it will grow, right up until the time they go to jail again. I have no ax to grind with the preachers; the real problem isn’t with them as much as the people who will blindly follow them without checking the fruit of their life.
Yes the miraculous signs are real and should follow all believers. Think about this; in the early church the miraculous signs were for the unbeliever; sadly today all kinds of supernatural signs are needed to get many Christians interested.
The answer is to stop elevating people because of a spiritual gift for certainly we know if they are using it rightly they will not try to elevate themselves.
New Christians especially should be taught not to be hyper- critical, but to be on guard against being led by someone whose life doesn’t please God. It is always helpful to remember also that when any individual speaks a Word into our lives that has anything to do with direction for our life, it should always be a confirmation of God is already saying to us. When God wants to give us direction, he will speak to our own hearts through his word or through promptings in our spirit. Anything said to us through another person, if it’s God, will square with what we’ve already been shown by God’s spirit.
If God wants you to go to Africa as a missionary, He’s not going to go to sister Snikelfritz and tell her to tell you-He’ll tell you himself
There’s a wonderful discourse on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. , and, in the last verse Paul tells of a more excellent way. The next chapter, 1 Cor. 13 is of course the love chapter. It’s interesting that chapter twelve is the POWER chapter, thirteen is the LOVE chapter and if you read chapter fourteen you’ll find it’s the SOUND MIND chapter. Remember Paul told young Timothy,
“God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7
I think it no accident that God has sandwiched the love chapter between twelve, the power chapter enumerating the available gifts, and fourteen, the sound mind chapter exhorting how the gifts are to be used. After all, what good are we if we can raise the dead and have no love? If I have enough faith to move mountains and no love, then I might just throw the mountain in someone else’s path. Paul tells these Corinthians that he can’t call them spiritual even though they are gifted because they are seeking after men instead of realizing God gets all the glory for what any of us accomplishes.
JOHN DID NO MIRACLES
There’s a fantastic fact in the John 10:41 that really amazes me. John the Baptist did no miracle, however Jesus said of John in Matthew 11:11…
“no greater man was born of women than John.”
Isn’t that amazing; here is Christ, the miracle worker, calling John, a man who didn’t perform a single miracle not only great but he says -- "no greater man was ever born of woman." This statement is emblematic of the fact that Jesus doesn’t equate greatness with the miraculous. We should never be followers of men just because of their gifts, but on the other hand always be appreciative of the magnificent supernatural gifts God has placed within his church.
There are two ways God can work where man is concerned; He can work IN us or He can work THROUGH us. He has worked through donkeys, birds, fish, wooden rods, and rocks among other things. God however can’t work IN anything but yielded, submitted Christians. Much of Samson’s life God was only working THROUGH him not IN HIM. Our prayer should be;
"WORK IN ME, IN MY HEART & SOUL SO THAT I MIGHT EACH DAY GROW MORE & MORE-UNTO THE MEASURE OF THE STATURE OF THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST.
BUT DON’T WORK THROUGH ME TO ACCOMPLISH THINGS MEN WOULD CALL GREAT, IF MY OWN HEART IS TO BE LEFT ADRIFT IN A SPIRITUAL DESERT, BEREFT OF SPIRITUAL JOY AND POWER, NEVER FEASTING ON THE MANNA I’M DISPENSING TO OTHERS.”
Blessings
John
When someone well known is mentioned on the six o’clock news and their failure is spread across the T.V screens and newspapers, we are shocked and mourn for them, which is as it should be. We should also go to prayer for them, whether or not the story being told is true.
If what we’re hearing has actually happened, we’re shocked because the newness of the revelation has caught us unprepared. However, in truth we are usually hearing about it, not unlike cancer, in its late stages. Rarely does a story emerge about an individual in the germinating phase of their failure. That person doubtless had been pursuing the course of action and going down that road for years. We are just finding it out.
Though we often hear the term, “Falling into sin” it’s a misnomer in many ways, for these falls almost always take time. It is unfortunate that these things happen in the Kingdom of God because when one Christian stumbles all of us are wounded by it. But Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians helps us to better understand that God has put his rich treasure of Grace and power into earthen vessels.
Paul writes; “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” 2 Cor.4:7
What a sobering and humbling thought.
Again, Paul is reminding us in this verse that there is a human element that we all constantly contend with. One Bible translation of the above verse says;
“We have this treasure in Jars of Clay.”
While there is no question about the reality of the powerful treasure we are given, scripture reminds us that the containers of this marvelous power are only clay.
Let me share with you a concept that might sound strange: gifted not spiritual. Does it sound like an oxymoron to hear the words in the same sentence? Does the idea of an individual exercising a Gift such as the Gifts of Healing, or the Gift of Faith or Prophesy, and not be what God calls a” Spiritual person” seem crazy? How could such a thing be true?
In 1 Corinthians 3:1 the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul tells the Corinthian church,
“I could not write unto you as Spiritual but as unto carnal”.
You certainly couldn’t accuse this Corinthian church of not exercising the gifts for they possessed them and they were certainly in use. However, according to Paul they were “not spiritual.” Having made that statement, let’s chase it for a bit and see just what Paul meant.
IT’S OBVIOUS THAT THE GIFTS GOD GAVE THE EARLY CHURCH ARE AVAILABLE TODAY.
Romans 11:29 makes it clear that:
The gifts and callings of God are without repentance.
Meaning when God in His sovereignty gives the gifts, He does not revoke them. Since the gifts were given to the early church, his promise was that they wouldn’t be withdrawn. Moreover, these gifts can’t, as some have supposed, have ended with the Apostles for they were never called the Gifts of the Apostles, but rather were the “Gifts of the Spirit.”
Certainly we know the Holy Spirit hasn’t died, so we can rightly say that Gods gifts are still resident within the Church. Many theologians, through a process of dispensations, like a mailman sorting mail, arbitrarily place the gifts in the dispensation where they feel they belong; unfortunately not the one you and I live in. This seems convenient but is dead wrong.
However it’s important to remember, and this confuses folk; just because a person uses one of the spiritual gifts doesn’t mean that individual is spiritually mature or for that matter their lives are pleasing to God. What it does mean, clear and simple, is that God by divine fiat has chosen to use that person. No gift or the exercise of that gift marks a person as “someone special.”
THE GIFT TELLS LITTLE ABOUT THE ONE WHO HAS IT, BUT RATHER TELLS US ABOUT THE ONE WHO GAVE IT.
If someone gave me a $500,000 Bentley and I drove it around arrogantly, it would make me look foolish because the car would say nothing about me; rather it would speak of the person who gifted me.
The following story is rather lengthy but I believe it sheds much light on the subject before us.
In the mid-seventies, I went to conduct a revival in a church in Florida. When I arrived the people were still buzzing with excitement about the evangelist who had ministered for them a few months earlier. This man, whom I had met briefly earlier that year, was used in The Gift of the Word of Knowledge. He had the ability to give folk knowledge about themselves that only they and their doctor or those close to them could possibly know. He didn’t preach much, once in awhile he’d have a message but he was very clear with the people; “I don’t preach sermons like other preachers.” This was always fine with the folk who came and the revival he conducted in this particular church went on for seven weeks. The Pastor showed me the check book where this man’s checks had been written to him nightly (he couldn’t wait until the end of the week to be paid as most other preachers do.)
I was stunned to see that the checks he received were hundreds, sometimes thousands each and every night. I certainly didn’t begrudge this minister the money he received but it was far more than most churches that size could normally pay an Evangelist. This man would come to the service each night and when introduced, he would begin bringing people up to the platform and giving them information about themselves he obviously couldn’t have known.
During the mid-seventies, he was a sensation everywhere he went. He wasn’t always correct about people. There were nights he didn’t seem to “have it” and everyone understood but the fact of the matter was that he was right on target much of the time. Remember Paul said;—We prophesy in part—and even Paul himself acknowledged- we see through a glass darkly.
After the first service of my meeting in this church, one of the church leaders came up to me and asked, “Brother, Is that all you do?” I was a little confused and asked what he meant. He asked again if that was “all I did.” I answered that what I do each night, unless God led me otherwise, was to sing my songs, preach the Word of God and expect signs to follow and have people Saved, Healed and Blessed. I continued to tell the brother that I always preached the Word and when the Word was preached we could expect exciting signs to follow. Just as in Bible days, “signs and wonders follow the believers." While some do, I never felt led of God to advertise myself as a specialist. If the manifestation of a “gift” was what the people expected of me, they would be disappointed if the gift wasn’t evident in each & every service, therefore presenting a temptation to “try to force the gift to operate & therefore try to achieve what God isn’t doing.” This seemed to be what their last evangelist was doing.
Also, some of the things God showed me about particular folk in the church had a negative side & were better presented within the context of a sermon, therefore taking the “personal sting” out of the revelation. If God prompted me to do it more openly, I would as always have a keen listening ear.
MULTIPLE GIFTS RESIDENT IN ONE PERSON NOT UNUSUAL
In 2 Timothy 4:1-2 Paul mentions several gifts that Timothy should be exercising. He says,
“Preach the word”—Be instant in season & out of season”---
“reprove, rebuke, exhort,”---
“With all longsuffering--- & doctrine.”
Several gifts of the spirit or a “gift-mix” are contained in that short passage. Many times within one sermon there can be a stretch of five minutes or more of pure prophesy embedded in the message for those with ears to hear. But the good brother didn’t try to hide his disappointment over the fact that preaching & singing was for the most part “all I did.”
During that week I met several other nice folk who had been so enraptured by their former Evangelist’s ministry that they could hardly speak of anything else. Since the Pastor had been an old friend of mine I tactfully questioned him about the effects this Evangelist had on his church. I quickly discerned that almost anything I said was construed to be jealousy on my part of that Evangelist’s ministry. I was there for two weeks and immensely enjoyed it. At the close of the meetings, my offering wasn’t as much as the former evangelist was given however the folk did give generously and my needs were more than met. We had, I felt a very well attended, successful series of meetings and a lot happened during those days. The Pastor and the people were happy and invited me back soon. After I left, I said very little about the experience to anyone figuring anything I said might be construed as “sour grapes.”
I left that town troubled in my spirit, for there was something I knew about this Evangelist that I hadn’t mentioned. That information was not exactly unknown among the ministers I knew either, but really was old news, not of much significance. I knew from unimpeachable sources that this man, a few years back had been discovered in a motel with another man and two women who weren’t their wives, having a drunken party. The reason this knowledge wasn’t all that important was that he had confessed it all and was, as far as I knew, in right standing now with God, his wife, and fellow ministers.
From time to time after that meeting in Florida, I would hear stories about the evangelist most of them centering on his lengthy, successful, lucrative revivals. I knew that in some places he had to rent u-haul trucks to take away from the cities all the things people lavished on him. Because he had this gift operating in his ministry, nothing else seemed to be important and pockets turned inside out for him everywhere he went. Some folk would be so enamored with this man they gave him just about everything they had. I also knew that some emptied their bank account and their church stepped in and paid their household bills after the meetings. All I could do was just ponder these things in my heart, and though they troubled me, put them aside & move on.
Thirteen years went by. One day I turned on my T.V and to my horror, saw this evangelist on one of the major Christian talk shows laughing & talking with the host. I was floored and said to my wife “This is the beginning of the end for him,” calling the name of the T.V host, who also was an old friend of mine. I knew there was nothing I could have told him that the host of that show didn’t already know so I had no alternative but to stare dumbfounded into the T.V.
In a few weeks the T.V host was exposed for an affair and his life and ministry were turned upside down, all conveniently arranged by this evangelist. Not long afterward, the evangelist was driving a cab in a southern city and hit the news because he was arrested on two DUIs within a short time.Some time back he died of complications of AIDS.
Now, can I say that this man wasn’t using a true gift of God? No! I could not, nor would not! In all probability he was exercising a spiritual gift that God had at one time bestowed on him, for remember, those gifts aren’t taken back by God. Obviously he had no spiritual fruit but many times we suspend our search for spiritual fruit feeling we’ll be called “critical.”
THIS DOESN’T REFLECT ON THE REALITY OF THE GIFTS
What I’m saying here might make some feel uncomfortable feeling it reflects on the magnificent gifts of God. But think about it this way; while it’s extremely hurtful to God and the body of Christ to have a preacher or any Christian to fall and turn away from what they know is real, if a preacher who preaches a strong the Salvation message backslides, it isn’t a reflection on the Salvation message. What has gone wrong is the failure of that individual and nothing more. What we must teach is that we need to see the fruit of any person’s life before we can know whether or not that person is in sync with spiritual reality.
In Matthew 7; 21; Jesus said “NOT EVERY ONE THAT SAITH UNTO ME LORD LORD SHALL INTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. BUT HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS HEAVEN. MANY WILL SAY UNTO ME IN THAT DAY, LORD LORD HAVE WE NOT PROPHESIED IN THY NAME? AND HAVE WE NOT CAST OUT DEVILS? AND IN THY NAME DONE MANY WONDERFUL WORKS? AND THEN I WILL PROFESS ONTO THEM I NEVER KNEW YOU; DEPART FROM ME YE THAT WORK INIQUITY.”
Think about that. Jesus doesn’t say, ‘No, you never did any of those things." He just says -"depart from me, I never knew you.” What I am saying here isn’t meant as a negative regarding the Gifts of the Spirit but rather it’s a call for understanding and balance. We get so carried away with a gift and the person who uses it that we can forget that it tells little about the user of the gift but the giver of it, and doesn’t assure that the user of the gift is in right standing with the giver.
If a preacher who was known to not believe gifts are operative in our day were to say these things, folk would automatically reject it feeling that what he said was biased. However I was raised in churches that believe in these gifts as do I. The Bible never says “by their gifts shall ye know them” but rather;
“by their fruits shall ye know them.”
CHARISMA WITHOUT CHARACTER IS DANGEROUS
Unfortunately we often turn that around backwards and say “by their gifts shall ye know them,” which is obviously in error. Charisma without Character is very dangerous and folk fitting that description consistently do damage to the body of Christ.
I personally have known men who were either in jail or preaching. As soon as they are let out of jail they will go somewhere and start a church and believe me it will grow, right up until the time they go to jail again. I have no ax to grind with the preachers; the real problem isn’t with them as much as the people who will blindly follow them without checking the fruit of their life.
Yes the miraculous signs are real and should follow all believers. Think about this; in the early church the miraculous signs were for the unbeliever; sadly today all kinds of supernatural signs are needed to get many Christians interested.
The answer is to stop elevating people because of a spiritual gift for certainly we know if they are using it rightly they will not try to elevate themselves.
New Christians especially should be taught not to be hyper- critical, but to be on guard against being led by someone whose life doesn’t please God. It is always helpful to remember also that when any individual speaks a Word into our lives that has anything to do with direction for our life, it should always be a confirmation of God is already saying to us. When God wants to give us direction, he will speak to our own hearts through his word or through promptings in our spirit. Anything said to us through another person, if it’s God, will square with what we’ve already been shown by God’s spirit.
If God wants you to go to Africa as a missionary, He’s not going to go to sister Snikelfritz and tell her to tell you-He’ll tell you himself
There’s a wonderful discourse on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. , and, in the last verse Paul tells of a more excellent way. The next chapter, 1 Cor. 13 is of course the love chapter. It’s interesting that chapter twelve is the POWER chapter, thirteen is the LOVE chapter and if you read chapter fourteen you’ll find it’s the SOUND MIND chapter. Remember Paul told young Timothy,
“God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7
I think it no accident that God has sandwiched the love chapter between twelve, the power chapter enumerating the available gifts, and fourteen, the sound mind chapter exhorting how the gifts are to be used. After all, what good are we if we can raise the dead and have no love? If I have enough faith to move mountains and no love, then I might just throw the mountain in someone else’s path. Paul tells these Corinthians that he can’t call them spiritual even though they are gifted because they are seeking after men instead of realizing God gets all the glory for what any of us accomplishes.
JOHN DID NO MIRACLES
There’s a fantastic fact in the John 10:41 that really amazes me. John the Baptist did no miracle, however Jesus said of John in Matthew 11:11…
“no greater man was born of women than John.”
Isn’t that amazing; here is Christ, the miracle worker, calling John, a man who didn’t perform a single miracle not only great but he says -- "no greater man was ever born of woman." This statement is emblematic of the fact that Jesus doesn’t equate greatness with the miraculous. We should never be followers of men just because of their gifts, but on the other hand always be appreciative of the magnificent supernatural gifts God has placed within his church.
There are two ways God can work where man is concerned; He can work IN us or He can work THROUGH us. He has worked through donkeys, birds, fish, wooden rods, and rocks among other things. God however can’t work IN anything but yielded, submitted Christians. Much of Samson’s life God was only working THROUGH him not IN HIM. Our prayer should be;
"WORK IN ME, IN MY HEART & SOUL SO THAT I MIGHT EACH DAY GROW MORE & MORE-UNTO THE MEASURE OF THE STATURE OF THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST.
BUT DON’T WORK THROUGH ME TO ACCOMPLISH THINGS MEN WOULD CALL GREAT, IF MY OWN HEART IS TO BE LEFT ADRIFT IN A SPIRITUAL DESERT, BEREFT OF SPIRITUAL JOY AND POWER, NEVER FEASTING ON THE MANNA I’M DISPENSING TO OTHERS.”
Blessings
John
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Spiritual FTT
By John Stallings
When a scrawny, listless, dull-eyed baby is brought to a physician and the physician pronounces, "F.T.T", the parents are in world of hurt.
F.T.T often suggests that the parents are negligent, or abusive, or psychologically unfit, or at the very least too immature to be entrusted with a baby.
F.T.T. is an acronym to describe an ailment where—for unknown reasons—a newborn infant is unable to gain weight or to grow.
F.T.T. stands for “Failure To Thrive.”
Sometimes it happens when a parent or care-giver is depressed, and the depression seems to get passed down. Sometimes something seems to be off in an infant’s metabolism for reasons no one can understand. FTT is one of those mysterious, terribly medical phrases that sounds like an explanation but in truth, explains nothing.
NOTHING MORE NORMAL THAN GROWTH
One of the most common and widespread activities of the natural world around us is growth. The universe is alive and growing and we just naturally expect it. Children grow, often more than their parents would wish. I’ve been shocked at the suddenness with which tiny babies develop into little children and next thing you know they’re sitting on the front row in church. Then almost overnight they’re in school and then almost overnight they’re graduating from college. To me this is a beautiful thing to watch, although it makes me feel old.
A wobbly-legged puppy is a full grown dog within a few short months. Trees grow, flowers grow, Institutions grow, and Nations grow. Growth is universal. But more important than any of this is the growth that takes place in man. Man grows physically, intellectually and spiritually. It’s the last of those that is supremely important.
Some time ago I heard a minister tell about going to a 40th high school reunion. I didn’t know there was such a thing but there obviously is.
For months he saved to take his wife back to the place and the people he’d left four decades before. The closer the time came for the reunion, the more excited he became, thinking of all the wonderful stories he would hear about the changes and the accomplishments these old friends would tell him. One night before he left he even pulled out his old yearbooks, read the silly statements and the good wishes for the future that students write to each other.
He wondered what ol’ Number 86 from his football team had done. He wondered if any others had encountered this Christ who had changed him so profoundly. He even tried to guess what some of his friends would look like, and what kind of jobs and families some of these special friends had.
The day came to leave and a friend drove them to the airport. Their enthusiasm was contagious. The friend encouraged them to have a great time and assured them he’d be there to pick them up on their return home.
The friend watched as this man and his wife got off the plane two days later and was stunned at how despondent they looked. He almost didn’t want to ask, but finally asked how the reunion was.
The minister told him it was one of the saddest experiences of his life.
When the friend asked what happened the minister quickly retorted that it wasn’t what had happened but what hadn’t happened. It had been 40 years and his class-mates hadn’t changed. They had simply gained weight, changed clothes, gotten jobs...but they hadn’t really changed. And what he felt was maybe one of the most tragic things I could ever imagine about life. For reasons he didn’t fully understand, it seemed as though many of them had chosen not to change.
On the drive home, the minister unburdened his heart to his friend. He asked him if he ever saw him becoming stagnant or “stuck in a rut” to give him a quick swift kick where he needed it because life is too precious and too important to grow stale and jaded. The minister added- “for Christ’s sake” I hope you’ll love me enough to challenge me to keep growing."
In most areas of life growth is automatic. We eat, sleep and -voila, we grow. Of course that doesn’t happen in the case of a child with FTT. Tragically there is no growth. But for the overwhelmingly majority of us growth just happens.
SPIRITUAL GROWTH ISN’T A GIVEN
In the area of spiritual growth, it doesn’t happen that way. In the realm of things spiritual, growth isn’t automatic. It doesn’t take place without plan and effort. It can be achieved only through conscious desire and diligent work.
As Christians our greatest desire should be to grow into the likeness of Christ but tragically many develop Spiritual FTT. Failure To Thrive-as a Christian. The problem is that we live in a secular age and often the sheer mass of secular, non-spiritual activities crowd out the deep longing of our hearts. Much of the time the desire is there but at other times it’s crowded out by the trivia of the day. We find ourselves striving for the same goals and in the same manner as non-Christians. We live in a materialistic, secular age and often the den of non-spiritual activities drowns out the things of the spirit.
IMMATURITY
Babies are cute and delightful in many ways. But if a person were to remain a baby for ten or twenty years, something would be terribly wrong. We would find in that baby something pitiful, something grotesque. Most all parents have remarked when their kids were being raised, “Look how quickly they’re growing. I wish I could keep them this age forever.” But if that child truly stopped growing and developing, as parents we’d pay any price and do any and all things in the realm of possibility to have that child to continue to grow and develop normally.
Now, in a literal, physical sense there are no twenty-year-old babies. But there are twenty-year-olds, forty-, sixty-year-olds who often act like babies. And what do we say about them? That they are cute and delightful? No! Think of a grown man coming to church with a flower in his lapel that squirts water at you. You mutter, “Joe, why don’t you grow up?” After a while, Joe might find himself without any friends, because people like that are unpleasant to say the least..
Immaturity is hard to tolerate. I’m afraid that God is similarly annoyed by some of us, for there’s a lot of spiritual immaturity among Christians today in the church. This is not always necessarily a bad thing — much of it results because of our evangelistic emphasis on winning souls. When new spiritual babies are being born you expect to have spiritual babies around.
But we’ve got to keep encouraging the young Christians to grow. And older Christians too, for we never outgrow the need to grow. We need to emphasize the basics of the gospel: salvation by the death and resurrection of Christ, by God’s grace. That’s imperative. But let nobody misunderstand: there’s a lot more to learn in God’s Word beside these basics. And it’s sad when someone who has been a Christian for a long time knows nothing else than the simple gospel.
Listen to Hebrews 6:1,
Let us go forward, then, to mature teaching and leave behind us the first lessons of the Christian message. We should not lay again the foundation of turning away from useless works and believing in God…
It’s amazing how many older Christians there are who have to be nursed. People have to walk on egg-shells around them to keep from hurting their feelings. Then they’ll start whining if not howling and the church “wet nurse” has to carry them their “bottle.”
Instead of being spiritually strong men and women, they are mere babes and have to be cared for. Instead of being a workshop, the church becomes a nursery—a hospital. Paul said,
"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I understood as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things."
But many who profess to be mature believers are still playing with spiritual dolls.
Spiritual babes, instead of doing work, make work for others. The difference between a child and a man is that the man works and the child makes work for others. Too many churches of today are full of babies. You could put up a sign in front of the church that reads “Babyland.”They do not help; they hinder. Many have not learned to walk, but they have learned to talk. The preacher must spend much of his time cradle-rocking to keep them from whining. He has to feed them Pablum from the pulpit then rush to the back door to “burp” them before they leave.
Many Christians live with stunted growth. We weren’t made to be like the tiny ponies that will never grow any bigger or the twisted bonsai tree. Once in a while we see the little people, normal people in every way except they are dwarfs. Some Christians suffer from stunted growth! Like Peter Pan they never grow up. Many Christian men and women stop short! They grow older, yes, but long ago they ceased any inner development. They have had no fresh ideas for years. They have flowered in no new interests or understanding. They are spiritually dead wood. They sing “standing on the promises” but they’re just sitting on the premises. They are spiritually immature and often this is seen in their un-Christian attitudes or behavior. Growth in a human being is a matter of striving. By our own will and grit we can shake off lethargy, push through the hard crust of accustomed ideas, and reach into the light of greater wisdom.
WHAT DOES SPIRITUAL GROWTH LOOK LIKE?
First, let's look at what it’s not. It’s not becoming more saved than at the moment of conversion. It’s not becoming more forgiven than when converted. It’s not becoming more justified than at salvation.
Growing to maturity isn’t being sinless. Christians are sinners saved by grace, constantly being forgiven, but continually growing to maturity in Christ. Perfection will be completed in heaven when we shall be as He is. Perfection is completed only in eternity but here our personal best is our goal.
What Christian growth is , is learning about who God is and what He says to us through His Word. It’s being able to do more of what God wants. It is living more and more in the love of God.
Consider Bible evidences of growth in men. This growth resulted in change in,
Peter: From backsliding to blessing.
Paul: From the Damascus road to the Roman Road.
John: From the Son of Thunder to the disciple of love.
TWO FALSE CONCEPTS OF GROWTH
Like ditches on either side of the road, there are two “spiritual growth ditches” we can fall into. One ditch is the false concept that in order to grow, one must become more Radical and Legalistic. Therefore, any additional teachings that offer a stricter way are what God’s looking for in us. Teachings that offer a more permissive approach are avoided. This attitude isn’t descriptive of spiritual growth.
Please understand: The Bible clearly describes the Way of life as a narrow way (Matt. 7:13-14), -but not a way that is progressively becoming narrower and narrower. Satan will get behind us and push us so hard and fast that as time goes by we’ll become so narrow-minded that we can look through a key-hole with both eyes. This isn’t Christian growth.
The opposite point-of-view is-that growth manifests itself by becoming increasingly permissive. Thus, any teaching perceived as being burdensome-anything that’s “Jewish,” or from the Old Testament-is discarded in favor of the “new-found freedom” that Christ brought.
An honest reading of scripture however, does not support either approach. The biblical record shows that in the early Church, there was no deleting of or adding to the Truth that was given initially. Some changes were made [male circumcision was dropped as a requirement] to show how the Truth should be administered in the New Testament era, but the Truth itself was an unalterable, divinely revealed message. It was and still is the unchanging standard. Therefore, there was no need for it to become progressively stricter or more liberal. But sadly there will always be those who will get into the ditch on one side of the road or the other. If he can, Satan will “Freeze” us or “Fry” us.
The Bible emphasizes over and over again – do not add to or take away from the Truth. Don’t go to the right or to the left. Do not conservatize or liberalize. God wants balance, stability, and consistency, not vacillation with every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14). God doesn’t want us to go to extremes. Both the biblical and historical record clearly show that when any church organization begins to tamper with the revealed Truth, whether making it more restrictive or less restrictive, it is only a matter of time until that organization repudiates what it originally believed.
BIBLE EMPHASIS
Growth in grace is a constant emphasis of Peter’s: "Crave spiritual milk so that you might grow into the fullness of your salvation. It’s not difficult to understand why this might be his concern. Peter had let the Savior down. He knew what the consequences of immaturity were. He was eager that others be spared the pain it brought him so he wanted to see his fellow Christians growing-up.
Listen again to Peter…
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.—2 Peter 1:5-7
The elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.-3 John
Listen to the writer of Hebrews chapter 5:12...
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.—Hebrews 5:1
“By this time you ought to be teachers….” -By this time.
How long have you been a Christian? 6 months? 6 years? 50 years? How much growing have you done in that time? And where ought you to be by this time?
The writer to the Hebrews furnishes us with two important measuring devices…not length and weight but knowledge and behavior.
SPIRITUAL BOTTLE BABIES
The writer of Hebrews uses the picture of baby’s diet: Are you still drinking milk, or have you been weaned to solid food? If you are a new Christian, of course, you need milk! Simple spiritual truth. By this time, says the Hebrews writer, you ought to be teaching others!
Is it any wonder that so few Christians have brought another person to Jesus Christ, and that we feel so ill-equipped to answer the questions or challenges others bring? Is it any wonder that when some moment of trial of serious crisis comes, we go to our spiritual wells and find that they have run dry. If you and I don’t grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, we dishonor Him who made our minds and calls us to use them!
Are you growing in knowledge? If so, I rejoice with you and urge you to continue!
Listen to Paul…
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ...Ephesians 4:11-15
The following are several proofs that we are making progress in our spiritual lives:
# If you are conscious that you are exercising more childlike and complete confidence in God, this indicates that you are growing in grace. As your life, attitude, and spirit manifests this ever-expanding faith in God, you demonstrate that you are growing in God.
# If you are weaned from the world and its temptations, you have grown in grace. A soul crucified to the world signals spiritual progress.
# Fewer feelings of reluctance when called to exercise self-denial reveals growth in grace. It shows that the soul is blending into harmony with the Will of God.
#Less temptation to sins of commission and omission is another sign of growth. Less temptation to shy away from unpleasant responsibilities, from prayer, Scripture reading, private and family devotions, displays growth.
#Deepening intensity and zeal for God’s causes reveals growth. Sometimes a Christian’s zeal cools, and at other times it warms; sometimes it is committed, at other times it is fickle and fleeting. As Christians grow in devotion, their zeal becomes deep, intense and steady.
# Christians sometimes cannot speak, pray or do anything in public without being either proud or self-condemning. As they lose sight of self and consistently work for God’s glory with spiritual confidence, they grow.
# Deadness to flattery or condemnation signals growth in grace. Paul counted it a small thing to be judged by others. He sought only to find God’s approval.
# A growing graciousness in all things denotes Christian growth.
# Calmness in hardship evidences growth. It shows that the soul is firmly anchored in Christ, more able to withstand the storms of life.
# Christian growth is manifesting when there’s tranquility in the face of sudden, crushing disasters and losses.
# Patience under provocation and less temptation to worry speak of growth in grace.
# When you find that you not only tolerate but accept God’s will when it calls you to suffer, when you can endure patiently and joyfully, this shows you are growing in God.
# An increasing deadness to all the things that the world offers and to all its threats denotes growth in grace.
# Dwelling less on other’s faults and shortcomings and having the ability to “sweep around our own door” first, and becoming more focused on biblical solutions to problems is a heartening sign of growth in God.
# Speech that is gentle rather than sarcastic, uncharitable or severe. A growing sensitivity and tenderness in speaking of and relating to others is a healthy sign of growth.
# An increasing reluctance to think of or treat anyone as an enemy, and an increasing ease in treating people kindly, praying for them earnestly and working to do them good.
# An ability to forgive rather than hold grudges, and a lack of desire to retaliate for injuries.
# Conformity to God and growth in His grace is clearly displayed by a growing jealousy for God’s honor, and for the church’s purity in a corrupt world.
#Doing things less by feelings and more because it’s the right thing to do.”
#Greater humility.-James 4:10-1 Peter5:5,6
QUESTIONS WE SHOULD ASK OURSELVES
Are our thoughts and motivations moving beyond worldly interests?
Are we moving beyond wanting everyone's approval?
Are we moving beyond having to be asked to serve the Lord?
Are we moving beyond the fear of life, death and eternity?
Are we sharing our faith as the Holy Spirit leads?
Are we adding Diligence and Faith to our life?
Are we adding Virtue?
Are we adding Knowledge?
Are we adding Temperance?
Are adding Patience?
Are adding Godliness?
Are we adding Brotherly Kindness?
Are we adding Love?
If God had grades within the Christian life, what grade would you be in? What if our schools turned out as many [or few] graduates as the Church does?
When our ancient fore parents began to sail they could sail only in the direction that the wind was blowing. If the wind was blowing where they didn't want to go, too bad. Either they took the sail down and drifted or they put the sail up and were blown off course. As people became more sophisticated sailors, however, they learned how to sail across the wind, even how to sail against the wind. Regardless of where the wind was blowing now, they could use the wind -- any wind -- to go where they were supposed to go. As the old axiom says, “It’s not the direction of the wind, but the set of the sails.”
It’s is a mark of Christian maturity that we can advance, go where we are supposed to be going, regardless of the most contrary winds that are blowing around us. Only the mature can do this!
Which gives us a choice doesn’t it? We can come together to encourage one another, to love one another, to support one another and to teach one another and so form this spiritual family which is God’s will for our life.
Or we can try and be lone ranger Christians and attempt to do it on our own. We can embrace our fellow believers, take them by the hand and open our heart to them. Or, we can exclude them, with the risk that we may grow cold and distant and our faith may experience-
Failure To Thrive.
Blessings,
John
When a scrawny, listless, dull-eyed baby is brought to a physician and the physician pronounces, "F.T.T", the parents are in world of hurt.
F.T.T often suggests that the parents are negligent, or abusive, or psychologically unfit, or at the very least too immature to be entrusted with a baby.
F.T.T. is an acronym to describe an ailment where—for unknown reasons—a newborn infant is unable to gain weight or to grow.
F.T.T. stands for “Failure To Thrive.”
Sometimes it happens when a parent or care-giver is depressed, and the depression seems to get passed down. Sometimes something seems to be off in an infant’s metabolism for reasons no one can understand. FTT is one of those mysterious, terribly medical phrases that sounds like an explanation but in truth, explains nothing.
NOTHING MORE NORMAL THAN GROWTH
One of the most common and widespread activities of the natural world around us is growth. The universe is alive and growing and we just naturally expect it. Children grow, often more than their parents would wish. I’ve been shocked at the suddenness with which tiny babies develop into little children and next thing you know they’re sitting on the front row in church. Then almost overnight they’re in school and then almost overnight they’re graduating from college. To me this is a beautiful thing to watch, although it makes me feel old.
A wobbly-legged puppy is a full grown dog within a few short months. Trees grow, flowers grow, Institutions grow, and Nations grow. Growth is universal. But more important than any of this is the growth that takes place in man. Man grows physically, intellectually and spiritually. It’s the last of those that is supremely important.
Some time ago I heard a minister tell about going to a 40th high school reunion. I didn’t know there was such a thing but there obviously is.
For months he saved to take his wife back to the place and the people he’d left four decades before. The closer the time came for the reunion, the more excited he became, thinking of all the wonderful stories he would hear about the changes and the accomplishments these old friends would tell him. One night before he left he even pulled out his old yearbooks, read the silly statements and the good wishes for the future that students write to each other.
He wondered what ol’ Number 86 from his football team had done. He wondered if any others had encountered this Christ who had changed him so profoundly. He even tried to guess what some of his friends would look like, and what kind of jobs and families some of these special friends had.
The day came to leave and a friend drove them to the airport. Their enthusiasm was contagious. The friend encouraged them to have a great time and assured them he’d be there to pick them up on their return home.
The friend watched as this man and his wife got off the plane two days later and was stunned at how despondent they looked. He almost didn’t want to ask, but finally asked how the reunion was.
The minister told him it was one of the saddest experiences of his life.
When the friend asked what happened the minister quickly retorted that it wasn’t what had happened but what hadn’t happened. It had been 40 years and his class-mates hadn’t changed. They had simply gained weight, changed clothes, gotten jobs...but they hadn’t really changed. And what he felt was maybe one of the most tragic things I could ever imagine about life. For reasons he didn’t fully understand, it seemed as though many of them had chosen not to change.
On the drive home, the minister unburdened his heart to his friend. He asked him if he ever saw him becoming stagnant or “stuck in a rut” to give him a quick swift kick where he needed it because life is too precious and too important to grow stale and jaded. The minister added- “for Christ’s sake” I hope you’ll love me enough to challenge me to keep growing."
In most areas of life growth is automatic. We eat, sleep and -voila, we grow. Of course that doesn’t happen in the case of a child with FTT. Tragically there is no growth. But for the overwhelmingly majority of us growth just happens.
SPIRITUAL GROWTH ISN’T A GIVEN
In the area of spiritual growth, it doesn’t happen that way. In the realm of things spiritual, growth isn’t automatic. It doesn’t take place without plan and effort. It can be achieved only through conscious desire and diligent work.
As Christians our greatest desire should be to grow into the likeness of Christ but tragically many develop Spiritual FTT. Failure To Thrive-as a Christian. The problem is that we live in a secular age and often the sheer mass of secular, non-spiritual activities crowd out the deep longing of our hearts. Much of the time the desire is there but at other times it’s crowded out by the trivia of the day. We find ourselves striving for the same goals and in the same manner as non-Christians. We live in a materialistic, secular age and often the den of non-spiritual activities drowns out the things of the spirit.
IMMATURITY
Babies are cute and delightful in many ways. But if a person were to remain a baby for ten or twenty years, something would be terribly wrong. We would find in that baby something pitiful, something grotesque. Most all parents have remarked when their kids were being raised, “Look how quickly they’re growing. I wish I could keep them this age forever.” But if that child truly stopped growing and developing, as parents we’d pay any price and do any and all things in the realm of possibility to have that child to continue to grow and develop normally.
Now, in a literal, physical sense there are no twenty-year-old babies. But there are twenty-year-olds, forty-, sixty-year-olds who often act like babies. And what do we say about them? That they are cute and delightful? No! Think of a grown man coming to church with a flower in his lapel that squirts water at you. You mutter, “Joe, why don’t you grow up?” After a while, Joe might find himself without any friends, because people like that are unpleasant to say the least..
Immaturity is hard to tolerate. I’m afraid that God is similarly annoyed by some of us, for there’s a lot of spiritual immaturity among Christians today in the church. This is not always necessarily a bad thing — much of it results because of our evangelistic emphasis on winning souls. When new spiritual babies are being born you expect to have spiritual babies around.
But we’ve got to keep encouraging the young Christians to grow. And older Christians too, for we never outgrow the need to grow. We need to emphasize the basics of the gospel: salvation by the death and resurrection of Christ, by God’s grace. That’s imperative. But let nobody misunderstand: there’s a lot more to learn in God’s Word beside these basics. And it’s sad when someone who has been a Christian for a long time knows nothing else than the simple gospel.
Listen to Hebrews 6:1,
Let us go forward, then, to mature teaching and leave behind us the first lessons of the Christian message. We should not lay again the foundation of turning away from useless works and believing in God…
It’s amazing how many older Christians there are who have to be nursed. People have to walk on egg-shells around them to keep from hurting their feelings. Then they’ll start whining if not howling and the church “wet nurse” has to carry them their “bottle.”
Instead of being spiritually strong men and women, they are mere babes and have to be cared for. Instead of being a workshop, the church becomes a nursery—a hospital. Paul said,
"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I understood as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things."
But many who profess to be mature believers are still playing with spiritual dolls.
Spiritual babes, instead of doing work, make work for others. The difference between a child and a man is that the man works and the child makes work for others. Too many churches of today are full of babies. You could put up a sign in front of the church that reads “Babyland.”They do not help; they hinder. Many have not learned to walk, but they have learned to talk. The preacher must spend much of his time cradle-rocking to keep them from whining. He has to feed them Pablum from the pulpit then rush to the back door to “burp” them before they leave.
Many Christians live with stunted growth. We weren’t made to be like the tiny ponies that will never grow any bigger or the twisted bonsai tree. Once in a while we see the little people, normal people in every way except they are dwarfs. Some Christians suffer from stunted growth! Like Peter Pan they never grow up. Many Christian men and women stop short! They grow older, yes, but long ago they ceased any inner development. They have had no fresh ideas for years. They have flowered in no new interests or understanding. They are spiritually dead wood. They sing “standing on the promises” but they’re just sitting on the premises. They are spiritually immature and often this is seen in their un-Christian attitudes or behavior. Growth in a human being is a matter of striving. By our own will and grit we can shake off lethargy, push through the hard crust of accustomed ideas, and reach into the light of greater wisdom.
WHAT DOES SPIRITUAL GROWTH LOOK LIKE?
First, let's look at what it’s not. It’s not becoming more saved than at the moment of conversion. It’s not becoming more forgiven than when converted. It’s not becoming more justified than at salvation.
Growing to maturity isn’t being sinless. Christians are sinners saved by grace, constantly being forgiven, but continually growing to maturity in Christ. Perfection will be completed in heaven when we shall be as He is. Perfection is completed only in eternity but here our personal best is our goal.
What Christian growth is , is learning about who God is and what He says to us through His Word. It’s being able to do more of what God wants. It is living more and more in the love of God.
Consider Bible evidences of growth in men. This growth resulted in change in,
Peter: From backsliding to blessing.
Paul: From the Damascus road to the Roman Road.
John: From the Son of Thunder to the disciple of love.
TWO FALSE CONCEPTS OF GROWTH
Like ditches on either side of the road, there are two “spiritual growth ditches” we can fall into. One ditch is the false concept that in order to grow, one must become more Radical and Legalistic. Therefore, any additional teachings that offer a stricter way are what God’s looking for in us. Teachings that offer a more permissive approach are avoided. This attitude isn’t descriptive of spiritual growth.
Please understand: The Bible clearly describes the Way of life as a narrow way (Matt. 7:13-14), -but not a way that is progressively becoming narrower and narrower. Satan will get behind us and push us so hard and fast that as time goes by we’ll become so narrow-minded that we can look through a key-hole with both eyes. This isn’t Christian growth.
The opposite point-of-view is-that growth manifests itself by becoming increasingly permissive. Thus, any teaching perceived as being burdensome-anything that’s “Jewish,” or from the Old Testament-is discarded in favor of the “new-found freedom” that Christ brought.
An honest reading of scripture however, does not support either approach. The biblical record shows that in the early Church, there was no deleting of or adding to the Truth that was given initially. Some changes were made [male circumcision was dropped as a requirement] to show how the Truth should be administered in the New Testament era, but the Truth itself was an unalterable, divinely revealed message. It was and still is the unchanging standard. Therefore, there was no need for it to become progressively stricter or more liberal. But sadly there will always be those who will get into the ditch on one side of the road or the other. If he can, Satan will “Freeze” us or “Fry” us.
The Bible emphasizes over and over again – do not add to or take away from the Truth. Don’t go to the right or to the left. Do not conservatize or liberalize. God wants balance, stability, and consistency, not vacillation with every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14). God doesn’t want us to go to extremes. Both the biblical and historical record clearly show that when any church organization begins to tamper with the revealed Truth, whether making it more restrictive or less restrictive, it is only a matter of time until that organization repudiates what it originally believed.
BIBLE EMPHASIS
Growth in grace is a constant emphasis of Peter’s: "Crave spiritual milk so that you might grow into the fullness of your salvation. It’s not difficult to understand why this might be his concern. Peter had let the Savior down. He knew what the consequences of immaturity were. He was eager that others be spared the pain it brought him so he wanted to see his fellow Christians growing-up.
Listen again to Peter…
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.—2 Peter 1:5-7
The elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.-3 John
Listen to the writer of Hebrews chapter 5:12...
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.—Hebrews 5:1
“By this time you ought to be teachers….” -By this time.
How long have you been a Christian? 6 months? 6 years? 50 years? How much growing have you done in that time? And where ought you to be by this time?
The writer to the Hebrews furnishes us with two important measuring devices…not length and weight but knowledge and behavior.
SPIRITUAL BOTTLE BABIES
The writer of Hebrews uses the picture of baby’s diet: Are you still drinking milk, or have you been weaned to solid food? If you are a new Christian, of course, you need milk! Simple spiritual truth. By this time, says the Hebrews writer, you ought to be teaching others!
Is it any wonder that so few Christians have brought another person to Jesus Christ, and that we feel so ill-equipped to answer the questions or challenges others bring? Is it any wonder that when some moment of trial of serious crisis comes, we go to our spiritual wells and find that they have run dry. If you and I don’t grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, we dishonor Him who made our minds and calls us to use them!
Are you growing in knowledge? If so, I rejoice with you and urge you to continue!
Listen to Paul…
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ...Ephesians 4:11-15
The following are several proofs that we are making progress in our spiritual lives:
# If you are conscious that you are exercising more childlike and complete confidence in God, this indicates that you are growing in grace. As your life, attitude, and spirit manifests this ever-expanding faith in God, you demonstrate that you are growing in God.
# If you are weaned from the world and its temptations, you have grown in grace. A soul crucified to the world signals spiritual progress.
# Fewer feelings of reluctance when called to exercise self-denial reveals growth in grace. It shows that the soul is blending into harmony with the Will of God.
#Less temptation to sins of commission and omission is another sign of growth. Less temptation to shy away from unpleasant responsibilities, from prayer, Scripture reading, private and family devotions, displays growth.
#Deepening intensity and zeal for God’s causes reveals growth. Sometimes a Christian’s zeal cools, and at other times it warms; sometimes it is committed, at other times it is fickle and fleeting. As Christians grow in devotion, their zeal becomes deep, intense and steady.
# Christians sometimes cannot speak, pray or do anything in public without being either proud or self-condemning. As they lose sight of self and consistently work for God’s glory with spiritual confidence, they grow.
# Deadness to flattery or condemnation signals growth in grace. Paul counted it a small thing to be judged by others. He sought only to find God’s approval.
# A growing graciousness in all things denotes Christian growth.
# Calmness in hardship evidences growth. It shows that the soul is firmly anchored in Christ, more able to withstand the storms of life.
# Christian growth is manifesting when there’s tranquility in the face of sudden, crushing disasters and losses.
# Patience under provocation and less temptation to worry speak of growth in grace.
# When you find that you not only tolerate but accept God’s will when it calls you to suffer, when you can endure patiently and joyfully, this shows you are growing in God.
# An increasing deadness to all the things that the world offers and to all its threats denotes growth in grace.
# Dwelling less on other’s faults and shortcomings and having the ability to “sweep around our own door” first, and becoming more focused on biblical solutions to problems is a heartening sign of growth in God.
# Speech that is gentle rather than sarcastic, uncharitable or severe. A growing sensitivity and tenderness in speaking of and relating to others is a healthy sign of growth.
# An increasing reluctance to think of or treat anyone as an enemy, and an increasing ease in treating people kindly, praying for them earnestly and working to do them good.
# An ability to forgive rather than hold grudges, and a lack of desire to retaliate for injuries.
# Conformity to God and growth in His grace is clearly displayed by a growing jealousy for God’s honor, and for the church’s purity in a corrupt world.
#Doing things less by feelings and more because it’s the right thing to do.”
#Greater humility.-James 4:10-1 Peter5:5,6
QUESTIONS WE SHOULD ASK OURSELVES
Are our thoughts and motivations moving beyond worldly interests?
Are we moving beyond wanting everyone's approval?
Are we moving beyond having to be asked to serve the Lord?
Are we moving beyond the fear of life, death and eternity?
Are we sharing our faith as the Holy Spirit leads?
Are we adding Diligence and Faith to our life?
Are we adding Virtue?
Are we adding Knowledge?
Are we adding Temperance?
Are adding Patience?
Are adding Godliness?
Are we adding Brotherly Kindness?
Are we adding Love?
If God had grades within the Christian life, what grade would you be in? What if our schools turned out as many [or few] graduates as the Church does?
When our ancient fore parents began to sail they could sail only in the direction that the wind was blowing. If the wind was blowing where they didn't want to go, too bad. Either they took the sail down and drifted or they put the sail up and were blown off course. As people became more sophisticated sailors, however, they learned how to sail across the wind, even how to sail against the wind. Regardless of where the wind was blowing now, they could use the wind -- any wind -- to go where they were supposed to go. As the old axiom says, “It’s not the direction of the wind, but the set of the sails.”
It’s is a mark of Christian maturity that we can advance, go where we are supposed to be going, regardless of the most contrary winds that are blowing around us. Only the mature can do this!
Which gives us a choice doesn’t it? We can come together to encourage one another, to love one another, to support one another and to teach one another and so form this spiritual family which is God’s will for our life.
Or we can try and be lone ranger Christians and attempt to do it on our own. We can embrace our fellow believers, take them by the hand and open our heart to them. Or, we can exclude them, with the risk that we may grow cold and distant and our faith may experience-
Failure To Thrive.
Blessings,
John
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
A Few Good Men
By John Stallings
He wasn’t a prophet, preacher, priest, or a king, just an ordinary man who was radically changed by an encounter with a heavenly visitor.
His name is kept alive in modern times by the Bibles to be found in most hotel and motel rooms.
Judges records the history of the nation of Israel for 305 years after the death of Joshua and in this book we see many frightening parallels between Israel and America.
Israel was established by God Himself and He gave them Canaan, the best land on the earth at that time. God gave them His love, The Law, and The Land, only asking them for one thing in return--that they would love Him, obey Him, and serve Him. What did Israel do? They Denied the Lord, they Defied the Law, and Defiled the Land. So God had to judge them.
RIPPED FROM AMERICAN HEADLINES
The parallel with America is obvious and alarming. No nation has ever had a Christian beginning like the USA. We too have been given The Lord, The law, and a Land, and we've Denied Him and Defied Him. Our land is being Defiled, leaving us fighting for survival.
Gideon's story is recorded in chapters 6-8 of the book of Judges. He lived in the period of history of Israel that was made up of seven repeated cycles in which the people of Israel rebelled against God, began to worship the pagan gods around them, suffered the painful consequences, cried out to God for help, and He responded by sending a judge who would deliver them.
For a while the people would return to God but when the judge died they would rebel against God and the cycle would start all over again.
Gideon was the fourth of these judges and his ministry began with the same phrase that got all the other judges started. We find it in verse 1 of Judges 6, -“The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord." This time the consequence of worshiping false gods came in the form of a group of people known as the Midianites. Their mode of attacking the Israelites was different than the Canaanites that Deborah had to deal with. Instead of the iron chariots that served Jabin and Sisera, the Midianites had a unique military weapon in the form of…. camels.
In the twenty-first century with our sophisticated instruments of death: smart bombs, patriot missiles, and stealth bombers it’s hard for us to appreciate the military significance of camels twelve hundred years before Christ. In Gideon's day, camels gave the Midianites an enormous military advantage. They were so ugly they had to slip up on water to get a drink [kidding] and would strike the Israelites with great fear. But the main benefit of the camel was that it gave the Midianites a mobile, long-range, swift, attack-capability against the Hebrews, who were entirely dependent on foot soldiers.
I saw something this week that I never thought I’d see; a video of huge elephants brought to Joplin Missouri to help clean up the debris from the vociferous twisters that struck the town. I watched in amazement as the Pachyderms pulled cars and trucks around like they were small tin-cans. At first it seemed funny but it worked-or they worked-beautifully. I prayed they wouldn’t get upset because if those elephants had decided to throw a fit, a few of them could easily wipe out what was left of Joplin.
A camel can travel for three or four days with a heavy load on its back, and cover about 300 miles without food or water. With this powerful “new weapon,” the Midianites were able to develop a unique strategy in their war against Israel. Rather than invading and occupying the land, they simply waited until harvest time each fall.
Then they would move in from the desert, cross the Jordan in huge numbers, like a plague of locusts, stripping it bare of grain, vegetables, fruit, and livestock. Finally, with their camels loaded down with spoils, they would cross back into the desert and live there until the next harvest time. They did this for seven years and left Israel in desperation. People were reduced to hiding food in mountain dens and caves.
This was incredibly humiliating and debilitating to Israel. Since an attack could come at any moment, they lived in constant fear. We’re told… "They were brought very low because of Midian."
GIDEON
Then Gideon appears on the scene. His name means "hacker" or "hewer" which would seem to be a name for a man of great strength and courage. But, when we get our first look at Gideon, he's cowering under a tree, threshing grain in a wine press. Normally a man would do so on a wooden threshing floor, in an exposed place so that the wind could carry away the chaff. He would use a threshing sledge pulled by oxen. But, Gideon was trying to separate the grain from the chaff by walking on it in his bare feet as you would on grapes to turn them into wine. And he was doing this hidden under a tree for fear of the marauding Midianites. One day when Gideon was doing this a man approached, sat down under the tree, and watched.
Two things are significant about this person; Gideon didn’t know that he was the Angel of the Lord so there must have been nothing supernatural about His appearance. He didn't have wings, or wear a halo, or carry a harp. He didn't glow with a heavenly light like those heavenly beings on Touched by An Angel. Secondly it was not an angel of the Lord, but rather THE angel of the Lord. In the Old Testament whenever the phrase, "THE Angel of the Lord," is used it refers to Jesus Himself, before His incarnation...taking the form of an angel and visiting the earth. Now, if I didn't know the Lord better, I might think that He was mocking Gideon with the first words He spoke. In verse 12, He said, "The Lord is with you, Oh Valiant warrior!" Gideon was anything but valiant at this point. He was more of a cowardly, beleaguered victim.
One day a man came to his psychiatrist with a problem. He said, "Doctor, please help me. Everything's going wrong. I feel worthless. My friends tell me I have a terrible inferiority complex. Can you help me?" So the psychiatrist told him that he would give him some tests and evaluate him. A week later, the man came back and the psychiatrist said, "Friend, I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is that we have proved you don’t have a complex. There is no doubt about that. The bad news is, you’re inferior."
Gideon was inferior-at least in the judgment of his peers-and he pointed this out to God. He said that he was of the tribe of Manasseh, which was the lowest and weakest tribe in all Israel. Then, he said that his family was the lowest and weakest family in the tribe of Manasseh. Further, he was the lowest and weakest member of his family. So, he was the lowest and weakest member of the lowest and weakest family of the lowest and weakest tribe of all Israel! You cannot get much lower than that. But to these excuses of inferiority, God gave a single reply, "I will be with you...."which brings us to the first principle of how to be a valiant warrior for God. You see, when it comes to the battles of life you must remember:
IT’S NOT IMPORTANT WHO YOU ARE, IT’S WHO YOU’RE WITH
God does not seek people who are the most outwardly capable, or the most naturally "strong." No, He intentionally works with the most unlikely material so that everyone can see the glory belongs to God and God alone. The apostle Paul marveled over this principle more than a thousand years later writing,
"Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong...as it is written, 'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” [I Corinthians 1:26-27, 31]
Time and time again as we read the Word of God, we see God cutting away a man's self-confidence to bring him to the place where he admits that he is totally inadequate to do or to be what God desires. There isn’t a single major figure in the Word of God whom God didn’t bring to realize a deep sense of his own inadequacy. And this is vital for truly valiant warriors.
Paul reminds us- "We are not adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves...our adequacy is from God." (II Corinthians 3:5)
The narrative says- "Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon." The Spirit of God wore Gideon the way a man puts on a suit of clothes, indwelling him, empowering him to do battle. You and I must remember this principle if we are to be effective soldiers in God's army! A good approach for us would be to daily say to God, "Lord, here I am. I want to be your suit of clothes today. I want you to take me and use me. Lord, just walk around in me today." This a great philosophy for us to embrace, for our strength, and our sufficiency for victory doesn’t come from ourselves but from God.
Our key to victory is God's indwelling presence and power. We are nothing without God, no matter how strong or talented we may be. In this army, it doesn't matter who you are. It matters Who you are with or Who is with you! To what extent have you allowed the promise of God's adequacy to minister to your life? God Himself has committed to be with you and to pour His strength into you. Remember your weakness does not hinder God. In fact, II Corinthians 12:9 says that,
"His strength is made perfect in weakness."
IF YOU AND I WANT TO BE VICTORIOUS IN LIFE WE MUST DECIDE WHICH GENERAL WE’LL FOLLOW.
The first assignment that God gave Gideon was not to attack the Midianites but to assault the idol worship of his people.
The reason the people of Israel were weaken and unable to defend themselves was that they had chosen to worship and put their faith in something other than the true God. They were following the wrong "general!" And many times we are weak because we make the same mistake. We feel overwhelmed because we worship things other than God. We have divided loyalties. This is what Jesus was warning us of when He said,
"No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other." (Matthew 6:24)
And this, Gideon's first battle was probably his toughest because in his own backyard there was a vivid example of the reason God had allowed Midian to overwhelm and enslave Israel.
Joash, Gideon's father, had apparently built an altar to Baal on his property and with it an Asherah, a wooden pillar representing the Canaanite goddess of fertility. And it was not just for the family's private use. It obviously served as the village shrine with Joash acting as the supervisor of pagan worship in the area. God told Gideon to take a young bull and a seven-year-old bull and use them to tear down the massive altar to Baal. Then he was to cut down the wooden Asherah and, using that wood, he was to build a fire on which to sacrifice the seven-year-old bull on a new altar which he was to build for the Lord. God gave Gideon this task so that he could learn that before Midian could go, Baal had to go.
God would tolerate no rivals. Truly great soldiers in God’s army only follow one commander.
People notice how committed we, who claim to be Christians, are to God. Gideon's neighbors certainly noticed the results of his actions that night. In fact the next morning when they saw what he had done they demanded his death but his own father came to his defense and said … "Hey....if baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar!" The neighbors agreed and they gave Gideon a new name, "Jerub-baal" which literally means "let baal contend-let him fight for himself."
From that moment on, every time the people of Israel looked at Gideon, they had visible proof of the weakness of baal and the power of God. This valiant warrior helped them to see the importance of following only the one true God.
OUR FOLLOWING HIS ORDERS ARE IMPORTANT TO GOD
This was a learning process for Gideon. From the beginning he had a lot of trouble trusting the commands and promises of God. Even after he gathered his army he was afraid and you may remember he tested God. It wasn't that Gideon was trying to discover God's will. He already knew what God's will was for his life. Prior to his fleece Gideon said to God, "If You will deliver Israel through me, as You have said." You see, God had made His will perfectly clear. Gideon didn't lack information about the will of God; He lacked confidence to trust the Word of God. Gideon's real struggle was one of faith, not information. This is an important lesson for all Christians to learn for as Hebrews 11:6 says,
"Without faith it is impossible to please God."
Note that God is gentle with Gideon. God graciously helps build Gideon's faith. First Gideon put a sheep skin on the ground and asked God to make only the fleece wet with dew and the ground dry and God did this. But that wasn't enough to build Gideon's confidence. You can almost see his mind at work. He thinks, "Maybe this isn't as amazing as it seems...after all, it would be more likely for the water to be absorbed by the wool than the ground.
Maybe the fact that the wool is wet and the ground is dry would have happened anyway. It's not really as sign of anything." So, he makes a second request of God: "Will you reverse the process -- and make the ground wet and the fleece dry?" Gideon's response here points out how inadequate fleeces can be when used as a method for discovering God's will. The results are difficult to interpret.
I read about a Bible school announcing that it was planning to buy a building. They said, "If we have $100,000 by this date, we will know it is God's will. We will know that God wants us to do it." On the appointed day, they had only $90,000 and now they had a problem; should they buy the building or not? And if it was not God's will, where had the $90,000 come from? Was it Satan's money? Of course not. But the fallacy was that they had expected God to do His work in their way.
Do you see the weakness in this practice? It tends to limit God...it puts Him in a box. Litmus tests like this are always difficult to interpret. Fleeces aren't the best way to find the will of God. We don't need to cast fleeces to experience God's guidance. We’re liable to be “fleeced.” He has given us His written Word to help us find His will...and His presence to help us understand and do it. In Psalm 73:23-24 the psalmist rejoices in this truth saying to God,
"You have taken hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You will guide me, and afterward receive me to glory."
The amazing thing about this isn’t what it shows about Gideon's fleece, but what it teaches us about God's patience. Gideon was a special student in God's "slow-learner class." God had done so much in his life already but Gideon was still saying, "If you're really going to do what You say...do this or that." But God kept on loving and working with him. I thank God for that because I too am one of God's slow learners. Many times in my life I have had to pray, "I believe...but not quite enough...help my unbelief.”
Over and over I have learned to be thankful that God is,
"Slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness; maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin." Exodus. 34:6-7.
IF WE FOLLOW GOD, GET READY FOR “GOD-SIZED” BATTLES.
The Midianites had a force of 135,000 men with them when they invaded Israel in this 8th harvest season. They camped in the Valley of Jezreel, and they came fully expecting to carry out their usual policy of an uncontested stripping of the land and a triumphant return to their desert home. But this time there was a difference. God had raised up a man who was prepared to lead Israel against these camel-riding carpet baggers. Empowered by the Spirit of God, Gideon marched his army of 32,000 men to the hills of Mt. Gilboa.
The Midianites were armed to the teeth but Gideon and his men had virtually no weapons. Gideon and his men were no doubt wondering how they could possibly win against such a superior force. So imagine how Gideon felt when God said that he had too many troops and that all those who were afraid should return home? Interestingly, 22,000 took him up on this offer!
After the 22,000 left, God said that was still too many so He instructed Gideon to watch his men drink and send everyone home who bent their faces down to drink water from the stream directly. Only 300 stood up alertly, ready for battle, the water cupped in their hands.
So in a short span of time God had taken an overwhelming situation and made it impossible. It would seem that defeat was going to be snatched from the jaws of victory. The original 32000 had no chance of winning against the hordes of the Midianites and their superior weaponry but for 300 it was laughable. God chose less than one percent of the group that Gideon began with to fight. They were outnumbered 450 to 1. God isn’t interested in simply giving His people victory. He’s concerned with teaching us trust.
Our victories make us self-reliant, which is worse, far worse, in the long run, than losing! That night I don't think Gideon slept too well. Would you? 300 against 135,000! That's like a football team composed of junior high school girls going up against Super Bowl champions! God of course knew how Gideon felt so He told him, "If you are afraid to go down against the Midianites, let me help you."
A DREAM CHANGES EVERYTHING
God knew the anguish Gideon was going through so He invited Gideon to go to the camp of the Midianites. Gideon obeyed and was accompanied by a young boy, named Purah. They snuck in close enough to hear Midianite sentries talking about a dream in which a barley loaf flattened a tent. The Midianites were nomadic so the tent clearly represented them. And barley was most often used as animal food, but it was all that the Israelites had left because of the better foodstuffs had been taken. So, the barley loaf clearly represented Israel. The Midianite said, "That barley bun is nothing less than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash. God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand."
As he listened Gideon no doubt sensed that the dream had been repeated throughout the whole army of the Midianites. They had been terrorized inwardly by the mysterious hand of God. So this huge army was already defeated. And at this point Gideon learned he greatest lesson of his life. He realized as he never had before, that it was not a battle between 300 Israelites and 135,000 Midianites. It was God who was fighting Midian and the 300 men were just His channels.
Gideon went back to his little band of men and said, "Arise, for the Lord has given the camp of Midian into your hands." He divided his army into three groups of 100 and as they departed they were given their weapons.
Here is what was issued to them: a clay jar, a trumpet, and a torch. No shields, no spears, no swords. Gideon had his “few good men” to surround the camp and then waited until the middle watch had just been posted. That was about 10:30 pm when some of the men had been asleep for three or four hours and were now in their deepest sleep. The men who had just been relieved from guard duty would still be moving through the camp, and the men who had just gone on duty would still be rubbing their eyes.
Suddenly there was a huge noise all around them. The rams' horns were signaling an enemy attack! Then the clay pitchers smashed on the ground sounded like the armor of armies clashing into one another. The Midianites looked up and they were surrounded on three sides by lights and torches. Finally a great shout shattered the silence "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon."
In all the confusion, the camels stampeded and in the chaos that resulted, the panicked Midianites began to slaughter one another. To the half-asleep men, everything that moved became an enemy. Every shadow was an Israelite. All this time, Gideon's men didn’t move. They stood in their place blowing their trumpets, waving their torches and shouting their slogan, "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon." By they way, they only had one "sword"-the sword of the Lord-and that is all they needed!
God still calls His troops into battle against overwhelming odds but sadly many Christians only want to do things they can do. Just like Gideon, fear keeps us from victory. Fear stops us dead in our tracks. So we go on living a defeated existence until the pain of defeat becomes too much for us to bear.
Then some of us like Gideon find the faith to break through seemingly unconquerable fear and take an honest shot at victorious life in God.
Why is Gideon in Hebrews 11? In the midst of a backslidden people he rerouted his doubts. He accomplished something for God strictly by faith!
Gideon defeated the powerful Midianite army with only 300 soldiers-Just a few good men!
Blessings,
John
He wasn’t a prophet, preacher, priest, or a king, just an ordinary man who was radically changed by an encounter with a heavenly visitor.
His name is kept alive in modern times by the Bibles to be found in most hotel and motel rooms.
Judges records the history of the nation of Israel for 305 years after the death of Joshua and in this book we see many frightening parallels between Israel and America.
Israel was established by God Himself and He gave them Canaan, the best land on the earth at that time. God gave them His love, The Law, and The Land, only asking them for one thing in return--that they would love Him, obey Him, and serve Him. What did Israel do? They Denied the Lord, they Defied the Law, and Defiled the Land. So God had to judge them.
RIPPED FROM AMERICAN HEADLINES
The parallel with America is obvious and alarming. No nation has ever had a Christian beginning like the USA. We too have been given The Lord, The law, and a Land, and we've Denied Him and Defied Him. Our land is being Defiled, leaving us fighting for survival.
Gideon's story is recorded in chapters 6-8 of the book of Judges. He lived in the period of history of Israel that was made up of seven repeated cycles in which the people of Israel rebelled against God, began to worship the pagan gods around them, suffered the painful consequences, cried out to God for help, and He responded by sending a judge who would deliver them.
For a while the people would return to God but when the judge died they would rebel against God and the cycle would start all over again.
Gideon was the fourth of these judges and his ministry began with the same phrase that got all the other judges started. We find it in verse 1 of Judges 6, -“The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord." This time the consequence of worshiping false gods came in the form of a group of people known as the Midianites. Their mode of attacking the Israelites was different than the Canaanites that Deborah had to deal with. Instead of the iron chariots that served Jabin and Sisera, the Midianites had a unique military weapon in the form of…. camels.
In the twenty-first century with our sophisticated instruments of death: smart bombs, patriot missiles, and stealth bombers it’s hard for us to appreciate the military significance of camels twelve hundred years before Christ. In Gideon's day, camels gave the Midianites an enormous military advantage. They were so ugly they had to slip up on water to get a drink [kidding] and would strike the Israelites with great fear. But the main benefit of the camel was that it gave the Midianites a mobile, long-range, swift, attack-capability against the Hebrews, who were entirely dependent on foot soldiers.
I saw something this week that I never thought I’d see; a video of huge elephants brought to Joplin Missouri to help clean up the debris from the vociferous twisters that struck the town. I watched in amazement as the Pachyderms pulled cars and trucks around like they were small tin-cans. At first it seemed funny but it worked-or they worked-beautifully. I prayed they wouldn’t get upset because if those elephants had decided to throw a fit, a few of them could easily wipe out what was left of Joplin.
A camel can travel for three or four days with a heavy load on its back, and cover about 300 miles without food or water. With this powerful “new weapon,” the Midianites were able to develop a unique strategy in their war against Israel. Rather than invading and occupying the land, they simply waited until harvest time each fall.
Then they would move in from the desert, cross the Jordan in huge numbers, like a plague of locusts, stripping it bare of grain, vegetables, fruit, and livestock. Finally, with their camels loaded down with spoils, they would cross back into the desert and live there until the next harvest time. They did this for seven years and left Israel in desperation. People were reduced to hiding food in mountain dens and caves.
This was incredibly humiliating and debilitating to Israel. Since an attack could come at any moment, they lived in constant fear. We’re told… "They were brought very low because of Midian."
GIDEON
Then Gideon appears on the scene. His name means "hacker" or "hewer" which would seem to be a name for a man of great strength and courage. But, when we get our first look at Gideon, he's cowering under a tree, threshing grain in a wine press. Normally a man would do so on a wooden threshing floor, in an exposed place so that the wind could carry away the chaff. He would use a threshing sledge pulled by oxen. But, Gideon was trying to separate the grain from the chaff by walking on it in his bare feet as you would on grapes to turn them into wine. And he was doing this hidden under a tree for fear of the marauding Midianites. One day when Gideon was doing this a man approached, sat down under the tree, and watched.
Two things are significant about this person; Gideon didn’t know that he was the Angel of the Lord so there must have been nothing supernatural about His appearance. He didn't have wings, or wear a halo, or carry a harp. He didn't glow with a heavenly light like those heavenly beings on Touched by An Angel. Secondly it was not an angel of the Lord, but rather THE angel of the Lord. In the Old Testament whenever the phrase, "THE Angel of the Lord," is used it refers to Jesus Himself, before His incarnation...taking the form of an angel and visiting the earth. Now, if I didn't know the Lord better, I might think that He was mocking Gideon with the first words He spoke. In verse 12, He said, "The Lord is with you, Oh Valiant warrior!" Gideon was anything but valiant at this point. He was more of a cowardly, beleaguered victim.
One day a man came to his psychiatrist with a problem. He said, "Doctor, please help me. Everything's going wrong. I feel worthless. My friends tell me I have a terrible inferiority complex. Can you help me?" So the psychiatrist told him that he would give him some tests and evaluate him. A week later, the man came back and the psychiatrist said, "Friend, I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is that we have proved you don’t have a complex. There is no doubt about that. The bad news is, you’re inferior."
Gideon was inferior-at least in the judgment of his peers-and he pointed this out to God. He said that he was of the tribe of Manasseh, which was the lowest and weakest tribe in all Israel. Then, he said that his family was the lowest and weakest family in the tribe of Manasseh. Further, he was the lowest and weakest member of his family. So, he was the lowest and weakest member of the lowest and weakest family of the lowest and weakest tribe of all Israel! You cannot get much lower than that. But to these excuses of inferiority, God gave a single reply, "I will be with you...."which brings us to the first principle of how to be a valiant warrior for God. You see, when it comes to the battles of life you must remember:
IT’S NOT IMPORTANT WHO YOU ARE, IT’S WHO YOU’RE WITH
God does not seek people who are the most outwardly capable, or the most naturally "strong." No, He intentionally works with the most unlikely material so that everyone can see the glory belongs to God and God alone. The apostle Paul marveled over this principle more than a thousand years later writing,
"Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong...as it is written, 'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” [I Corinthians 1:26-27, 31]
Time and time again as we read the Word of God, we see God cutting away a man's self-confidence to bring him to the place where he admits that he is totally inadequate to do or to be what God desires. There isn’t a single major figure in the Word of God whom God didn’t bring to realize a deep sense of his own inadequacy. And this is vital for truly valiant warriors.
Paul reminds us- "We are not adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves...our adequacy is from God." (II Corinthians 3:5)
The narrative says- "Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon." The Spirit of God wore Gideon the way a man puts on a suit of clothes, indwelling him, empowering him to do battle. You and I must remember this principle if we are to be effective soldiers in God's army! A good approach for us would be to daily say to God, "Lord, here I am. I want to be your suit of clothes today. I want you to take me and use me. Lord, just walk around in me today." This a great philosophy for us to embrace, for our strength, and our sufficiency for victory doesn’t come from ourselves but from God.
Our key to victory is God's indwelling presence and power. We are nothing without God, no matter how strong or talented we may be. In this army, it doesn't matter who you are. It matters Who you are with or Who is with you! To what extent have you allowed the promise of God's adequacy to minister to your life? God Himself has committed to be with you and to pour His strength into you. Remember your weakness does not hinder God. In fact, II Corinthians 12:9 says that,
"His strength is made perfect in weakness."
IF YOU AND I WANT TO BE VICTORIOUS IN LIFE WE MUST DECIDE WHICH GENERAL WE’LL FOLLOW.
The first assignment that God gave Gideon was not to attack the Midianites but to assault the idol worship of his people.
The reason the people of Israel were weaken and unable to defend themselves was that they had chosen to worship and put their faith in something other than the true God. They were following the wrong "general!" And many times we are weak because we make the same mistake. We feel overwhelmed because we worship things other than God. We have divided loyalties. This is what Jesus was warning us of when He said,
"No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other." (Matthew 6:24)
And this, Gideon's first battle was probably his toughest because in his own backyard there was a vivid example of the reason God had allowed Midian to overwhelm and enslave Israel.
Joash, Gideon's father, had apparently built an altar to Baal on his property and with it an Asherah, a wooden pillar representing the Canaanite goddess of fertility. And it was not just for the family's private use. It obviously served as the village shrine with Joash acting as the supervisor of pagan worship in the area. God told Gideon to take a young bull and a seven-year-old bull and use them to tear down the massive altar to Baal. Then he was to cut down the wooden Asherah and, using that wood, he was to build a fire on which to sacrifice the seven-year-old bull on a new altar which he was to build for the Lord. God gave Gideon this task so that he could learn that before Midian could go, Baal had to go.
God would tolerate no rivals. Truly great soldiers in God’s army only follow one commander.
People notice how committed we, who claim to be Christians, are to God. Gideon's neighbors certainly noticed the results of his actions that night. In fact the next morning when they saw what he had done they demanded his death but his own father came to his defense and said … "Hey....if baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar!" The neighbors agreed and they gave Gideon a new name, "Jerub-baal" which literally means "let baal contend-let him fight for himself."
From that moment on, every time the people of Israel looked at Gideon, they had visible proof of the weakness of baal and the power of God. This valiant warrior helped them to see the importance of following only the one true God.
OUR FOLLOWING HIS ORDERS ARE IMPORTANT TO GOD
This was a learning process for Gideon. From the beginning he had a lot of trouble trusting the commands and promises of God. Even after he gathered his army he was afraid and you may remember he tested God. It wasn't that Gideon was trying to discover God's will. He already knew what God's will was for his life. Prior to his fleece Gideon said to God, "If You will deliver Israel through me, as You have said." You see, God had made His will perfectly clear. Gideon didn't lack information about the will of God; He lacked confidence to trust the Word of God. Gideon's real struggle was one of faith, not information. This is an important lesson for all Christians to learn for as Hebrews 11:6 says,
"Without faith it is impossible to please God."
Note that God is gentle with Gideon. God graciously helps build Gideon's faith. First Gideon put a sheep skin on the ground and asked God to make only the fleece wet with dew and the ground dry and God did this. But that wasn't enough to build Gideon's confidence. You can almost see his mind at work. He thinks, "Maybe this isn't as amazing as it seems...after all, it would be more likely for the water to be absorbed by the wool than the ground.
Maybe the fact that the wool is wet and the ground is dry would have happened anyway. It's not really as sign of anything." So, he makes a second request of God: "Will you reverse the process -- and make the ground wet and the fleece dry?" Gideon's response here points out how inadequate fleeces can be when used as a method for discovering God's will. The results are difficult to interpret.
I read about a Bible school announcing that it was planning to buy a building. They said, "If we have $100,000 by this date, we will know it is God's will. We will know that God wants us to do it." On the appointed day, they had only $90,000 and now they had a problem; should they buy the building or not? And if it was not God's will, where had the $90,000 come from? Was it Satan's money? Of course not. But the fallacy was that they had expected God to do His work in their way.
Do you see the weakness in this practice? It tends to limit God...it puts Him in a box. Litmus tests like this are always difficult to interpret. Fleeces aren't the best way to find the will of God. We don't need to cast fleeces to experience God's guidance. We’re liable to be “fleeced.” He has given us His written Word to help us find His will...and His presence to help us understand and do it. In Psalm 73:23-24 the psalmist rejoices in this truth saying to God,
"You have taken hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You will guide me, and afterward receive me to glory."
The amazing thing about this isn’t what it shows about Gideon's fleece, but what it teaches us about God's patience. Gideon was a special student in God's "slow-learner class." God had done so much in his life already but Gideon was still saying, "If you're really going to do what You say...do this or that." But God kept on loving and working with him. I thank God for that because I too am one of God's slow learners. Many times in my life I have had to pray, "I believe...but not quite enough...help my unbelief.”
Over and over I have learned to be thankful that God is,
"Slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness; maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin." Exodus. 34:6-7.
IF WE FOLLOW GOD, GET READY FOR “GOD-SIZED” BATTLES.
The Midianites had a force of 135,000 men with them when they invaded Israel in this 8th harvest season. They camped in the Valley of Jezreel, and they came fully expecting to carry out their usual policy of an uncontested stripping of the land and a triumphant return to their desert home. But this time there was a difference. God had raised up a man who was prepared to lead Israel against these camel-riding carpet baggers. Empowered by the Spirit of God, Gideon marched his army of 32,000 men to the hills of Mt. Gilboa.
The Midianites were armed to the teeth but Gideon and his men had virtually no weapons. Gideon and his men were no doubt wondering how they could possibly win against such a superior force. So imagine how Gideon felt when God said that he had too many troops and that all those who were afraid should return home? Interestingly, 22,000 took him up on this offer!
After the 22,000 left, God said that was still too many so He instructed Gideon to watch his men drink and send everyone home who bent their faces down to drink water from the stream directly. Only 300 stood up alertly, ready for battle, the water cupped in their hands.
So in a short span of time God had taken an overwhelming situation and made it impossible. It would seem that defeat was going to be snatched from the jaws of victory. The original 32000 had no chance of winning against the hordes of the Midianites and their superior weaponry but for 300 it was laughable. God chose less than one percent of the group that Gideon began with to fight. They were outnumbered 450 to 1. God isn’t interested in simply giving His people victory. He’s concerned with teaching us trust.
Our victories make us self-reliant, which is worse, far worse, in the long run, than losing! That night I don't think Gideon slept too well. Would you? 300 against 135,000! That's like a football team composed of junior high school girls going up against Super Bowl champions! God of course knew how Gideon felt so He told him, "If you are afraid to go down against the Midianites, let me help you."
A DREAM CHANGES EVERYTHING
God knew the anguish Gideon was going through so He invited Gideon to go to the camp of the Midianites. Gideon obeyed and was accompanied by a young boy, named Purah. They snuck in close enough to hear Midianite sentries talking about a dream in which a barley loaf flattened a tent. The Midianites were nomadic so the tent clearly represented them. And barley was most often used as animal food, but it was all that the Israelites had left because of the better foodstuffs had been taken. So, the barley loaf clearly represented Israel. The Midianite said, "That barley bun is nothing less than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash. God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand."
As he listened Gideon no doubt sensed that the dream had been repeated throughout the whole army of the Midianites. They had been terrorized inwardly by the mysterious hand of God. So this huge army was already defeated. And at this point Gideon learned he greatest lesson of his life. He realized as he never had before, that it was not a battle between 300 Israelites and 135,000 Midianites. It was God who was fighting Midian and the 300 men were just His channels.
Gideon went back to his little band of men and said, "Arise, for the Lord has given the camp of Midian into your hands." He divided his army into three groups of 100 and as they departed they were given their weapons.
Here is what was issued to them: a clay jar, a trumpet, and a torch. No shields, no spears, no swords. Gideon had his “few good men” to surround the camp and then waited until the middle watch had just been posted. That was about 10:30 pm when some of the men had been asleep for three or four hours and were now in their deepest sleep. The men who had just been relieved from guard duty would still be moving through the camp, and the men who had just gone on duty would still be rubbing their eyes.
Suddenly there was a huge noise all around them. The rams' horns were signaling an enemy attack! Then the clay pitchers smashed on the ground sounded like the armor of armies clashing into one another. The Midianites looked up and they were surrounded on three sides by lights and torches. Finally a great shout shattered the silence "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon."
In all the confusion, the camels stampeded and in the chaos that resulted, the panicked Midianites began to slaughter one another. To the half-asleep men, everything that moved became an enemy. Every shadow was an Israelite. All this time, Gideon's men didn’t move. They stood in their place blowing their trumpets, waving their torches and shouting their slogan, "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon." By they way, they only had one "sword"-the sword of the Lord-and that is all they needed!
God still calls His troops into battle against overwhelming odds but sadly many Christians only want to do things they can do. Just like Gideon, fear keeps us from victory. Fear stops us dead in our tracks. So we go on living a defeated existence until the pain of defeat becomes too much for us to bear.
Then some of us like Gideon find the faith to break through seemingly unconquerable fear and take an honest shot at victorious life in God.
Why is Gideon in Hebrews 11? In the midst of a backslidden people he rerouted his doubts. He accomplished something for God strictly by faith!
Gideon defeated the powerful Midianite army with only 300 soldiers-Just a few good men!
Blessings,
John
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