Articles

MAY CAUSE ITCHING

Having a skin condition that was driving me crazy with itching, I sought relief by going to a dermatologist. The doctor wrote me out a prescription, which I immediately took to the pharmacy to get filled. As is the practice today, with my prescription I received a print-out that informed me all about this particular topical cream for itching. Reading the print-out when I got home, I found listed under side effects this, "May cause itching..." Have you ever noticed that man's solutions to man's problems have unintended consequences that either exacerbate the problem or cause other problems? One need only to consider government if he is doubtful of this: Almost always when government is going to fix a problem, the unintended and unexpected consequences are dire and many. We should all be nervous when the government says it is going to fix something. Before we are too hard on our government let us consider our own experience. Often when we try to fix something, when we try to help, we only make things worse. That is why I have always appreciated the prophet's plea, "Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise." (Jer 17:14). If God helps, it helps. If God heals, it is healed and no negative side effects. His prescriptions take care of the problem and there is no "May cause _________________".

DON'T LIKE THE MESSAGE? ATTACK THE MESSENGER

One thing that has been so clear in the current political debates that are in process is that the issue at hand isn't what is publically discussed. No doubt it is true of both parties, but one characteristically has the same response to dissenting voices: The dissenting point of view is not addressed nor answered, its validity not even considered. The dissenter is personally attacked. Point in case: The top leader of the senate has called those against a current piece of legislation in question, "Anarchists." Anarchists assassinate, bomb, etc. Others who support it have called those against the bill, "arsonists, kidnappers, terrorists." Not wanting to deal with the realities that the opponents raise with their point of view, the proponents personally and wrongfully attack these opponents. The tactic is if the message is not liked, attack the messenger. Any who have tried to share the Gospel, make a stand, or give counsel have experienced this. If the hearer doesn't like what you have to say, instead of dealing with the validity of what you say, he leaves attacking you. This is not new. They did so with Jesus. They did not like what He had to say. Instead of dealing with the issues He raised, they attacked Him. They called Him an illegitimate child, a glutton and a wino. Yes, they called our Master that simply because they didn't like His message: "...they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. ... "(Mat 11:19). Now that last intended slur, "a friend of publicans and sinners," is really a compliment. Attacking the messenger, tearing down the messenger, does not change anything. It does not make the attacker nor his point of view correct. It doesn't not alter truth or reality. It only muddies the water and diverts attention from the matter at hand. They attack Jesus, but His message has been proved correct over and over again.

WE CAN, WE SHOULD

I didn't say it well, but when speaking on Outreach a few Sunday nights back I said something like, "Just think. You have the power to change someone's eternity. You have the ability to turn around someone that is headed for hell so that he ends up in heaven." Wow! I clarified that only God has the power to save, change a heart, alter a destiny. Yet, we have the power to change lives as stated. Why? 1. God has chosen to use us as His instrument to save people. Angels are not His primary evangelists. We are. We can be used of God to rescue those headed to hell. 2. We have and know the power of the Gospel. We say with Apostle Paul, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation." Any that know the story of Jesus possess the power to see a life changed. All is needed is to share that good news. 3. Only the Spirit can give new life to one without Christ. Yet, we are told, with the Spirit's coming into our lives we would receive power to be witnesses. So, yes, we have the power to change someone's eternity. No guilt here, but think: What if a doctor had the knowledge and medicine to save a life, but wouldn't treat the sick one? What if the fireman's ladder would reach the floor where a child was trapped by the fire, but he never even got the ladder off the truck? What if an excellent swimmer never even jumped into the water as he stood on the bank seeing and hearing a floundering, flailing man screaming from the water, "Help me. Please, help me."? What a power we have. We have the power to change a life. We can. We should.

WE WALK BY FAITH NOT FEELINGS

We cannot see the good in what is happening. We cannot see how things will work out. We cannot see where and how God is at work. We cannot see any profit in all of our doing right. That is just the point: We cannot SEE. That is why we do not walk by sight, but by faith. How do we Walk By Faith? First, we WALK. Walking is an unremarkable, usual, common, everyday way we transport ourselves. If I were to skip or run down the aisle in a church service that would garner comment and remarks after church. But, no one comments because I simply walked down the aisle. That is common, usual, expected. To Walk By Faith is to keep on going, keep on serving God, in the everyday, usual, mundane routine of everyday life regardless of what may or may not be happening in my life. To walk implies forward progress. It is the opposite of stopping, quitting, or turning around. We WALK by faith. We keep faithfully serving God, putting one foot in front of the other. Walking also implies a destination. To Walk By Faith is to never forget we are going somewhere and to keep moving towards that goal. Second, we Walk, NOT By Feelings. We are so affected by what we see that we can re-quote, “We walk by faith and not by sight,” to “We walk by faith and not by feelings.” Our emotions are influenced and affected far more by what we see than what we don’t see. We see the bill, the doctor’s report, the smashed up car, etc. Seeing the bad, our emotions react accordingly. If we go by those emotions, we will detour from serving God. We cannot go by our emotions. How can our emotions that are influenced by what we see ever lead us to what we cannot see? We cannot control our emotions. We can go to bed at night euphoric from feeling the Spirit in a service and awake the next morning totally spiritually depressed, grouchy, and feeling ugly. We can control what we do with our emotions. We can choose to keep on walking. Emotions are fickle and unreliable. Emotions can be good. God gave us emotions. Emotions are like the drunk driver that should never be allowed in the driver’s seat. Good emotions make a great passenger but a poor driver. Lastly, We Walk By Faith. Faith is not hocus pocus, hype, denial of reality, or screwing up our minds in concentration to change things. The root of faith is faithfulness. We Walk By Faith. We keep believing God by continuing to be faithful to Him, His Word, His House, His ways. Walking will take one somewhere. Walking by faith will take him to victory, to blessing, and all the way to an eternity with God

DEEP COMMUNION

Deep communication doesn't happen immediately upon the coming together of two people. Real communion takes time-time to get out of the world each has been in and into the world the two form together. You're probably wondering what I'm talking about. My point is that it takes time to enter into real communion with God. For example, imagine being in a rush and suddenly encountering an old friend. Perhaps, it is by running into him at a store, or perhaps he calls on the phone. Deep communion, no matter how much you two have had in the past, doesn't immediately take place. You first go through our American custom: "Hi! How are you?" "Hi! Fine. How are you?" "Oh, just great. Is everything O.K. with you." "Yeah. So, so. And how about you; everything all right with you?" And back and forth you two go in the redundant inquiry of one another's health. Then there's the trivial talk about the weather, or the news, or what you've been doing like mopping the kitchen. At this point each is still trying to come out of his world that he had been wrapped up in before the call. You two are not yet in the same world. Your conversation could be the same with a total stranger. Then it begins to happen. Perhaps, a memory is brought up: "Do you remember when we..." Maybe it is a problem one needs to share: "I just had to talk to some one, and you were always kind to listen." Then, perhaps, it is news about a mutual interest: "Did you hear about our ol' buddy___________?" Whatever gets the ball rolling, soon each has forgotten their own little private world from which each has just emerged and the two of you are sharing your hearts with each other oblivious to time, duties, and surrounding activities. It feels so good-that deep communion with a friend. But, it took time to get to that place. So it is with our communion with God. We get down to pray, but we are still wrapped in our own private world and not yet in His. We pray the usual ritual prayer one politely, customarily prays when coming before God. But we are not yet communing. If we quit at this point, we haven't got past the "Hi! How are you?"'s. But if we linger, if we keep talking and listening, fairly soon we will forget the world around us and be caught up in a world with just God and us in deep communion. And, oh, how good that experience is.

THE COMING STORM

I for one, wouldn't minimize it. Storms less severe have taken lives. I'm just amazed at how a storm can set everyone a buzzing. Media has learned to feed our fascination with storms with a barrage of sensationalized drama. I heard one reporter from a helicopter describing the shape and size of some pieces of tin he saw blown off a roof. A past storm was quite a storm. Everywhere I went the next day people were talking about it. I heard several tell of how frightened they were. An interesting comment I heard from several was that, although they live in the Dayton area, they didn't experience any of the storm's rampage. The storm had a path, and they weren't in it. Even the newspaper reported storms that hit the "area." In other words, as bad as the storm was, it was really quite limited. It was local. Relatively very few were effected by it. It made me think of a message an evangelist preached here several years ago. He titled it, "The Coming Storm." That storm won't just cut a narrow, howbeit destructive, swath. It will be a storm that "shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." As the prophet described what he saw of that coming storm, "...there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places." (Rev. 3:10; 6:12-14). Some are heralding coming calamities of economic, ecological, and political nature. They even have begun to describe such catastrophes as having "Biblical" proportions. That's interesting. Truth is the worse possible storm headed our way is of truly Biblical proportions. It will be the storm the Bible says coming. This is truly a storm to talk about-before it hits.

IT HAPPENED JUST LIKE I SAID

Listening to the news this morning two things struck me: (Nobody pays attention-probably a good thing-but I am one of those that talks back to the newscast.) First, I had to note that the bulk of the repeated news for the past weeks has included the continue use of names straight from the Bible-"Syria," "Egypt," "Nile." Out of 196 official countries (number depends on criteria used to determine a nation), we hear over and over of the names of countries mentioned in the Bible. Think how much "Israel" is mentioned comparative to other countries when considering her size, population, wealth, etc. One reason is that the conflicts in those countries in someway all have their roots reaching clear back into Bible events to the conflict between Abraham's two son's descendents, the conflict of Isaac and Ishmael. Second, I found myself saying, "It is happening just like I said." I impressed no one nor was I alone in the assessment. But, when our country's current administration supported the Muslim Brotherhood backed government of Egypt under the pretenses that it was "democratic" any could understand that that movement was comprised of Islamic extremists that gave only lip service to democracy in order to gain power. Those truly for democracy would never ultimately accept such a rule. No sooner, had the words left my mouth then I thought, when all is said and done in the events and history of the world, God will truly be able to say, "It happened just like I said it would."

WHERE WORSHIP HAPPENS

Volumes have been written about worship. Scores of messages have been preached. I’m am certain that I can add nothing to the wisdom on worship that has already been shared. I am convinced, however, of our great need to worship our God more. Jesus said that the Father is “seeking” worshippers. That declaration not only reveals the Father’s desire for our worship, but also, at least in my thinking, the rarity of worshippers. One does not seek what is readily apparent and available. I want the Father to find me a worshipper. Thinking on worship as I was out doing business yesterday, I suddenly became aware of when worship happens in one’s life. Worship happens when my fresh awareness of God’s greatness and goodness converges with my renewed awareness of my need. I worship because God is great and deserving and inspiring of my worship. I worship because I recognize my need of this great God. To come before God with only an awareness of His greatness, makes His greatness seem theoretic, distant, not-applicable to my life. To approach God with only an absorption of my need, makes me a self-centered sniveler viewing God as a source from which to get something I want. But, together, my acute awareness and fixation on His greatness and my need of Him, results in my worship of Him. In fact, such worship brings such trust, wonder, overwhelming love of God, that one soon has lost sight of his need and only his absorption with the greatness and goodness of God remains. Thus, worship, to put it in the words of two songs, is to come before God with a heart that says, “How Great Thou Art,” and “I need Thee, Oh, I need Thee, Every hour, I need Thee, Bless me now my Savior, I come to Thee.” Worship happens at the convergence of my awareness of God’s greatness and my need.

KEEPING THE NORTH STAR

Almost always in this weekly article I seek to take something currently in the news and events of the world or sometimes in my personal world from which to share my meager thoughts. Today, it was announced that the TV network which is arguably the most liberal has collapsing ratings. Recently, it was announce that the morning news show that is also arguably the most liberal has plunging ratings. The church world should have learned this reality long ago. Churches that went liberal in theology soon had quickly declining membership. Almost always, it is the conservative churches that are the fastest growing over all. Although this correlation between growing liberalism and declining interest could be dissected from various angles, I would think we should focus on that fact that liberalism, whether in religion or politics, almost always embraces the rejection of absolutes. To take absolutes from people is to take away security, moorings, means of making judgments-it is to take away any reliable points of reference from which to live one's life. It is to take away the North Star from the ancient sailors being tossed in the vast seas. Something deep in humanity rejects such a life. Oh, to take away absolutes is relieving and pleasurable at first. It leaves one with no moral restraints. It allows him to live as he pleases. But, he soon becomes like the child left home alone and realizes that he can eat all the candy he wants, stay up as late as he pleases, watch on television whatever he wishes. That had always sounded so appealing. However, with Dad and Mom gone, with their not there to give rules and enforce them, without the structure and security of a schedule and parameters for living, what seemed so appealing loses it pleasure. If he were honest, in the end, man realizes he doesn't do a good job as his own master living without restraint. See, in the end most people vote for keeping the North Star rather than getting rid of it.