John 3:30

He Must Increase, I Must Decrease

Scripture

From the Hospital to the Battlefield.

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“Quick, grab all the patients from the hospital and get them out of here. We have a war to fight!”

How would you react to a statement such as this if you were an attending nurse or doctor? Or what would you think if you were a member of the staff who knew the sickness and dis-ease of so many of the folks in your building?

Let me guess. There would be a sense of awe accompanied by disgust. The idea of dragging the sick into battle may not only seem unfair to them, but you would have to agree that it would unfair to the rest of the people in battle.

Imagine a war where you are on a side with people who clearly aren’t prepared for battle. You went through boot camp, years of training and have battle before under a more experienced commander. Now it is your turn. You are the leader and many people’s lives are in your hands. Would you knowingly bring men or women who you know were not equipped to handle the schemes of your enemy? Even little league sports coaches avoid that mistake, do they not?

Yet, that is what many of us do when we go into battle with other Christians – or at least we are expected to. People want to accompany me into battle who are not ready.

How often, dear Christian, have you been so excited that someone wanted to accompany you on your outreach that you allowed them to participate in a way in which they were not ready? But my problem is not so much with the faithful men leading teams. I have found that most teams led by mature men are functioning well and they properly screen participants.

Teams which are led by the immature, well, they are reading this blog anyway, so I can’t help them. If you find yourself leading teams and you realize you probably need leadership yourself, click here and contact me.

I once heard my pastor describe a church as “like a hospital.” I don’t remember exactly what he said, but the gist of the conversation was that there are people of varying levels of sickness and who are more or less recovered from the illness. People will have different levels of strength and need, and some will relapse.

The concern I have is this: I’ve had friends (and myself) who have been criticized for being too critical of others within Christianity. We are “too doctrinal” or focus too much on “holiness” and not enough on “love.” My frustration with this is that just because many of our actions mimic those of some pharisees, that doesn’t necessarily imply that our motivations are the same.

Let me put it to you this way. I know that many people will focus on doctrine and holiness and then you’ll find out later they are really adulterers and idolaters and you can explain away all their teaching as prideful, etc. These people are deserving of condemnation, as would I be if that were the case.

But my point is this: I am not one of those people, by God’s grace. I am a missionary in God’s army and when I go into battle, I am afraid that there are people who think that my attempts to develop others are errant. Out of love for those I exhort, and other faithful brothers and sisters who are going into the battle, I feel a responsibility to only bring people with us into the battle who I can trust can wield the necessary defensive and offensive weapons. We do not need things like friendly fire to hurt us, or mistakes which can be predicted due to lack of proper training.

Here’s my point. If you cannot take criticism when we are in a bible study, or you cannot be corrected when you preach in a church setting or give a devotion, or you refuse to listen to a brother’s exhortation or concern in a one on one setting, then you will not do those things on the battlefield of the war for souls. I love you and I wish the best for you. You may be a dear soldier who is now an amputee, or a baby, still in the neonatal unit.

You may even be someone who would be expected to be more mature by now. Maybe you were in battle before, with a different leader and you think you are quite decorated. But if you belong in the hospital because you are sick or injured, get that fixed before you leave. Get checked out by those who are qualified to evaluate your condition and whose very lives may depend on you someday.

These thoughts were inspired by a recent conversation with a good friend of mine. While we both love and wish to minister to saved sinners in the local church, my intention was simply to point out the necessity of spiritual growth and maturity and to defend the need for discernment (discrimination) in the realm of team building for outreach.

Quick Hitters: NorCal Fire, Bird Droppings & Holocaust Rage

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Allow me to quickly draw your attention to a few important items.

First, if you have not registered for NorCal Fire and are able to attend, I highly recommend you consider it by clicking here.

Secondly, check out this enlightening and pointed post about a light topic – bird poop: So a Bird Pooped on My Head

Thirdly, if you have a check, check out Fred Butler’s several posts concerning the KJVO problem. This is a dangerous group, and you should know how to spot a member. Thanks in part to Fred’s teaching, I was able to pick one out this weekend!

And finally, let me preface the next section with a qualifier. I believe Adolph Hitler was wrong in what he did to the Jewish people and it was a horrible atrocity. Do not misinterpret what you are about to read.

I received this photo in an email today. The text of the email read: If you think you are having a bad day, I bet the person who wrote this would trade with you!

Picture going around in email.

I could not agree more. You see, anyone whose attitude toward God is one of “God owes me anything at all” is a hellbound sinner for his sins against a holy God. The worst atrocities committed by men cannot even compare to the wrath a creative and intelligent God can and will unleash against the ungodly. This poor holocaust victim most likely is suffering far worse at the hands of the Creator to whom he did not give due glory than he ever suffered in this world.

This brings me great distress. God is so easily tossed aside because of “evil” in this world. Yet those who hate God because of the existence of evil cannot even explain evil without contrasting it to God’s goodness. Look, the point is that no matter what happens in this world, God is the one who you need to rely upon. And if you believe God owes you any kind of comfort, pleasure or relief from evil, you are mistaken and have not truly trusted in the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

The question is, dear Christian, do you ever find yourself believing that God owes you more than you’ve been given? Do you even notice your own complaining spirit?

I can assure you, your suffering is likely less than the person who etched this phrase and that you deserve far worse? Think of the Christ who opened not His mouth to His accusers, that he might take punishment he didn’t deserve on your behalf.

This is about recognizing that even in the worst moments in this world, lost sinners still need to acknowledge Christ as Savior and Lord. To many, this doctrine is reprehensible. If you are one of those people, you do not love God, but the god of your own imagination.

What Causes You to Sin?

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What do Mentos, Diet Coke and the Bible have in common? More than you may think.

The topic of Mentos and Diet Coke came up tonight. I recalled a teaching I did one summer in regard to this experiment. As most people know, there’s a way to make Diet Coke explode by dropping Mentos into it. The science behind it is actually remarkable, and I learned and showed experimentally that it does not work with fruity Mentos. A quick internet search will yield plentiful results.

So I took everyone outside and I had a bottle of pop and I let a kid drop a pack of mentos into the 2 liter. It erupted and everyone was like, wow.

Then I took another bottle of pop-colored-liquid, and let the kids drop mentos in again. This time nothing happened. Boo Hoo.

Then I took everyone inside and I explained what had happened.

First, consider James 1:14-15

ESV 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

I explained that one of the bottles had pop in it, and the other bottle had colored water. I explained how in each case, the pop looked similar externally, the same outside agent was added, but in the latter case – the substance, or the makeup of what was inside the bottle was not such that it would react with an eruption with the very same external stimulant.

I then related this to our sin, particularly anger. I pointed out that we cannot blame others when we sin because we are tempted, but rather, as James says, we are lured and enticed by our own desires.

So it is possible for someone to have outside stimulants which are introduced into their lives – and regardless of the outside influence – men will either sin or not sin, erupt in anger or remain in control – based on what is in them, not what is introduced from the outside.

Now, I don’t like to present people with a problem and no solution. So I then offered Psalms 19:12

ESV 12 Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.

I suggested to everyone there that they pray to the Lord to help them with their hidden sin of their heart. The sin they would only be aware of if they had opportunity introduced which evoked the sin. But our God is merciful and Good. We shall not even know in this life the number of times He protected us from our own evil before we had opportunity. But praise to Him for this wonderful gift.

Half Empty or Half Full? Just Put Down the Glass…

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I saw this story today. I leave it in its original form.

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A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the “half empty or half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: “How heavy is this glass of water?”

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.” She continued, “The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything.”

It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses. As early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don’t carry them through the evening and into the night. Remember to put the glass down!

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Now in the case of the born again believer, I offer the following verses upon which you may meditate. I trust the illustration above may seem sensible to you in light of what God’s Word says on the topic.

Philippians 4:4-8 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. (5) Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; (6) do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (7) And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (8) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

1 Peter 5:6-7 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, (7) casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

* Please note that I am not endorsing psychology. I believe it is a false religious system which is antithetical to biblical Christianity and I have several teachings to help anyone who doesn’t agree or understand what I mean. Nevertheless, I found the story to have elements of truth and for it to be a good illustration of a biblical point about handling stress.

Some Things Just Don’t Make Sense…

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Here’s something that doesn’t make sense to me.

There are Christians that do not believe in a literal six day creation, as specified in the book of Genesis and Exodus and testified to by Christ Himself in the New Testament. I’m speaking of born-again Christians who hold the Bible to be inerrant, not just anyone labeled Christian.

This wouldn’t be so surprising, except think about this for a second.

A Christian is someone who believes God is angry with them for sin because a book that is thousands of years old says so. In order to atone for these sins, God (who is 3 persons, but 1 God ?huh?) became a man and was subjected to his own creation to the point of crucifixion. Then, miraculously, because of the resurrection of this God-man 3 days later from the dead, all of which happened 2,000 years ago, the Christian of 2012 can have all of his or her sins transferred to this point in time on the cross with Christ, and have the righteousness of God imputed to them; thus, being justified before God forever by His grace.

Couple this with the death of all first-born Egyptian sons after 9 other remarkable plagues, men who perfectly penned Words from God Himself and preserved them as scripture, and a virgin woman giving birth to the King of kings in a manger in the middle east and you’ve got a recipe for some FAITH.

So what I don’t understand is this: How can someone readily believe all these other seriously exceptional events, events which we can only conceive of because of the scripture, yet these same folks deny the special creation of God which is actually evident to all men through general revelation?

Romans 1:19-21 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. <20> For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. <21> For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

This baffles me!

Miami (OH) @ The Ohio State University & Why I’m Rooting for Michigan

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September 1, 2012. The Redhawks of Miami University (not “The U”) are visiting Columbus to face off against Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes. The Tressel era is over. Memories of Appalachian State vs. That Team Up North swirl in my head. Hopefully, we’ll be ready to play.

But I had a different mission today than to watch football. Upon the urging of Bill Adams from Sports Fan Outreach International, and as a representative of Jesus Christ and Berean Baptist Church, I led a team of evangelists to the campus of The Ohio State University. After some back and forth, we finally agreed upon a time. Working around work schedules, we decided we’d arrive around 2:45, about 30 minutes before we’d expect the game to end, and stay until 6 or 7 to preach the gospel, distribute tracts and engage in one on one conversations.

My report below is intended to show you the surpassing power and love of God. His sovereignty, goodness and mercy were made manifest today in ways that are exceedingly and abundantly more than we could’ve hoped. Bear with my details and general wordiness, and try to enjoy the story in spite of my poor ability to transcribe it!

I am a firm believer that when you set out to serve the Lord you will face spiritual opposition. That is, you will encounter forces of the demonic who will try to thwart the mission. As difficult as this often makes life, I’ve found comfort in the opposition. I actually feel somewhat empowered in a sense, with an innate knowledge that the opposition means I’m clearly on the Lord’s side, the side I want to be on! Nevertheless, the point of the story is not to explain how I or we overcame any spiritual forces, but about how incapable I am against them. It is the power of Christ that overcomes spiritual wickedness; and God put that on display today, if only to humble us.

The story starts August 31st (Friday night). The plans are set. I’ll be picking up Matt at 1:30, meeting at Jerry’s; Jerry will pick up Fred and take us to campus. On my way home from coaching football, I have car trouble. I shut it off at a stoplight to restart it, it makes weird noise, but restarts. My daughter, Bailey, and I arrive home, but not before smelling smoke. We thought the car would explode!

So I wake up Saturday morning and my car won’t start…it won’t even turn over! Bless be the name of the Lord that allowed me to make it to my driveway the night before right before my car basically died. A call to AAA and a tow later, and I’m without a vehicle. I let Matt know he can drive. Sounds ok…except Matt’s life has been flipped upside down by family obligations last minute. Matt juggles it all and tells us he’ll meet us on campus. Jerry agrees to pick everyone else up. Joe, from Mansfield, is still on his way. All will be well, we suppose. I call the pastor to send out a prayer request to our congregation which he does right away. Then I call Tom Wilson, one of our deacons, and he prays for us and commits to continue. I feel like the Lord has already displayed His mighty hand! Even through the misfires, we are on track! Praise God. He has kept us faithful through all this and has enabled us to change our plans.

Now I realize I do not own a stool to stand on for preaching. So I find one I like online and call a friend to pick it up for me (remember, I’m without a car). Instead, Mary offers to simply bring me a stool which I can borrow! Now I have all the equipment I need; a stool, charged amp and speaker, microphone with new batteries, thousands of tracts, 27 bibles with our church information stuffed inside, a cooler of snacks and water, my personal bible and a Cleveland Browns poncho – excellent for covering boxes of bibles and our cordless speaker in the event of rain (and one really good looking combo of brown and orange as well).

The fellowship was sweet, as usual, as we made our way to Lane and Olentangy River Rd. As soon as we got there, Fred, Joe and I started passing out tracts. I immediately got into a great conversation with two young men from Lancaster who were raised Catholic, but understood the message of the gospel of grace. If I remember correctly, their names were Kyle and Ethan (sorry if you are reading this and I just got your name wrong!). If you are a brother or sister in Christ, please take a moment to pray for these two men.

I was sorta waiting for Matt to begin preaching; not sure what was holding him up. I finally stepped on the stool to preach. Very few people stopped to listen, but it was a stoplight scenario, so there were regularly 100 or so people waiting for a green light every 3 minutes for a good half an hour. Fred said he overheard someone say, “those guys were at the Super Bowl, too.” That made me chuckle!

Well, as usual, we met some “Christians.” One self-identified Christian girl gave me the middle finger and yelled F#6% you at me as I preached. I used this as an opportunity to talk about how when a person becomes a Christian, they begin to love righteousness and hate wickedness. I thank God for people like this young lady. She unwittingly drew attention to me and to my message of Christ’s glory, while embarrassing herself in her drunkenness. I remember when Ray Comfort said the best thing that can ever happen to you is a heckler; it makes sense to me now after some time preaching.

We spent a couple hours. The other major highlight was when the guys who drive the bicycles with the carriages on the back took exception to my message. They began to yell things about Satan and generally chuckle and snicker. They eventually got really close to me and cranked up some heavy metal. Again, thanks to God for bringing folks that close in order to draw attention to the message of grace and hope and forgiveness of sins which was being preached. I really enjoyed them, although I called them out a couple times as illustrations. I think they ended up pretty embarrassed by their own foolish behavior. I genuinely told them I wanted them to be forgiven of all their sins, including their attempt to thwart the preaching of God’s Word. May God grant them repentance (that’s the only way anyone exercises it).

Finally, Fred left to go home, and Joe and I still hadn’t found Matt! It turns out he was still stuck in traffic almost 2.5 hours later! Joe and I ambled to Lane and High, where there would be more foot traffic. By 6ish, Matt finally met us. Admitting he was parked illegally, we brainstormed and found a place where he could move his car. We recommended that he go to a gas station and buy a drink; Matt left. As Joe and I waited for him, I noticed Matt kept patting his pockets from across the street. I ran over to find he’d lost his wallet! He had just bought gas. We stopped and prayed. I prayed that the Lord would return Matt’s wallet to him, even if it was in a miraculous way. After a thorough car search, Matt left to go back to where he had bought gas an hour earlier.

As I made my way back across the street, I noticed my cellphone was missing! This was amazing. I had just finished speaking to Joe about spiritual warfare, and now it seemed like somehow someone was trying to prevent us from evangelizing! I went to where Matt had parked his car to look for his wallet and then look for my phone. I found neither. Eventually, I just went back to Joe and started preaching again. There were some people who had questions, and some people who just wanted to heckle, including a really inquisitive lady named Juliana. While discussing the gospel with a couple of young men, Matt walked up and handed me my phone. Praise God, I had just left it in his car when I searched for his wallet!

Matt had checked the gas station and it wasn’t there. So Matt, not realizing I had already checked, went back to his ‘illegal’ parking spot to check for his wallet. As he walked around hoping to find it, a man approached him covered head to toe in Michigan garb. “Are you Matt?” he asked. Matt instantly knew the guy must have had his wallet. What a miracle! Had Matt not planned to buy a drink, he may not have noticed his wallet was missing, and had I kept my cellphone, I may have let him know not to check the parking lot where he ultimately ran into this guy! Matt said, “We gotta root for Michigan tonight!”

Now, having seen the Lord answer prayer and overcome all these things on our behalf, we continued to evangelize for a bit. We got into a long conversation with Juliana who had much disagreement with the bible. Please pray she will have her eyes opened to God’s truth. She was enjoyable to talk to, but I had the feeling at the time and even more so now, that she was just a stall tactic. She occupied our time for a while…and I’m not sure the conversation was entirely fruitful. It actually ended with her saying “Shame on you,” to us and returning the bible we had given her that she had put in her bag.

One other quick anecdote: One young man told us absolute truth did not exist. I asked him if that was absolutely true. He said, “Yes.” When confronted by the fact that his statement was self-refuting, he just sorta got annoyed and walked away. It bothered him that we confessed to have the only message of truth about God.

All in all, it was an excellent day. I still do not have a car until Tuesday, but Matt’s nightmare ride around campus and lost wallet fiasco are all history. Joe was encouraged and encouraged us; and Fred…well Fred’s always just happy to go out. I trust the Lord did wonderful things in the hearts of men and women today. I hope he allows us to see some of those things in this life.

If you are still reading, you are a dear person. I suspect I’d have stopped by now, citing the unnecessary details and general wordiness of the author!

Thank you!