On Tuesday morning, July 13, famous and tumultuous baseball owner, George Steinbrenner died at the age of eighty. Perhaps very few other people in our country can portray the image of the successful American entrepreneur as did Mr. Steinbrenner. Buying the Yankees for a mere 10 million dollars back in 1973, he turned the Yankee team into a modern dynasty in a way that could only be euphemistically called “colorful”. He built a sports empire that is worth over 1.6 billion dollars, while also giving millions away to charitable organizations. Now I am certainly not making any judgment at all as to where Mr. Steinbrenner is now spending eternity, only God can do that. Yet, Mr. Steinbrenner serves as an excellent example of what Jesus said in Matthew 16:26, in regards to the person who has gained the whole world. Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” I believe Jesus’ point is very clear. A person can have all that this life offers, and he can even give massive amounts to charity, but if he has never received Jesus as his Savior and Lord, he will lose his soul (meaning eternal torment in hell). Many today make the mistake of thinking that they can offset the sins they have committed by buying God off with good deeds and continue to live the “high life” apart from God. I am afraid that these folks will find out too late that indeed, they have gained the whole world (or at least a fair share of it) and forfeited their own soul.
An AmaZioni pastor declared to Mike McDowell, the National Director of ZEMA, that God’s curse upon Africa was the AIDS epidemic. When we were there in 2007, it was appalling to see villages missing almost all the 20-50 year old men. Most of them had died of AIDS or were away at some distant place trying to find work, but most were missing because of AIDS. The pastor then asked Mike, “What is God’s curse upon America?” Good question. My response would be, “the removal of our god.”
Without a doubt, I think everyone would agree that America has placed her trust in the Almighty Dollar, instead of our Almighty God as our source of aid and comfort and hope. The dollar is our savior. At the top of the dollar ought to be the words “In This We Trust” instead of “In God We Trust”, because the first is true while the second is only a slogan that means nothing.
Our current economic recession/depression is not an accident or part of a natural cycle. It is, in my opinion, the curse of God, as is the homosexual agenda. God is simply letting us get what we want and have chosen. Turn our backs on God and His ways, we will get the byproduct. We Christians however, need to live in such a way during these times that reflect what God did with New Testament believers, when they shared their goods with one another. It may come to that for us in Alexandria very soon.
This week, the country is talking about the return to Russia of an adopted little seven year old boy by the name of Artyom Savelyvev by his adoptive mother, Torry Hansen, a 33 year-old single nurse from Shelbyville, Tennessee. There was no disputing that the boy was clearly troubled, had a violent temper, and was in need of counseling. He had been abandoned by his mother in Russia, left in a Russian orphanage and then shipped to the U.S. to live with a stranger who was to become his adoptive parent. Overwhelmed by the difficulties of raising such a child, Torry sent the boy back to Russia on a plane with a note saying in part, “. . . I no longer wish to parent this child."
I am extremely thankful that my God in heaven refuses to send me back from whence I came after He had adopted me into His heavenly family; despite the fact that I give Him every reason to do so. Since Jesus paid my debt of rebellion and sin at Calvary, God, in His gracious mercy moved my heart to repentance by His kindness (Romans 2:4), and caused me to be “born again” (John 3:3). The Bible says in Romans 8:15 “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” Since God is divinely faithful, there is no fear of ever being abandoned and sent back to my home country of sin (Colossians 1:13) with a note attached to my chest saying “I am no longer willing to parent this sinful child.” Have you been adopted by your heavenly Father yet?
Last Tuesday night I spent a good hour training Jared and Joelle’s Springer Spaniel Daisy, how to heel, obediently. She’s a very smart dog and within an hour or so she was getting the concept down pretty well. She undoubtedly did not know why I was asking her so many times to sit and stay next to me for 2-5 minutes, doing absolutely nothing but looking straight ahead. Sometimes I required that because there was a vehicle coming down the street and I didn’t want her exposed to danger. Other times it was just to make her learn to be still and concentrate on what she was doing and to learn obedience.
That’s when it struck me how much like Daisy I am in my relationship to my Heavenly Father. There are times He tells me to just sit and be still and I do not know why. He doesn’t always reveal the danger ahead, or maybe there was no danger at all but He knew I needed to park my rear end and learn patience and obedience. I don’t think Daisy was able to appreciate and enjoy the hour long training session, nor do I think she appreciated the benefits of remaining close to her master instead of running helter-skelter amidst traffic, but as a human being I can perceive the infinite benefits of remaining close to my Master. I don’t have to look far to find ministers who crashed and burned because they thought life was so much more fun running at full throttle in an out of control way. I take no credit for learning to heel to my Master, instead I give Him all the glory for taking the time to love me enough to say to me, “HEEL”.
I have kept my peace on the health care discussion both in my sermons and blogs and in the Echo articles, but I can’t keep silent any longer. The latest argument that the pro-death members of the House are using to promote Federal funding for abortions, as they have told Congressman Bart Stupak, is that there will be less people needing health care therefore less health care costs. This is absolute insanity. Let’s kill more of our future children so that we don’t have to pay for their health care costs?
Ignoring the blatant immorality and Nazi type of grisly and ghoulish policies of death to accomplish evolutionary goals, this policy makes no financial sense. What sense does it make to kill the future healthy generation who would normally be contributing in insurance pools to help pay for the health care costs of their parents and grandparents? It would be like potential parents worrying about their immediate costs of raising children so they decide to have none and then later worry about who is going to take care of them in their old age? Oh, I didn’t realize that some people actually do that. Still, it is foolish to think this way. Am I missing something here?
There is a movie coming to town called To Save a Life. It is a movie about a high school student who was rejected by his childhood buddie after the buddie became a popular basketball jock. One day the student came to school with a gun and took his own life to make a statement about how he felt concerning his rejection. This causes the jock to take a look at his own culpability in the young man’s suicide. Through a series of events he is led to a local youth group and a youth pastor who encourage him to “turn his life over to God.” I went to Bloomington last October to attend a special showing of the movie to see if we wanted to sponsor this movie at Cinema 9.
I was not pleased with what I saw in the movie. The young men who produced it obviously wanted to make a movie that was raw and edgy and would capture student’s attention. The movie attempted to portray real high school life with all the vices including the booze and the pre-marital sex.
That’s not what bothered me the most however. It was the fact that the name of Jesus was never mentioned and the gospel was limited to “turning one’s life over to God.” I have spoken to the agents of the movie who called wanting our support, but unfortunately I could not in all good conscience give it. Their claim is that the movie was never intended to be the full gospel but only a discussion starter for Christians to use when they took their non-Christian friends to see the movie. I certainly understand their motive and do not question it at all. But, I think they are naïve to think that presenting only half a gospel is going to do more good than harm. My question is this: Will there be students who leave the movie that think that if they make a “decision” to turn their life over to God, that they are indeed true Christians and on their way to heaven? My guess is that there will be. What do you think? Do you think such attempts do more harm than good, or more good than harm?
Paul says in Ephesians 4:1-3 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This past Sunday marked an enormous milestone in the life of our fellowship as we voted overwhelmingly in favor of a name change and governing changes. One member expressed his amazement that our fellowship could pass such huge changes with a 95-98% agreement. We should be amazed. We should always be amazed at the power of the Spirit to work in our lives miraculous things like unity and love which are so anti-the flesh. I am seeing God at work in our midst causing people to love sacrificially with their time and money. Truly we are growing in the area that matters most - our spiritual development in Christ. It is only a matter of time when this growth will be noticed by those God is bringing into his fold. Did you sense God smiling on us this past Sunday?
On Wednesday night I took the family to see Sandra Bullock in the Blind Side, a story about Michael Ohrer who is currently playing for the Baltimore Ravens. This is a great story about redemption and hope and love. This is a picture of what Christ has done for us by lifting us out of our sin and despair and bringing us into a family where hope thrives. I wish every story could end this way. The film was very candid that most who are born in the hood, never make it out alive. In life, it is very hard to know who to help and for whom should we invest our time and lives. Will they respond in gratitude? What if they have never been taught to be thankful? Will they be honest? What if they have never been taught to be truthful? Will they work hard if we find them a job? What if they have never been taught to persevere? Do we teach them? Is this part of the Great Commission, to teach them to observe all that Christ commanded of us? When do we share the gospel, when they are willing to listen? What if they are never willing to listen? When do we shake the dust from our sandals as Jesus said and move on to those more willing to learn and to submit to Christ? These questions do not have easy answers, but the answer is not to ask the questions in the first place. Once we decided as a church to open our hearts to those Christ came to save, God has tested us to see if we really meant what we said. I guess the best starting place for these answers is Galatians 6:10 "So then, as we have opportunity, let us dogood to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith."
In the book Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, Denver, a homeless black man amazes Ron Hall, a rich art dealer, with a display of compassion and love that defy human comprehension. Denver had recently been befriended by Ron through the prompting of Ron's wife Deborah, and as their friendship grew, Ron was able to catch glimpses of Denver's depth of love he showed to those who did not deserve any. One day an angry drunk was thrown out of a car with a suitcase in front of the Union Gospel Mission by his exasperated family and left there to fend for himself, and to be never again seen by his family who discarded him in this inglorious fashion. Unbeknown to Ron, Denver had felt pity and compassion on this surly white alcoholic and fed him meals every day on the side because the man, Mr. Ballantyne, refused to listen to the gospel during chapel in order to get dinner. Later, when Mr. Ballantyne was relocated to a government supported nursing home, where care and dignity were non-existent, Denver came almost daily to clean up Mr. Ballantyne's soiled bed, feed him a meal, and just love on this cantankerous old man that continually called Denver a "nigger". The room was so foul, that when Ron went there the first time he nearly wretched because of the odor and condition of the room and left, unwilling to go back. That's when Ron, who felt like he was Denver's benefactor, realized he had the roles reversed. In so many ways, Denver had much to teach Ron about servanthood and compassion and sacrifice, even spending nights in prayer for weeks on end, for Ron's wife Deborah who was dying of cancer.
Eventually Denver brought Mr. Ballantyne to McKinney Bible Church and heard the gospel for himself having seen it demonstrated in the actions of a homeless black man who had no reason on earth to care for a man who was vile and mean towards him.
My question is this: have you met anyone as unselfish and caring as Denver in your lifetime and if so, do you think they did what they did because they had the spiritual gift of service or did they do it because they knew it was the right thing to do and were simply prompted by God's love for them?
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