Did you know that God has made a list of what he wants from us? And when you think about it, we could use some help. How do we know what to get for God? He already owns the whole universe. But fortunately for us, God has provided some ideas in the Bible. Listen to the list: “Through Jesus,…let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise–the fruit of lips that confess his name.” It’s a short list. There are only two items on it, the praise of God and the acknowledgement of his name and both are prefaced with “Through Jesus.”

It’s only through Jesus Christ that we are able to praise and worship God. Without him we cannot do it. Without Jesus we can’t even get through to God. Without him our hymns and our prayers are as futile as the falling leaves in Autumn. And it’s only through Jesus that we have the desire and the power to acknowledge the name of God with our lips. Without Jesus we have no relationship to God, no reason for praise and no Lord to acknowledge. It’s only through Jesus that we can give God what he wants.

In coming to terms with his wife Debbie’s death, Gary Habermas moved beyond the historical and theoretical evidence of the resurrection that he had studied in his academic career. He imagined a conversation with God where, whenever he asked questions about Debbie’s cancer and coming death, God would say, “Gary, did I raise my son from the dead?”

“Of course you did, Lord,” he would respond, “But why is Debbie dying?”
“Gary, did I raise my son from the dead?”
“Yes, Lord, but…”
“Gary, did I raise my son from the dead?”

Gary Habermas says, “I imagined God repeating the same question until I got his point. There was an answer to Debby’s suffering, even if I didn’t know it. If Jesus has been raised, then I can trust that Debby will be raised too.”

The resurrection of Jesus is proof that God can raise the dead and it shows us what to expect for ourselves. Part of trusting in Jesus as our Savior from sin is trusting that we will someday be raised from the dead ourselves.

The second coming of Jesus is a central teaching of Christianity and the cornerstone of Biblical prophecy. And it’s important for us to be ready. For all those who have trusted in Jesus as their Savior, his second coming is the basis for hope. No matter how painful this life has been, the best is yet to come! Jesus is coming back to earth some day to be reunited with Christians and to judge and rule the world.

Anticipating this return, listen to what the Bible teaches. We are, “to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are of his very own, eager to do what is good.”

Jesus made it clear that God doesn’t reveal his schedule ahead of time. But he was equally clear that we need to be ready for his return and the end of the world all of the time. Just as you want to save money before a rainy day comes or you want to learn the Heimlich maneuver before the person next to you is choking, so you want to prepare yourself for the return of Jesus ahead of time. Because you never know when it’s going to occur.

Robert and Angela Barry and their son reached the last day of their Florida vacation and were packed and ready to head home to Grove City, Ohio. Just before they left the hotel there was a knock on their door. It was a little girl who was staying with her family in the same hotel and she had a teddy bear that she gave to the Barry’s ten year old son as a gift to take home with them. So they packed the teddy bear in their luggage and left for the Orlando airport.

When their luggage was x-rayed, airport security personnel spotted a loaded 22-caliber handgun stuffed inside of the teddy bear. The Miami Herald later reported that the gun had been stolen in California in 1996.

So maybe it’s not such a dumb question to be asked at an airport! But the lesson for us is not to be paranoid or to live in fear, but to be wise and careful. And the warning goes beyond airport security.

The Bible warns of false teachers who will secretly introduce false teachings. So when “teddy bear” teachers or leaders come our way – even in the church – we need to run them through the x-ray of the Bible, the x-ray of prayer, the x-ray of wisdom and the x-ray of common sense. Be sure to check out what they are saying – before you snuggle up too close!

Just as we assume pharmacists ought to be trustworthy and have our best interests at heart, we want to assume Christian teachers are trustworthy and have our best interests at heart. Yet the Bible warns us to be on the lookout for teachers who “introduce heresies,” “bring the way of truth into disrepute,” and “exploit you with stories they have made up.”

A heresy is a teaching contrary to the Bible and the truth of God. Evil or false teachers introduce doctrines contrary to God’s word and encourage Christians to believe them. These disreputable teachers behave shamefully and encourage others to un-Christian behavior which brings “the way of truth into disrepute.” Another danger is that they make up things in order to manipulate people.

Just as the selfish pharmacist was caught and punished, the Bible says that evil teachers “will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done.”

In the meantime, as Christians, we need to make sure we are trusting in God and in his Word – not in the words of men.

It was against that backdrop that Peter anticipated a future divine judgment against human sin that would far exceed the burning of Rome. He wrote:

“That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire and the elements will melt into heat, but in keeping with this promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”

Peter is saying that God’s future judgment on this earth will be so severe that our world is going to have to be replaced with a new earth. Now do I really believe our world is going to be destroyed by a fiery judgment from God? Yeah, I do. Not that I have all the details figured out, because I do not.

So where does that leave us? Yes, there will be judgment someday, but God has provided a way of escape. The Bible says that those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus will not be condemned for their sins. “We are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.” And those who are counted among the righteous will have nothing to fear.

So what’s he saying? Peter refers back to creation. God created the earth out of water. It was initially covered with water and it wasn’t until the third day that God separated the dry ground from the water. But later, in the time of Noah, when people had decided they didn’t need God and could do their own thing, God sent a flood of judgment that eradicated most of human civilization. Only righteous Noah and his family were spared. God judged the earth with water.

The point that Peter was trying to make is that history has not gone uninterrupted since the beginning. God does not let misbelief and misbehavior go unjudged. In the days of Noah when things got really bad, God intervened and poured out his judgment on the human race. It’s a mistake to think that God will let our world go merrily along, ignoring his commands. God does intervene against the unbelief and sin of humankind.

And just as God judged sin in the past, you can count on God to judge sin in the future. There are consequences to be paid.

Doing what we want to do, and thinking it won’t have any consequences is as old as the Garden of Eden. There Adam and Eve were told that they could have everything that grew in the Garden except the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God desired for them to thoroughly enjoy his creation with one exception. But Adam and Eve could not be content with what God planned for them. They wanted to follow their own desires. And that is the essence of sin – doing what we want rather than what God wants.

We think that we can escape the consequences of our sin, but like Ben Rogozensky, eventually we’ll drop straight into the courtroom of God!

The scoffers conclude that Jesus will not come again and there won’t be a judgment of sin. It’s like the person who speeds and doesn’t get a ticket or the smoker who doesn’t get sick. After awhile they assume that there are no consequences to risk-taking behavior.

The problem with this kind of reasoning is that it bases your beliefs on your own ideas rather than on what the Bible says. In a sense, it’s inventing your own religion. Today such thinking is common. Millions of Americans create their own “designer religions” and scoff at the idea that they should conform to an absolute truth as taught in the Bible.

Make sure you are not making up whatever you want to believe. Listen to what the Bible says about the second coming, The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise…. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” It’s not that God is slow, it’s just that it’s not the right time yet.

My court date was a hot, humid summer evening and the courthouse was not air conditioned. The judge arrived more than an hour late and he was not in a good mood.

I sat through a couple of hours of cases that preceded mine. The rest of the defendants looked to me like hardened criminals and I didn’t feel like I belonged there. When my turn came, the judge revoked my license for thirty days and I had to surrender it to him that night.

Then and there, I decided that I did not want to ever appear before a judge like that again. And that was just traffic court!

But, you know, we all will stand before a much higher judge someday – the judge of the universe! About that great judgment day, the Bible says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” We can’t avoid the day of judgment, but we can control the outcome.

In the White House War Room the decision is made to send up a small aircraft as close as possible to the 747. The plan is to connect the two planes with a zip line, to provide the president with a way to escape to the smaller aircraft. It’s a long shot, a desperate attempt. To make matters even more stressful, just as they are about to attempt the transfer, the White House loses radio contact with the pilot of the small aircraft. Officials are horrified as they watch on the radar as the Boeing 747, dubbed Air Force One, crashes. Eventually radio contact is re-established and the pilot of the small plane says, “Liberty 2-4 is changing call signs. Liberty 2-4 is now Air Force One.”

It’s not the plane that is Air Force One; it is the presence of the President that makes a plane Air Force One. When we believe in Jesus Christ, whatever our name was before, we change our call sign to “Christian.” It is the presence of Jesus Christ himself in us that makes us Christians.

In Christianity there’s a major difference. We don’t attain God, God comes to us! God first shows us how we have repeatedly sinned against him and we are desperately in need of his forgiveness. Then, when we put our trust in Jesus as the one who paid the penalty for our sins through his death on the cross, at that very moment the Holy Spirit enters into our bodies. God himself comes inside of us.

You’ve undoubtedly seen banners across the front of hotels and restaurants that say “Under New Management.” The point of such signs is to signal that a new day has come and a new owner has taken over. The implication is that somebody smarter, better and more creative is going to make this into a better place.

When we become Christians, it is as if we have a banner across our bodies proclaiming, “Under New Management.” The Spirit of God moves in to manage our lives. He is God-in-us and he helps, protects, gives us wisdom, and makes us into what God wants us to be. Here’s how the Bible describes it:

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God.

At the time of the opening of Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ,” ABC’s Diane Sawyer interviewed him on Primetime Live. Gibson admitted that his approach to the passion of Jesus was not unbiased, because his life had been radically altered by Jesus Christ. At one point he said, “I have to believe.” That seemed to confuse Diane Sawyer and she said, “You have to believe?” Gibson answered, “I have to.” “Why?” she asked. He answered, “So I can hope. So I can live.”

Mel Gibson is not a trained theologian, but he tapped deeply into a profound biblical truth. Belief in Jesus not only gives us hope for eternity, but help to live today.
The Biblical expression “eternal life” isn’t quite what it seems when it’s translated into English. To us it sounds like it is referring to quantity of life – a life unending. In the original Greek, the expression is literally “life of eternity” and its meaning was primarily qualitative. What the Bible is talking about as the life of eternity is the life of God, and it begins at the moment of a person’s faith. It’s true that it lasts forever, but the greatest reality is that, by believing in Jesus, we get the life of eternity starting right away!

To be “never forgiven” is a heavy thing to carry around. I haven’t forgotten it to this day. But think of how awful it would be to be told that by God. What if God were to say, “You didn’t meet my expectations”? Of course, we don’t meet his expectations. We know that. And what if God were to say in response to our telling him that we’re sorry, “I’ll never forgive you”? But that’s not what he says.

Whatever we have done that we shouldn’t have done; whatever we should have done that we didn’t do; when we ask for forgiveness, God forgives. His son Jesus even forgave those responsible for crucifying him, while he was being crucified.

Forgiveness is liberating and when we trust Jesus as our Savior, our burden of failure is lifted and our sins are forgiven!

One of the amazing things about God is that he loves us. The Bible says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We can count on his love and he won’t disappoint us. Think about it. God is the biggest celebrity of all. He is infinitely rich, he is all-powerful and owner of the universe, yet he cares about us. It’s not like he needs us or that we really have anything to offer him in return. To the contrary, we humans are notorious for the bad ways we treat God and the frequency with which we swear his name. Yet he loves us. God loves each of us more than our own mother does. God loves us more than our spouse or our best friend. He’s always there for us.

I find that when someone loves me I want to love them back. When I feel loved and accepted by others it makes me want to play on their team, to be their friend and to connect with them. The astounding thing is that the God of the universe loves you and me – and that makes us want to love him back.

Well, we humans have a problem too. The Bible says, “All have sinned” and, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Sin is like a terminal virus that has contaminated us. We’re still alive and walking, but we have a serious problem. We’re headed to eternity, and there’s not enough good in any of us to get us to God. We don’t want to go to hell. We want God to save us as much as the astronauts wanted Houston to save them.

Well, the good news is that God can save us. The astronauts had to figure out a way to get rid of their exhaled carbon monoxide after the accident and conserve their oxygen if they were going to survive. God solved our sin problem by sending his son Jesus to earth to die for our sins. Our sin is exhaled when we confess it and we breathe in the life-saving righteousness of Jesus Christ when we ask him to save us.

Yes, as sinners, we have a problem. But becoming a Christian solves our sin problem.

Well, Judgment Day did not come in 1789 and it hasn’t happened yet, but the Bible makes it clear that it will come someday. We don’t know when that will be, or if it will even be in our lifetime, but we do know that along with the judgment will come a new heaven and a new earth. And that will be a glorious day. Meanwhile, we should do our duty and live lives that are pleasing to God. And then, if God’s judgment comes in our lifetime, we’ll be ready!

The Bible clearly says that it’s going to happen. Listen to the description:

The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives, as you look forward to the day of God, and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

The Bible’s description of fire and destruction is followed by this question: “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?” Listen to the answer, “You ought to live holy and godly lives, as you look forward to the day of God.”

We are to live God-pleasing lives in the best of times and in times of uncertainty – even the end of the world! And what’s more, we are to look forward to it! And how do we do that? By making God, not life as we know it, the constant in our lives.

“The day of the Lord will come, like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.”

When does a thief come? Always unexpectedly. Thieves don’t call ahead and make a reservation. If you’ve ever been robbed you know that robbers catch you by surprise. The point here is not that God is a thief, but that when he comes to judge, it will be swift and unexpected. Suddenly everything will be completely different. Things that mattered before will become unimportant. History will be interrupted by God. He picks the time, whether it is convenient for us or not.

But listen to what else the Bible has to say about that day:

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch…. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man [that’s Jesus] will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

The key words here are “you must be ready.” The most important thing for each of us is to make sure that we are ready to meet Jesus.

God is neither young nor old, and his situation is completely different from ours. God has lived forever and will live forever. He is not bound to time as we are. He can take his time to do whatever he wants because he has an infinite supply of time.

In our lives we say that timing is everything. So, if you want to have a baby, you don’t wait until you’re fifty. If you want to be an astronaut, you don’t put it off until retirement. If you want to refinance your mortgage, you don’t wait to apply until after the rates go up.

Imagine what it would be like to be able to make decisions without time being a major consideration. You just decide to do what is right and don’t worry about the timing. That’s a major difference between God and us. God does not see time as we see it. The Bible says, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” That’s how God relates to history.

Time may be a limited commodity for us, but not for God. Everything he does is in the right time.

The apostle Peter taught that Jesus would return someday to take his followers to heaven and give them a “crown of glory that would never fade away.” Peter was using first century terminology when he pictured a crowning ceremony for faithful Christians. Today we might think of it as receiving a Congressional Medal of Honor, a Nobel Prize or an honorary doctorate. Whatever you call it, the point is that Jesus will someday preside over an award ceremony to honor those who have honored him.

At that awesome moment, the experiences of this life will be seen from a different perspective. Our worst days will be distant memories and what we thought of as the best of the best will be nothing compared to what we will experience in the presence of God. If you are trusting in Jesus Christ as your Savior, the best is truly yet to come!

On the long trip home all he could think about was what he would see. He shared his story with some of the people on the bus. When the bus finally pulled into town, all the passengers erupted into cheers. The old oak tree had not one yellow ribbon, but one hundred yellow ribbons tied around it. Instantly he knew that she not only forgave him and wanted him, she wanted him home with all of her heart.

And that’s what it will be like for those of us who have given our hearts to Jesus Christ. Only we don’t need to wait until we die to find out if Jesus wants us. The Bible says that if we believe in Jesus and ask him to forgive our sins, he will forgive us and will welcome us into his heaven some day with a million yellow ribbons!

Recently I watched the movie on DVD and was completely caught up in the tension. For a couple of hours I sat on the edge of my seat, anxiously watching every player, every penalty and every move on the ice. There were moments when I was scared that Team USA would lose. Then I thought, “Hey, I haven’t seen this movie before but I know how it ends. They wouldn’t have made it into a movie if we had lost. I may not know all the details, but I know that in the end we’re going to win.”

Thinking about my reaction to the movie, I realized that it’s the same way with God’s predictions about the future. As we watch history unfold, we can get nervous and worried. What if the bad guys win? But we know how everything is going to turn out. We may not know all the details or exactly when it all is going to happen, but we know the end of the story and God is going to win! We can rest assured that in Jesus Christ both our future and our destiny are secure.

As the Bible describes the different days of creation, it says that every day God stopped to review what he had done and observed that it was good. He did not make an evil world but a good world. It was carefully designed to work well and to be beautiful. This was God at his creative best.

On the seventh day God rested. That is not to say that he napped or abandoned his responsibilities of running his universe, it’s saying that he stopped what he was doing — for he was finished. He had done a marvelous job and it was very good!

The last book of the Bible describes a magnificent scene in heaven where angels lay their crowns before the throne of God saying, "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created.”

From beginning to end, the Bible demonstrates that our response to God’s creation should be to worship him — to acknowledge his greatness. Our design, our destiny and our privilege is to worship our Creator!

Matthew 2:11

My mother was born and grew up in England where the Christmas tradition is to open presents on Christmas morning. Even though I have a Swedish last name, my mother’s English Christmas tradition prevailed in my family. In fact, it is still our own family tradition today. So, every December 25th of my life has begun with everyone gathered to exchange gifts.

While the date of gift giving has not changed, my perspective has. As I reflect back on my childhood I can only remember the presents I received. I don’t recall onegift I ever gave to any member of my family. Now it is almost the opposite. As an adult, I can barely remember any of the gifts I’ve received. What I most remember are the gifts I have given.

The change didn’t take place all at once. It took time. But there is one Christmas when the transformation seemed to permanently take hold. It was my first Christmas as a father. As never before, I didn’t care what I got because I was so totally wrapped up in what I gave. We had a four-month-old daughter and I wanted to give her everything in the world.

Changing from a getter to a giver is one of the most wonderful changes that can happen in a person’s life. Only when it happens do you begin to truly understand the words of Jesus in Acts 20:35, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” The wonderful joy of gifts is that giving them means more than receiving them. To better understand, we return to the story of the first recorded Christmas gift-givers in Matthew 2:1-13:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judah, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judah,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

“ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’ ”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star that they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

The first four words of this story may be the most neglected even though they are among the most important: “After Jesus was born . . . . ” Jesus came first. He was the Number One gift. This fulfilled an Old Testament prophecy in Isaiah 9:6 predicting the coming of the Messiah: “ . . . to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Those words are beautiful poetry, but also profound theology. The Son of God is eternal. He had no beginning; he always existed. He was given by God the Father and sent to earth to become human. It is called the “incarnation” or “into flesh”. When he was conceived and born, the Son of God became human and was given a human name, Jesus.

So the terminology is very specific: “ . . . to us a child is born, to us a son is given.” Without the gift of the Son of God there would be no Christmas, no Magi, no salvation, no joy, no reason to celebrate or to give. All of which makes a most important point—to experience the joy of Christmas first requires the receiving of the gift of Jesus. Otherwise, Christmas is no more than a commercial holiday one week before the end of each year.

If you have not received God’s Christmas gift, now is the time. This is the place. God’s offer still stands. Receive Jesus Christ as God’s personal gift to you. Trust him as your Savior from sin. Accept him as the Leader of your life. Don’t wait. Pray right this minute, telling God, “Yes, I accept Jesus as my Christ, my Lord. Right now. Right here. Thank you, God, for the Number One gift!” because only those who have received can ever truly know the joy of giving!

The rest of the Magi story is really an “after-Christmas Christmas story”. Unlike the cards we receive showing wise men on camels or standing by the manger, the Bible indicates the Magi didn’t arrive until long after that first Christmas. Matthew 2:11 says, “ . . . on coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him.” Jesus wasn’t living in a stable; he was living in a house. No manger is mentioned. He was a young child, maybe almost two years old, because when King Herod felt threatened by the risk that this child might somehow seize his throne, he ordered the execution of all male babies in the entire area who were age two and under. Every indication is that the Wise Men started their journey on the day of Jesus’ birth and it took them up to twenty-four months to arrive.

We call them “Wise Men” although the technical name is Magi. They were astrologers, magicians, pagan priests from Persia to the east. They were men who had devoted their lives to studying the stars and were convinced that they could predict a person’s future. In today’s culture they would be the authors of the daily horoscopes in newspapers around the world.

Somehow, in their study of the stars, they saw something unusual and interpreted it as historic and beckoning. They probably were caught up in the worldwide expectation of a coming leader who would rule the world. They decided to follow the star in search of a king.

I find an amazing insight into God’s attitude toward true seekers. God doesn’t require a person to have all the right knowledge and beliefs to come to him. Those who seek the truth, who honestly desire God, will be led to Jesus. Their route may be strange but the destination is what counts.

When the Magi finally arrived at the house of Joseph, Mary and Jesus they immediately bowed down and worshiped Jesus. That is nothing short of amazing. Remember, that was written by a Jew. Matthew knew well the teaching of the Hebrew law in Exodus 34:14, “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Every Jew knew the rules inside and out: no idols; no images; nothing that even appears to be worship of anyone or anything other than the one true God of heaven and earth. Yet, Matthew approvingly writes that these Magi worshiped a boy named Jesus who was less than two years old.

There is only one conclusion: Jesus must be God! Non-Christian religions and most cults balk at the notion that Jesus is truly and fully God, but there is no doubt what the Bible teaches, what those Magi thought or what Matthew believed. Jesus is God in human form!

The Magi worshiped Jesus as God and gave gifts to Jesus as a king, gifts they had carried on a very long journey. All of them were very expensive and the type of gift given to royalty. The symbolism and significance is not explained, but we can’t help but wonder.

Of all the gifts that were given, the most royal of the three was gold. Gold was worth a lot then and it is worth a lot today. It is the king of precious metals. This may have been the first and last time in the family of Joseph and Mary that they ever had gold of their own.

Incense was what a priest used. It was required to burn incense throughout the day at the temple in Jerusalem. It was called a sweet fragrance to God. Incense always reminded Jewish people of the connection between God and man. It, too, was a fitting gift because Jesus was and is the only true mediator between God and us.

The strangest gift of the three was myrrh. Also expensive and also a spice, myrrh was a resin used for embalming. It was externally applied to the body prior to burial. What an unusual gift for a baby . . . unless that baby was born to die! In this first Christmas gift the death of Jesus on the cross was not too subtly hinted at. Jesus had come to atone for human sin.

Suddenly the holy family was rich. The Magi gave their expensive gifts and left. But, whatever happened to the money? What was done with the gifts?

While not directly told, the story immediately reports their flight into Egypt where Joseph, Mary and Jesus became refugees hiding out in Africa. How did they live? Where did they stay? What did they eat? How did they survive for the next couple of years until it was safe to return home to Nazareth?

The obvious answer is that they financed the family trip and supported themselves with the gifts of the Magi. What was given as an act of worship was used in most practical ways to keep Jesus safe and alive. It is often that way . . . that gifts to God are wonderfully used to accomplish God’s greater purposes on earth.

What do we learn from this after-Christmas Christmas story? We learn a lot about Christian giving from Magi who were not even Christians. For even though Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” the truth is that the bedrock of everything Christian is getting before giving! The Magi first met Jesus and then gave to Jesus. The order could not and cannot be reversed. No one can be a Christian without first getting. No Christian can give away anything without first receiving from God. All of Christianity is based on God as the first and greatest giver. God gave his one and only Son who left heaven, became human, sacrificed his life and loved us all the way. God offers us Jesus. There is no greater or better gift.

Anything that a Christian gives flows out of God’s generosity to us. Whether it is giving worship or money to God, helping the poor with our time and money, opening our homes in hospitality or any other giving of love or possessions . . . we must first receive.

It is out of order to first ask people to give anything. First things first! Always ask people to receive from God. Those who fully receive Christ’s salvation and blessing will be motivated to give; those who have not received Jesus and his blessings need not even try to give. Always, always, always receive from God first. Take him at his word. Accept his salvation. Receive his love. Get his good news. Receive, receive and receive some more from God because God is an outrageously generous giver.

The second principle of giving after getting is to give out of what we have received. As God has loved us, so we love others. As God has forgiven us, so we forgive others. As God has blessed us, so we bless others. As God has treated us kindly, so we treat others kindly. Whether we are giving a present at Christmas, an offering at church or an act of kindness for a stranger we always give because we have received. We are God’s agents. We should let him fill our cup and then let our cup overflow to others to make room for more blessings from God to give away.

When I hear about people with critical spirits, who treat others harshly and are stingy instead of generous, I feel sorry for them. I assume that they have never received from God or that they are somehow trying to hoard God’s love and generosity for fear God might run out and they will get no more.

The bottom line is that giving is good. Giving is Christian. Giving is a blessing. Not just Christmas gift giving or church giving but all giving that is in the name and truth of Jesus Christ. To be a Christian is to be a giver.

I’ve thought long and hard about this statement from Jesus: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” It is interesting that St. Paul quotes the statement as if it had been spoken by Jesus, yet there is no place in the biographies of Jesus where it is ever mentioned. My guess is that everyone knew what Jesus said so there seemed to be no need to write it in his biography.

If we were using more common terminology today we would say, “It is happier to give than to receive.” But that’s based on a presupposition that we have first experienced the joy and the happiness of receiving from God and then we move on to give.

But, why is it happier to give than to receive? The answers are multiple. First of all, only a Christian will ever understand this truth. You have to first be a disciple of Jesus or you will never get what he means.

It is happier to give than to receive because givers are like God. And what can be happier than to be God-like? Every time we generously give and bless others we are behaving like God and that is what makes a Christian truly happy.

It is happier to give than to receive because we have received so much. Christians are keenly aware that “every good and perfect gift comes from above” (from God). That’s what motivates us. That’s what makes us happy. When we realize that we have received so much we want to be generous; we want to give it away.

It is happier to give than to receive because of the wonderful satisfaction that comes in blessing others. Frankly, it feels good! It feels good to give away. It feels good to help others. It feels good to worship God with something that costs us something. It feels good to be generous. It feels good to sacrifice. It feels good to make a difference in the name of Jesus.

Imagine you are about to take a Christmas journey to a far away place called the year to come. There you will meet a poor family with a young child; you will see people threatened by powerful and ruthless leaders; you will encounter 10,000 different needs. You are not sure you want to go. There is so much uncertainty. There are so many risks. But you feel compelled. You feel drawn. It is like following a bright star that God himself has set into your sky.

Before leaving on this journey you must pack up whatever you will need and whatever you will give away. What will you pack? What will you take? What will you give?

This Christmas begins a journey into tomorrow. As you embark, I challenge you to go as a giver. Give encouragement to those who are down. Give support to those who are criticized. Give love to those who are hated. Give help to those who are poor. Give the Gospel to those who are spiritually lost. Give time to those that are lonely. Give generously. Give royally. Give sacrificially.

Give . . . because you have received. Give . . . because you are a Christian. Give . . . because it is happier to give than to receive!

In the great depths of the ocean the pressure is enough to crush a submarine like an empty Coke can. In order to explore the ocean depths, oceanographers have built bathyspheres. They are like miniature submarines constructed out of several inches thick steel plates and small, thick panes of glass for observation. Their construction prevents the crushing pressure of the ocean on the outside from reaching the scientists on the inside. Once a bathysphere is lowered to the ocean floor and the flood lights are turned on, the scientists inside can observe fish with very thin skins. So why don’t they implode from the pressure? Those fish have pressure inside them equal and opposite to the pressure outside. They are able to swim freely and easily where we would be destroyed.

That is what peace is like. Peace on the inside is equal and opposite of all the stresses and pressures crushing us from the outside. And how do we get that peace?

The prophet Isaiah gave us the answer: “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Jesus, the Prince of Peace, promised, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”

John 3:16 is actually a quote from Jesus recorded by St. John. Several years later John wrote a letter to Christians to further explain what Jesus meant. He wrote, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We love because he first loved us.”

This is one of the central teachings of the Bible. We did not love God first. God first loved us. We did not choose God. God first chose us. We did not seek God. God first sought us.

The only way to fully understand what the Christmas story is all about is to understand this truth: God loved first!

The angel said, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

There is a sense in which none of us can experience the joy of Jesus until life goes beyond our control like it did for the shepherds. But you say, “The shepherds saw Jesus that day and that’s where they got their joy. We can’t see him anymore.”

Listen to this good news in the New Testament: “Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.”

Trusting in Jesus in the best of times and in the worst of times will fill us with joy – just like the shepherds!

The census at the time of Jesus’ birth required that people return to their place of family origin. Because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he and his immediate family were forced to register for the census in David’s hometown, Bethlehem. There were no hardship exemptions for pregnancy so Joseph had no choice but to transport his nine-months pregnant wife more than sixty miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It could not have been an easy journey.

The young couple was poor and the tax was a burden. They were hoping to get to Bethlehem and register before the baby was born so they would have only two head taxes to pay instead of three.

Political pressures are part of every generation. Nations go to war. Governments legislate taxes, marriage and divorce. Insurance companies decide who gets surgery and courts decide which parent gets custody. Rarely can one person take on the establishment and win. In that sense, we all share the forced journey to Bethlehem.

But as Christians, we trust the control of Jesus to get us through hard times. We can have joy in Jesus and not in the circumstances. Remember when the angel said, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Those words weren’t just for the shepherds, but for us as well!

I think that definition is helpful to our understanding of Joseph and Mary in the Christmas story.

When Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem, the city’s lodging was sold out. Bethlehem was the kind of small town that people left when they grew up. The census required that everyone return to their home town so Bethlehem was clogged with all those returning to register and pay taxes. You might wonder why Joseph and Mary didn’t stay with relatives - perhaps because no one in their family still lived in Bethlehem.

My mother grew up in White Haven, England and she and her family migrated here when she was in her twenties. Our family no longer has any known relatives in northern England. Similarly, my father was born in Camden, New Jersey but his family moved away and no relatives have lived in Camden for fifty years. If I were required by some government to return to White Haven or Camden, there would be no place for me to stay either.

Back to Joseph and Mary. They arrived in Bethlehem with no reservations and Mary’s baby was about to be born. It was a desperate situation and they had no alternative plan. All they had was each other and their faith in God. And God provided! An innkeeper offered Joseph and Mary shelter in his stable and it was in those humble surroundings that their Ultimate Joy was born.

Part 5 of 6 on Psalm 100

Psalm 100:5

It was one of God’s favorite ideas. He decided to make for himself a pair of humans: one male; one female. They would be a lot alike, but clearly different. They would be a lot like God although distinctly different.

God carefully designed every part from their hair to their toes. He planned on ten fingers and ten toes. He crafted organs that would work like miracles and last forever. He delighted to weave a soul into their bodies that would permanently link him with them, sort of a supernatural modem of divine connection. He made them reproducible, not only so that they could make more humans, but so they would enjoy the process and so that it would be an intimate and indescribable expression of their love for each other.

And there had to be a place for them to live. God would hold back nothing good. Their home would be a paradise filled with pleasure and devoid of pain. There would be no terror or tears, no fears or failures, no sickness or sadness. It would always be ideally comfortable, filled with wondrous beauty, loaded with creative opportunities. It would be God’s perfect place for his perfect creatures.

When God finished making everything he had planned, he was delighted. He stepped back and sighed to himself that everything had turned out great. It was very good! Of course it was very good because God is very good and everything was full of God.

Adam and Eve were a truly happy couple. They literally had it made. Nothing could be improved upon. There was nothing that they lacked. They had an empire that was bigger than anything Alexander the Great ever conquered. They had a home that far exceeded Bill Gates’ $60 million dollar home in California. God was good. They were good. Their home was good. Life was good. To paraphrase a commercial, “It doesn’t get any better than this!”

Except they decided that it wasn’t quite good enough. They thought it would be a better place and their lives would be much happier if they could add just onemore fruit to their breakfast menu.

Most significant of all, they decided that God really didn’t know what was best for them. They decided that God wasn’t as good as he made himself out to be. “If God were really good,” they thought, “he would let us eat that luscious fruit that would make us so super smart that we would not only know what is good but also know all about evil.”

God had warned them. He told them that if they went for that forbidden fruit they would get sick and miserable and die. But they wouldn’t listen because they had decided that God was not good enough. So they took the fruit and they tragically discovered that God was right. They were wrong. They changed the whole world and our entire human family forever.

You would think that they and we would have learned an enormous lesson from this: the lesson that God really is good, even when it seems otherwise to us. But it’s thousands of years since Adam and Eve and the collapse of Paradise, and we struggle with the same decision every day. We have to decide whether God is really good or not. What we decide about the goodness of God will shape every detail of our lives. It will determine if we are happy or sad, miserable or content, bitter or grateful, generous or greedy.

The decision of the poet in Psalm 100 was clear: “The Lord is good!” But before we routinely agree with the psalmist, let’s consider the options.

If we believe that God is not good, we are deciding that we know better than God. It sounds outrageous for us to claim that we know better than God, but it is a very common belief. All kinds of people all the time decide that they know better than God about all kinds of things. Ask the couple that is living together: “God says that what you are doing is sin. It’s not good. So why are you two living together and not married?” The answer may come in different forms, but it is basically this: “because we think it’s a good thing to do.” Any time we know what God says and decide our way is better, we have decided that we know better than God what is good for us.

If we believe that God is not good, then our whole view of God is changed and we begin to fear him. We fear that he will make a mistake. We fear that he will not do us good. Many people live in frequent fear that God will zap them with bad things. God may punish us with sickness or trick us into losing the family business. He may make me move to a new job where I will be unhappy, cause my child to die or otherwise bring calamity on my life.

Anyone who believes that God is powerful but that God is not always good should live in fear. This is precisely the way most of the world religions work. They are built around images of God that are unpredictable and take delight in causing human misery.

It is a terrible thing to live in fear. It is the sad consequence of either not believing in God at all or believing that God is not always good. In either case, we are perpetually afraid of something bad happening to us and that there is not a dependable God to do us good.

If we believe that God is not good, we begin to look for evil in everything that happens. It’s true that evil is powerfully present in our world, but those who do not believe in the goodness of God easily find the evil and seldom find God’s good. These are the people who always expect the worst and are rarely disappointed because they will always interpret whatever happens as an example of evil. It becomes difficult if not impossible to trust. Trust is based on the assumption of good intentions and the expectation of good outcomes. But, if God is not working in everything for good there is pervasive pessimism that turns distrust into cynicism or despair.

If we believe God is not good, we are ungrateful. Only someone who believes in God and good has anything to be thankful for. If what we have did not come as a gift from God, we can only assume that we earned it or deserved it ourselves. Then there is no one to thank. Instead of lives of gratitude, we live lives of pride.

The final product of disbelief in the goodness of God is selfishness and self-centeredness. How else could it be? If God is not the center of our lives and if God is not good, what if left for us? We either become self-centered or we make someone or something else the center of our lives. It doesn’t take long to discover that we become disappointed with anyone or anything else that tries to replace God at the center of our lives.

Consider the alternative. If we believe God is good then we decide that God knows what is best. If God tells us to be truthful, we believe truth is better than lies. If he tells us that he designed us for sexual union only within a marriage relationship, then we do what God says. If he wants us to forgive those who hurt us, we forgive them even though it’s hard to do. We believe God is good and that what he wants us to do is good even if we don’t fully understand it.

If we believe God is good, we trust him to bring good into our lives. We do not expect the worst. We truly believe that God is looking for every opportunity to bless and help us. We are convinced that he always has our best interests at heart. We think and behave in ways that always count on God to be dependable. He will never trick us. He will never take unfair advantage of us. God will always be on our side. If we believe that God is good, we begin to look for his good in everything that happens. Every circumstance of life is interpreted in terms of the goodness of God.

I know lots of people who do this all the time. They lose football games and see God building their character. They get surprise phone calls and consider it an interruption from the Lord for good. They meet new people and are convinced that God has brought them into their lives. They suffer a broken relationship and trust God to give supernatural comfort and peace. They receive unexpected money and see it as God’s way of providing cash to help someone else. Instead of looking for a demon behind every bush they expect God to show his good through every circumstance. These are wonderful people who truly live by faith. From everything I can tell, they are among the happiest people I ever meet.

If we believe God is good, we become grateful. Gratitude always goes with belief in God’s goodness. The words of Psalm 100:5 are repeated often in the Bible, and almost always with gratitude:

Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. (Psalm 106:1)

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. (Psalm 107:1) Praise the Lord, for he is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant. (Psalm 135:3)

The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. All you have made will praise you, O Lord. (Psalm 145:8-10)

God is good and that brings gratitude. When we believe and see and feel and experience the goodness of God everywhere in our lives and everywhere in our world, we are grateful. We want to say thanks to God. We want to show it in every way possible. We want to “Shout for joy to the Lord.” We want to “give thanks to him and praise his name.”

The key indicator of whether we believe God is good is gratitude. It’s almost impossible to disguise. Those who truly believe in the goodness of God are grateful. Those who don’t truly believe in the goodness of God are not grateful.

If we believe God is good, we desire to be like God. In other words, we want to be good. God has an interesting system of motivation. Some people motivate negatively and some people motivate positively. One boss will try to make you into a good employee by giving you praise and a raise. Another boss will try to make you a good employee with threats of salary cuts and firing. Some parents try to shape their children’s lives with compliments, others with criticism.

God goes with good. His generosity and grace are outrageous. He goes farther than I could go. He is kind to people who are mean to him. He gives money to people who refuse to give any back. He helps people who don’t deserve any help at all. He just never gives up. He never quits. He’s just good, good, good.

The way God figures it, his goodness to us will make us want to be good. He gives good jobs and lovely possessions and a thousand other blessings to Christians who turn around and treat others just the way God treated them. They pay their employees well, are kind to others and are generous to church and charities. They desire the very best for others whether they deserve it or not. They are forgiving, patient, thoughtful, courteous, loving and good like God.

Why do you believe? Which list best describes you? Don’t try to fake it because that’s impossible. Don’t try to live like a believer if you really don’t believe because it will never work. Behavior follows belief. Believe that God is good and all the rest will follow.

Do you remember the famous story by Victor Hugo entitled Les Miserables? It is the account of a Frenchman who was cruelly sentenced to prison for stealing a loaf of bread. He escapes and finds refuge in the home of a Catholic bishop. The man has had a rough life. He does not believe God is good; nor is he good. He rewards the kindness of the bishop by stealing the bishop’s silver candlesticks. When he is caught it is a sure sentence back to prison and probably death. But the bishop takes compassion on him and refuses to charge him. He insists that he gave the candlesticks to him.

The bishop was forgiving; he was kind; he was merciful and good . . . just like God. Not only is the escaped convict set free, but his life is transformed. His view of God is changed. He, too, becomes a believer, and a good man.

God is good! Believe that with all of your heart. Make it the basis for interpreting everything in life. See God’s goodness. Be grateful. And be transformed to be like God.

It’s not uncommon to find wealthy and successful people who are miserably unhappy. Then there are those who have little according to the world’s standards whose lives are filled with joy. So what is joy?

When Jesus was born, God sent his angel from heaven to tell the shepherds, Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Although sometimes we confuse joy and happiness, they are quite different. Happiness is temporary; joy is lasting. Happiness is on the surface; joy is deep down inside.

If your life is lacking in joy this Christmas season, I encourage you to look beyond your circumstances to Jesus – the source of true joy.

And that’s how it is with the God of the universe. He calls us, and he speaks first. He says, “I’ve talked to six billion people and told them all that I love them, but I want you to know that I really, really love you.”

That’s Christmas love. God’s love goes the distance from heaven to earth, from deity to humanity. Will you go the distance to Jesus? God’s love gave his one and only Son. Will you give him your best because you love him in return? The Bible tells us, “This is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We love, because he first loved us.”

Next, the professor would ask, “How many of you would like to live in a world with no pain, no crime, no sickness or death?” Every hand would go up. Then the professor would say, “If that’s the kind of world you want, then heaven is the place you want to be.”

First century Christians would have answered those questions differently. Before Jesus left earth to go back up to heaven, he told his followers he would return for them someday. As the years went by, some of the Christians became discouraged that Jesus had not yet returned as promised. It seemed to them that Jesus was slacking on his promise. In response, St. Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

Peter was explaining, God isn’t slow, he’s patient. When Jesus returns to earth in judgment, the world as we know it will come to a cataclysmic end. There will be no second chance. Everyone’s eternal destiny will be fixed. Because God wants people in heaven and not in hell, he keeps stretching history out one more generation at a time. Peter wanted his readers to see this not as a disappointment, but as evidence of how much God cares for us.

God is neither young nor old, and his situation is completely different from ours. God has lived forever and will live forever. He is not bound to time as we are. He can take his time to do whatever he wants because he has an infinite supply of time.

In our lives we say that timing is everything. So, if you want to have a baby, you don’t wait until you’re fifty. If you want to be an astronaut, you don’t put it off until retirement. If you want to refinance your mortgage, you don’t wait to apply until after the rates go up.

Imagine what it would be like to be able to make decisions without time being a major consideration. You just decide to do what is right and don’t worry about the timing. That’s a major difference between God and us. God does not see time as we see it. The Bible says, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” That’s how God relates to history.

Time may be a limited commodity for us, but not for God. Everything he does is in the right time.

“Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort…”

When I read that, first of all, I am encouraged by the phrase, “our Lord’s patience means salvation.” I love it that God is patient. He wants us to believe in his son Jesus. His patience with us results in many more people receiving salvation. Next, I notice that the Bible is consistent. Peter points out that all of Paul’s writings in the Bible are consistent with each other and with Peter’s own teachings. “He writes the same way in all his letters.” Then, and this is the part I really like, Peter says that Paul’s letters contain some things that are hard to understand. It gives me great comfort to know that even the Apostle Peter had trouble understanding some of the stuff in the Bible. If Peter couldn’t figure it all out, what are the chances I’ll figure it all out? The point is not that most of the Bible is difficult, but that some of it is not easy to understand.

But the good news is that God is patient with us, the Bible is consistent and trustworthy, and God will help us understand what we need to know to gain salvation.

Part 4 of 6 on Psalm 100

Psalm 100:2

The President of the United States is arguably the most powerful person in the world. But in addition to power there are many perquisites such as fame, a guaranteed place in history, access to all kinds of celebrities, lifetime income and free use of a nice house on Pennsylvania Avenue. And, if you have watched the returns on election night and seen the facial expressions of any man who has been elected president, you have seen great gladness.

Some people have considered the price of a presidential run—severe scrutiny of their personal life, disruption of their family, harsh criticism on every position taken, constant threat of attack or assassination—and decided it was not worth it. The presidency was not worth the price.

There is a clear connection between worth—what we are willing to make a significant sacrifice for—and worship. We worship what we consider to be of great worth. The object of worship may be a high political office, a new home, a cherished child, a great job, a lover or even God. In every case worship begins with belief. We have to really believe in someone or something in order to consider that person or thing worth worship.

Veteran's Day is set aside each year to honor men and women who believed in their country enough to fight and to die for it. Every year couples are united in marriage, publicly declaring their love before family and friends saying, “It’s worth it to behave in this way.”

When the Hebrew poet wrote the words of Psalm 100 saying, “Worship the Lord with gladness,” he assumed that those who would sing his words were believers in God and that they considered God worth their worship. There is no way any of us can really worship without belief, much less worship with gladness!

The determining question for every one of us is, “Do you believe in God?” Only those who believe in God can really worship God. Otherwise worship wouldn’t make any sense.

However, believing in God means much more than believing that God exists. There is this fascinating line in the New Testament in James 2:19 that says that even the demons believe God exists and they shudder before him. But they don’t worship God!

To worship God requires believing that everything God says about himself is true. Belief includes God's greatness and God’s goodness. It is believing that God really loves you and is watching out for you. It is believing that no matter what happens in your life, God is merciful and kind and will make everything right.

Those who truly believe in God can worship him in chronic pain. Those who really believe in God can worship him through severe difficulties such as depression, unemployment, disappointment, poor health and even death.

Do you believe? Do you believe God is great and God is good? Do you believer that he loves you and constantly works for the best in you life? Do you believe all this about God even if the circumstances of your life are not what you would like them to be? You do believe? Great, because worship begins with belief!

Do you recall the story of Job in the Old Testament? This wealthiest man in the world was filled with happiness. He had a marvelous family with ten grown children. But one day he received word that all ten of his children had died on the same day, that his entire fortune was lost and that he was on the brink of losing his health as well. Do you recall what was his first response to those terrible difficulties? The first thing he did was to worship God. You have to really believe in God to be able to do that. You have to be convinced that God is greater than the circumstances. You have to interpret the circumstances by God rather than interpret God by the circumstances. You have to really believe to worship him when things go terribly wrong.

What exactly is worship? Some people mistakenly confuse worship with music or with church services, but that is neither biblical nor accurate. The Hebrew word that is translated worship in Psalm 100 literally means “serve” or “minister”. So worship means service.

There is an interesting conversation between Jesus and the Devil in Matthew 4. Jesus had gone out into the Palestinian desert for forty days. He fasted for nearly six weeks so he we really hungry. Then Satan showed up and suggested that Jesus miraculously change a few rocks into loaves of bread so he could eat. Jesus refused. So Satan whisked Jesus into the city of Jerusalem to the highest point in the city, part of the ancient Temple, and told him to jump off and have his angels catch him. Jesus refused. The last test of Jesus is reported in verses 8-10:

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ”

When Satan told Jesus to worship him, what do you think he meant? Did he want Jesus to sing to him? Of course not! He wanted Jesus to serve him, to do what Satan said.

The way we worship God is to do what he wants us to do. He wants us to hate evil and love good. He wants us to be kind to others. He wants us to forgive, to be compassionate and generous to those that are poor, to love him and to tell him that we love him.

One way I worship God is that when I first awaken in the morning I tell God that I love him and that I will try to serve him that day any way I can. I tell him to just let me know what he would like me to do and I will do my best to do whatever he asks.

Talk to a loyal employee of almost any company and ask about his approach to his job. Many will say, “I just try to do whatever the boss wants me to do. In a sense, my job is to make my boss look good and that’s what I want to do.”

Worship is much like that. We worship God by doing what he wants us to do. We live to make him look good because we believe in God and because we think he is worth it.

To worship God is to believe in him, to love him and to serve him. Imagine approaching every day with that agenda. Imagine telling him every day, “God, I believe in you. Not just that you exist but that you are everything you say you are. I love you. I want to do whatever you want me to do today.”

One of the ways we can serve and worship God is with songs. Worship through “joyful songs” is much like singing love songs to God. We can and should sing to him alone, but there is something special about singing to him together.

When we gather in a meeting that has worship music, it is not to entertain us but to love and to serve God. The audience is never on the platform or in the pews. We have an audience of One, and that One is God! The singers up front aren’t singing to us, they are singing to God for us and we are listening and sharing. The group songs we sing together aren’t primarily for our pleasure but for God’s enjoyment.

Psalm 100 invites us to “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” There is a repeated emphasis on joy and gladness. Apparently God desires gladness with worship. That makes sense. After all, God is a person. He enjoys glad worshippers rather than worshippers who are grouches and grumps.

Think about your co-workers. Do you have some fellow employees who complain and criticize every time they talk to you? It’s not that their problems aren’t real, but they always have a negative attitude. Compare them to those coworkers who come to you with gladness. They can always find something good to share. They are encouragers. They are grateful and have attitudes of gratitude. QUESTION: Who do you most enjoy having around?

Don't misunderstand me. It’s not that God doesn’t want to hear about our hurts and our needs. But God also wants to hear our joy and gladness. He wants to be encouraged by the difference he has made in our lives. He wants to know that we are really happy to have him in our lives, to be loved by him, to have our sins forgiven, to have eternal life. God delights to have us come before him with smiles on our faces, gladness in our hearts and joy in our songs.

Over fifty years ago Americans poured into the streets of our cities to celebrate the end of World War II. There were parades and speeches, bands playing and flags waving. Patriotism ran high. Among those who celebrated were young soldiers and sailors who were glad to be alive when so many others had died. There were veterans marching on crutches or riding in wheel chairs—casualties of war. And there were mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, wives and husbands of those who had died in that war. They also celebrated, not because they had lost those they loved but because the war was over and America had won.

It is strange but true that sometimes the greatest celebration grows out of catastrophe. After almost every natural disaster there are TV interviews with survivors who thank and praise God. Following the Oklahoma City bombing there was a citywide worship service for the people of Oklahoma City with Billy Graham as the speaker. It's strange, but sometimes we are more likely to worship God out of adversity and war than out of prosperity and peace.

As Christians, we worship God in every circumstance. We believe in him even though others are filled with doubts and anger. We love him whether we are experiencing pleasure or pain. We are glad, not because of what is happening in and around us but because of God himself. In him we find love, peace, satisfaction and hope. Our heart’s desire is to serve him and make him look good.

“Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs!”

Let me tell you what Jesus did. He clearly knew what lay in front of him. He knew he was destined to die and exactly when, where and how it would happen. He knew how horrible it would be. He could have changed his mind and escaped, but instead, he went straight to Jerusalem. He faced difficulty with courage.

Sin is like a powerful computer virus that spreads through your hard drive and destroys your files. Jesus knew that sin was going to be downloaded on him and he would die. But he also knew that the awesome power of God could restore what had been destroyed and bring him back to life. The resurrection of Jesus was the result of God’s direct intervention to overrule and defeat death once and for all.

As followers of Jesus we, too, can be courageous when we are facing hard decisions, criticism, opposition, danger and suffering. Not because we are stronger than others, but because we have God. God is the source of our strength and, when we are trusting in him, we can face difficulty with courage.

Actually this was not an original story line. Did you know that Jesus gave an “early edition” to his followers? Listen to what he said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”

But Jesus didn’t intervene to change what he knew was going to happen. He went straight ahead into Jerusalem to face difficulty with courage and death with hope.

Now what was prophecy for Jesus’ followers, is history for us. But Jesus made predictions for us as well.

Jesus predicted that our lives would contain trouble and suffering but he also promised to give his followers peace, courage and the hope that God will be there for us. We don’t know all the details of the future, but we can know God and have the confidence that he will give us help and hope and eternal life.

We all have our encounters with denial. I recall a friend telling me about a co-worker who wasn’t doing a very good job. The boss called him into his office twice to describe the problem and tell him what he needed to do to change, warning him that he would be fired if the problem continued. The third time he was called in, the man was fired. He told my friend that he had no idea this was coming and that he had never been warned. This certainly didn’t fit the facts, but the man had only heard what he wanted to hear.

Jesus’ followers didn’t understand what he was saying when he told them of his impending death because it wasn’t what they wanted to hear. They didn’t want Jesus to die!

We need to be careful that we don’t do the same thing. It’s easy to be so convinced about the way we want things to be that we imagine that God is saying what we want him to say. We need to listen to God and read his word with open ears and minds so we don’t miss his truth.

Jesus faced his death with courage and hope because he knew that God would raise him from the dead. And the same goes for all those who are trusting in Jesus as their Savior. God has promised us that we, too, will be raised from the dead some day and enjoy eternal life with Jesus.

One of the most amazing lessons I have learned as a pastor is the courageous and hopeful way that many Christians die. They are not frightened by the prospect of death in their final moments on earth.

Many of us wonder if that is really true. We feel like cowards and have minimal tolerance for pain and suffering. We doubt that we can face death well and therefore dread the prospect of dying. Let me assure you that God gives us grace when we need it. If we are not dying today, we don’t need dying grace. Jesus knew that God would be there for him when the time came for him to die and that same confidence can be ours. If we are trusting in Jesus as our Savior, we can be assured that God will supernaturally help us to face every difficulty and pain – even when we are facing death itself.

Now there are a lot of people who say, “I don’t want to know. Why would I want to know if I’m going to have prostate or breast cancer? I would much rather live in ignorance. I’ve enjoyed my life so far and I’m going to enjoy it right up until I find out something different. I’ll just deal with it when the time comes.” And then the medical scientists say, “But, wait a minute. If you know what’s coming, you can be ready and you can be prepared.”

In the Bible Jesus mapped out the genome of human history – he told us what we can expect in the future. He told us that he is coming back to earth again some day so that we can be ready. He wants us to be prepared. And the way to prepare ourselves is to read his instructions in the Bible and to stay in close contact with him through prayer.

Part 3 of 6 on Psalm 100

Psalm 100:3

What do you predict for this winter’s weather? Do you think this will be an unusually cold winter? Or do you think it will be warmer than usual? Do you agree with the forecasts of the commodities industry or the National Weather Service? If you’re an investor in heating oil futures the decision of which predictor to believe could make millions of dollars of difference.

USA Today ran a special section on the science of forecasting. It dealt with weather, the stock market, retail sales, political elections and the direction of interest rates. The conclusion of the article seems to be that the best of forecasters are wrong more often than they are right. The newspaper reviewed economic forecasts from interest rates to Gross Domestic Product to the Dow Jones Average and S&P 500. Basically all the prognosticators missed the mark. The explanation for all of the errors was simple. Forecasters only have the past upon which to base their predictions, but the future has variables that the past did not have. There are too many changes the forecasters could not have known and did not include in their calculations.

We live in a time of so many changes. We belong to a generation that lacks certainty. Relativism reigns. Absolutes are denied. New countries are emerging. Old diseases are returning. Lifetime employment is disappearing. Families are wobbly. Many people are scared.

In the midst of all of this what we need is something certain, something sure. We need absolute truth that never changes and that can carry us through anything we will face. More than ever we need the certain declaration of Psalm 100:3: “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”

There are three transforming truths in these lines, and if we get all three we can face anything that comes our way in life. We can face every circumstance with certainty, with worship and with shouts of joy!

If we can actually “Know that the Lord is God” we are well on our way to living a transformed life. We need to understand that there is an intellectual side to knowing God. It is the rational belief in the reality of God. But faith is more than mental assent. To know God is to have an inner acceptance of who he is.

We often hear that belief in God is simply a matter of faith, and that’s true. But never think that faith is to be uninformed or anti-intellectual. Christianity is a thinking person’s religion. Christianity is not afraid of careful thinking or scientific evidence or critical questions. The truth is that Christianity has a long tradition of leading intellectuals from around the world and throughout history who have diligently searched before coming to the conviction that “the Lord is God.”

Psalm 100 was first written in Hebrew. The word that is translated “Lord” is the Hebrew word “Yahweh” or “Jehovah” which is the primary Old Testament name for God. The word translated “God” in Psalm 100:3 is the word “Elohim” which was the ancient word for god or gods. At times it can even refer to the gods of false religions. And so the Bible acknowledges that there are many persons and things that claim to be god or are presented as gods. Travel almost anywhere in the world and you can see huge idols and shrines that are objects of worship for millions of people. They believe that these creations of their minds and hands are real gods.

But Psalm 100:3 urges us to know that Yahweh, the God of the Bible, is the only real God. Belief in Yahweh therefore means renouncing every other god as false and acknowledging that the God of the Bible is the one true God.

Throughout the Bible the Lord, or Yahweh, is presented as absolutely amazing. He is without beginning or ending. There was never ever a time when God did not exist. There will never ever be a time when God does not continue to exist. He is not like us. He is not human; he is not mortal; he does not change. He knows everything and can do anything. God is absolutely perfect. He is absolutely loving and generous and kind. God is willing to do anything for our good, including sacrificing his own son for us. God makes everything work together for good, no matter how long that may take and no matter how impossible it may seem.

Knowing that the Lord is God means that the Lord is in control of the world and that he is in control of our lives. We may not always think that way. We may think it’s really politicians or parents or enemies or our critics or an employer or cancer or AIDS or the economy. But none of these or anyone or anything else is greatest and most powerful in our lives or in our world. “The LORD is God!”

Knowing this Lord as the only true God is a life transforming truth. We are confident that the Lord is in charge. We know that what he says is true. We have a fixed point in the universe that is always dependable and always good. Everything else can be defined and understood in terms of him. “Know that the Lord is God!”

The second transforming truth is to know who we are. When we know ourselves and understand how we fit into this world we are powerfully enabled to have self-definition and self-confidence. There are a lot of people who spend their entire lives trying to figure out who they are and what is the meaning of life. It can be a frustrating and destructive journey of self-discovery. And if I can’t figure out who I am there is little chance that I can find purpose in life or happiness or be much good to anyone else.

According to the Bible, we are creations of God. “It is he who made us and we are his.” If that is true and if that is believed then all of life has immediate and eternal meaning.

God made us in order to love us. The Lord certainly didn’t create us in order to hurt us. He didn’t create us in order to hate us. He didn’t create us in order to make us miserable. There is great self-identity in knowing that God made us.

We continually identify people and things by their source of origin. I was born in New Jersey. Although I’ve lived far longer in Minnesota than I ever lived in New Jersey I will carry the “made in New Jersey” label all my life. Volkswagens are made in Germany. Volvos are made in Sweden. Harley Davidsons are made in the USA.

It is transforming to live life realizing “I was designed in heaven and made by God!” That gives me a worth that is far greater than a label that has to do with New Jersey, Germany, Sweden and the United States combined. But, especially important is that it tells me who I am.

God created us and God owns us. Actually he doubly owns Christians. God owns us as our Creator but he also owns us as our Redeemer. We humans are notorious for wanting our independence. We have rebelled against God’s ownership and control of our lives even though our Creator has every right to do with us whatever he wants. That independence is called sin. Sin rots and ruins our lives.

I read an interesting story about a man who owned a 1958 Chevrolet Impala convertible when he was a teenager. He loved that car. But, as he grew out of his teenage years he sold it and lost track of it, and the car was resold many times. When he reached his forties he wanted his ’58 Chevy back again. He hired a private detective who found each owner through interviews and motor vehicle registrations. He tracked the car across thousands of miles through multiple states and finally found it in a junkyard. It was wrecked and rusted.

When the detective found the car he called the man who had hired him. The man then traveled across country to the junkyard and bought the wreck. He invested thousands of hours and tens of thousands of dollars rebuilding and restoring his once beautiful 1958 Chevrolet Impala convertible. He wanted to make it the beautiful car that it once was. And eventually he did. It was as good as new. He had given it his best. He just loved that car. It became a car twice loved and twice owned.

God has done far better than that. God first owned us as our Creator. When we wandered away our lives became wrecked and ruined. Some of us ended up in the junkyard. But God does not easily give up. God tracks us down. He finds us and works on us. He rebuilds and restores us through Jesus Christ. He makes us the way we were meant to be, no matter how long it takes.

So, who are we? We are those whom God has made and we are his. His ownership is not a bad thing; it’s a good thing. His ownership is not burdensome. As Christians we do not resent it. We know that he made us and he loves us. We are proud to wear his name and get our identity from him. In the words of the psalmist, “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his.”

Knowing who God is and knowing who we are leads to the third transforming truth about our relationship to God: “We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”

God could have defined our relationship with him in slave terms, but instead he chose to use shepherd terms. It is technically and legally true that God created us and he owns us, so we are totally subject to his orders. “We are his people” and he can do anything he wants with us.

While this is not the primary emphasis of the Bible, it is one that we shouldn’t forget. The Lord is God and we can never overpower or overrule him. Sometimes we as humans act as if we are God and can tell God what to do. But we can’t.

God is God. He owns us. He can love us or hate us. He can give us life or he can give us death. That’s why it’s wise for us to remember who God is and what our relative position is and that we follow the Bible’s advice to “fear the Lord”. But fearing the Lord can have different definitions. If we are Christians with hearts for God, that fear of him is really enormous respect and admiration. But if we are rebellious and antagonistic against God, we should fear his anger and our consequences for our rebellion and sin against him.

God’s emphasis is not on controlling us as slaves but on caring for us as sheep. “We are the sheep of his pasture.” Shepherds love their sheep. Shepherds care for their sheep. The safest and best place any sheep can be is in the shepherd’s pasture. The pasture is where it’s easy, where there is plenty of food, where dangers are fewer and, most of all, the pasture is where the shepherd is always close by.

There are some marvelous words in the Old Testament in Isaiah 40:11 that tell us: “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs with his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.” It’s the description of a shepherd with sheep. It’s the description of God with us.

That picture is carried over into the New Testament where we read that Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. Think about that. We are his sheep. Jesus the shepherd loves us enough that he actually died on the cross for us.

All of this is God’s way of saying that our relationship to him is to be the very best. He has done and he will do everything to keep that relationship as close and as good as can be. God is watching out for us with love in every detail of our lives during every day of our lives.

Put all these truths from the Bible together. Drive them like pilings into your life so that you are able to sustain hurricane force winds or mountain moving earthquakes. Memorize these truths. Repeat them a dozen times or more every day. Know who God is. Know who you are. Know your relationship.

Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

When those powerful, wealthy and educated Magi saw Jesus at the front door they bowed down and worshiped him. The neighbors must have wondered why they were treating this little boy as if he were a king, but the Magi saw him through eyes of love.

The gifts they brought were fitting for a king. Gold was a most precious and valuable metal. Incense was also expensive. It had a wonderful smell when burned and was an important part of worship. The Old Testament often speaks of the priests offering incense to God. It was a fitting gift for one who was to become the great High Priest of God. Myrrh was a third expensive gift. It was used for embalming the dead. It was a strange gift for a baby but uniquely appropriate for a child whose destiny was the cross of a Savior and later the crown of a conqueror.

The Magi barely knew Jesus but they loved him and gave him gifts. And that’s what love does – it delights in giving. Those who love Jesus will always want to give him their best!

Thinking of our experience helps me understand the Magi in the Christmas story. They invested a fortune and traveled from Persia to Palestine to find and worship somebody else’s king. Why did they do it? Somehow during their journey those Magi fell in love with a child they had not met, whose name they didn’t know. They didn’t have all the answers but they were drawn by God’s love and willing to wait as long as necessary to have their questions answered.

I’m not suggesting that Christianity is a religion of blind faith and that we shouldn’t ask questions of God. Quite to the contrary, the truth of Jesus is powerful enough to persuade the greatest skeptic. Like the Magi, we may not know all the facts before we decide to follow Jesus. But, if we wait until all our questions are answered, we may miss out on finding God’s best for our lives.

How did he endure? How did he keep up hope for eight years? Jim Stockdale has said, “I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”

You know, in some respects, that’s similar to the response of the virgin Mary. When the angel told her that she would be the mother of God’s own son, she didn’t understand exactly what was happening to her, but she didn’t lose faith in the end of the story. She told the angel, “May it be to me as you have said.”

And that’s what Christmas is all about – not losing hope. As Christians, we are absolutely convinced that Jesus Christ was sent from God to be the Savior of the world and to give us eternal life. And God will do what he promised!

The angel continued, “Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age,… for nothing is impossible with God.” In other words, this was going to take awhile. First Mary’s cousin Elizabeth was going to have a baby. Then, by some mysterious method, Mary was going to become pregnant. Then, after nine months the baby who was to be the hope of the world would be born. But it would take another thirty or so years for him to grow up into that role.

You know, it’s often the waiting that’s hard. When you’re barely holding on to hope, a week is a long time. And a year, or 30 years, is forever. It’s hard to keep our hope high when there’s a long wait. We want an immediate solution. But remember, our hope is not in the calendar. Our hope is in Jesus Christ. He sets the schedule and his timing is always right. And, amazingly, we may actually benefit from the wait.

Somehow, the unopened package with the angel’s wings gave Chuck Nolan the hope to survive in a desperate place. And that’s what happened with the angel’s words to Mary. When the angel Gabriel appeared to young Mary and told her she was going to be the mother of God’s Son, she didn’t understand the full meaning of the angel’s words. She had no idea how all this was going to play out in her personal life. She was engaged. She was planning a wedding. She was anticipating a family someday, but certainly not now! But she found hope in those words that got her through her troubles.

When troubles surround me, I read the Bible. I find hope simply in the realization that God speaks to me. Even when I don’t fully understand everything, like Mary, I get hope from God’s words of promise.

Part 2 of 6 on Psalm 100

Psalm 100:4

As a college student I spent a summer studying and traveling in Europe. It was during the Cold War when tensions between the Communist bloc and western nations were at their height. One of the places I visited was Berlin. Several other college students and I traveled by bus through the long corridor in what was then Communist East Germany to West Berlin. Later we crossed through the Berlin Wall into East Berlin. While it was an interesting experience, it as eerie and ominous. There was a sense of fear and evil. It felt like I didn’t belong there.

At the end of our brief visit we walked through the re-entry point called “Checkpoint Charlie” and into the American sector of West Berlin. The soldiers were Americans. The Stars-and-Stripes flew over the gatehouse. It was a great feeling of “coming home”.

Imagine how much better it is to pass through a checkpoint called Christ and to “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; (to) give thanks to him and praise his name.” It must be the ultimate sense of “coming home”. And while we won’t fully experience this until we enter the gates of heaven itself, we can experience that sense of God’s presence here and now.

Psalm 100 is the thanksgiving Psalm with three great invitations. The first invitation is to come to God's place and presence: “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.” How wonderful and amazing to be invited into the presence of God! We might compare it to the privilege of being invited to the home of another person. To each of us home is a special place, that private place most closely connected to who we are. To be invited to someone’s home is to be considered special.

God has invited us into his place. Ultimately that means his heaven. Immediately it means into God’s spiritual presence and those places he most identifies with himself. For the ancient Jews who first sang Psalm 100 that meant the Temple in Jerusalem. After all, they were called “God's chosen people”. As God's chosen people they had access to the designated place in the world where God was to be met and experienced.

But there were limits. Ordinary Jews were allowed only in the outer courts of the Temple. They were not permitted to go into the Holiest Place where God’s presence was greatest. It was open only to the High Priest and then only on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Anyone else or any other time meant certain death.

The Jews worried that the high priest might have a heart attack and die as a result of the awe of standing in the presence of God. If he died, how would they get his body out since no one else was allowed in? So they tied a rope around the high priest’s ankle so they could drag out his body if he died in the Holiest Place.

I don't sense that the people were offended that they could not go there. They were satisfied that they could have the outer courts. To them being that close to God was itself so awesome that no one expected anything more or better.

Several years ago our family vacationed in Washington, D.C. While there we were the guests of lifelong friends Bob and Lynn Dugan, staying with them in their home. Months in advance we made arrangements through our local congressional office to get six tickets to tour the White House as part of our visit. It was a big deal. It was fun and exciting. We were grateful for the experience.

At the end of the day we went back to the Dugans’ house to stay overnight and we told them about our tour of the Executive Mansion. Then I said to Bob, “What did you do today?” It was then that we learned that he, too, had been to the White House that day, having a private lunch meeting with the president!

I was not envious; I really wasn't! I was still grateful for where we had gone and what we had seen, although we had not made it as far inside or as close to the president as did our host.

That's the difference between the way we read Psalm 100:4 and the way the people of ancient Israel read Psalm 100:4. They were only allowed to go through the gates and into the outer courts. But as Christians we are allowed to go all the way into the Holiest Place.

Do you remember the story of Jesus' crucifixion? At the instant Jesus died the long thick veil that kept everyone out of the Holiest Place ripped completely in half from the top to the bottom. When Jesus died it was as if God shouted to the entire human race, “Come on in!” No restrictions! No limitations! No distinctions based on race or gender or status. Everyone is invited into the presence of God now and into God’s place forever. It's no wonder that those who enter his gates and come into his courts are filled with thanksgiving and praise!

There is something that we dare not miss, even though it is very subtle. This fourth verse from Psalm 100 is linked to the first verse. The psalm starts out, “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth!” God’s invitation to enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise is an open invitation to everyone on the earth. But Israel was content to be God's special people. They never learned to invite other people into God's Temple or into God’s presence. What a sad commentary on those ancient people that they were unwilling to share what God had given them.

Major US airlines periodically have “companion fares” that allow passengers to take along anyone they want for little or no expense. Airline employees can also fly stand-by for little or no cost. Imagine being able to fly anywhere in the world for little or no fare and to be able to take anyone you choose along with you. Who would you take? A family member? Someone from work? One of your best friends? Your neighbor next door who treats you rotten?

God has companion fares into God's presence and into God's heaven. You can invite anyone you know to come along with you. And not just one person, but as many as you choose.

That's what evangelism is. That's what Wooddale Church is all about. Every week we gather together and worship and praise God. We enter into his presence with thanksgiving and praise. Then we spread out for the rest of the week to invite our friends and relatives to join with us. We are “inviters” on the best companion fare that’s ever been offered: “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.”

When we enter God's gates, thanksgiving comes to our minds and to our mouths. Anyone who thinks should thank; the two always go together. It is so obvious that God has done great good things for us and given lots of great gifts to us. We have life when others are dead. We who are Christians have eternal life while others will die forever. We each have long lists of God's gifts, and no two lists are alike. For some the list includes a good job, good health, friends, marriage, children, parents. Other lists contain education, wealth, nice clothes, a lovely home, musical talents, emotional sensitivity. Still other lists include divine healing, deliverance from terrible addictions or the promise of an absolutely terrific future.

The tragic mistake some make at the gate is to ignore their own blessings from God and look at others’ blessings. They forget what they have and envy what others have. The results are a bitter heart and a saddened God.

If you're a parent, you know how carefully you choose Christmas gifts or birthday gifts for your children. Imagine how you would feel if your son or daughter totally neglected your gifts and complained about not getting the gifts you gave to others. Would that make you angry? Probably it would make you sad.

God has feelings too. God, who wisely and carefully chooses the gifts that he prepares and presents to us, wants us to be delighted with the choices he has made. His choices are far wiser than anything we could make for ourselves.

I suggest that everyone regularly make a thanksgiving list. Put down everything you have received from God. Think hard about it; be as complete as you possibly can be. When the list is finished remember that you probably have forgotten more than you have included.

Recently I left my office and was driving down the highway when I saw a truck cut over into my lane without signaling. One car a little ahead of me was nearly run off the road. It was close. I thought that if I had left the office three seconds earlier I could have been where that truck swerved and it might have taken my life. I thanked God for what didn’t happen.

Thanks lists are for everything that God has done. They are not only for what we have, but for what we don’t have as well. There are items that could be included in our list that we don't even remember, much less think to record. I'm convinced that the Bible is true when it says that every good and perfect gift that we have comes from God. I also believe that an attitude of gratitude has comparatively little to do with the specifics of what we have received. I know people who are deeply thankful to God even though they seem to have very little while others are as ungrateful as can be even though they have so much.

Come to God; that is the first great invitation. Thank God; that is the second great invitation. Praise God—the third great invitation.

There is a difference between thanking God for what he has done and praising God for who he is. In reality the two are tied together so tightly that it is practically impossible to split them apart. But, for learning purposes, let’s try to make a distinction.

All of us want to be loved and respected for who we are, not just for what we do. Many adult children struggle with questions about their parents' acceptance and approval of them. Childhood memories too often center on moms and dads who seemed to give praise and love only when we worked hard, behaved well and received good grades in school. Often we have interpreted that to mean that we would not be loved or praised if we made a mistake, did something embarrassing to our folks or failed a class in school. We know how much those memories hurt and how important it is to be accepted and loved for ourselves.

God has feelings, too. Surely he loves to hear us say “thank you” for the good gifts he has generously given to us. But God also wants to be loved and praised just for who he is. He wants to know that we will love him no less if we don’t get what we want. We will admire and honor him even if he does things we would not choose or do not like. God wants us to praise him for who he is. He is God. He is loving. He has impeccable integrity and consistency. He is truthful. He is kind. He is the best there can be!

Have you ever stood outside on a dark cloudless night and admired the stars? You were awed by how many there were. You were amazed at their beauty. Their vast expanse was dumbfounding. But they have never really done anything for you. They don’t feed your children. They don’t warm your home. Unless you are a sailor they probably have never helped you find your way. You just admire them for themselves.

Let us also admire their Creator—just for who he is; just because he is God; just because he is beautiful; just because he is the best there can be. Admire him. Praise him.

A short time before Jesus died his friends were getting really stressed at the idea of his leaving and all the uncertainty that included. So Jesus took them aside and spoke to them the words that are recorded in John 14:1-3:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

Jesus was predicting that future day in heaven when every Christian would literally “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.” It will be a fabulous experience, better that anything anyone can imagine in advance.

Right now is the rehearsal. This brief life is our time to experience the God who has come to us before we go home to him. Now is the time for us to try out our thanks. Now is the time for us to practice our praise.

Do it! “Give thanks to him and praise his name!”

Hope is the expectation that things will get better. We all need hope in order to go on. Whether coping with disease, sinking in debt or struggling with a relationship gone bad, we all need hope to get through today and into tomorrow. Without hope, there’s no point in even trying. We simply give up.

That’s why hope is such a wonderful gift from God, although seldom simple and rarely easy. Hope is never itself the destination. It’s a journey. And Christmas is a wonderful time to begin that journey.

Jesus is delighted to let us have and use what is his. But he holds us accountable. He calls us to readiness and to responsibility with these words, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

This is Thanksgiving week. We live in America where most of us are well fed to the point of excess. To be absolutely candid with you, the garbage that Americans have thrown away this week would be considered meals for millions in some parts of the world. We live in abundance.

I don’t say that to make us feel guilty. But we should be grateful. Grateful to Jesus for all we have. And may our gratitude make us want to be like Jesus. May we welcome others, feed others and help others – trusting God to take what we offer and use it to bless others in Jesus’ name.

We might not catch the significance at first of what Jesus was saying, but it was a real shocker to his first listeners. He was saying that responsible servants would be in a state of readiness when their master returned home. This would delight the master so much that the master himself would dress for work, have his servants recline at the dining room table, and serve them himself. That would be an astonishing reward.

The point that Jesus was making was that God will greatly bless and reward those who live their lives in constant personal readiness for God. Does that mean that we are to be motivated by the promise of reward or the fear that we might be caught unprepared? No – we are to stay ready for God because it’s the right thing to do!

And that’s the way Jesus wants Christians to be. He said, “be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.”

In those days men wore long flowing robes which were cool and comfortable for the climate, but were a problem when working, because they got in the way. The standard solution was to gather up the bottom of the robe and tuck it into your belt when you were working. When Jesus said to be dressed ready for service, his listeners knew that he meant. Don’t get too comfortable – be dressed for work. And when he said to keep your lamps burning, he was referring to oil lamps common in that day that needed to have their wicks regularly trimmed or they would go out. Jesus was saying, “Have your clothes ready and the lights on so you are ready when your master returns.”

We need to ask ourselves, “If Jesus were to return to earth today, would we be ready?”

Part 1 of 6 on Psalm 100

Psalm 100:1

Researchers designed a survey to understand human happiness. The project included such multiple variables as different ages, social classes and cultures. They concluded that there is very little correlation between circumstances and happiness. Some people have comparatively good circumstances in life and are miserable people, and others have terrible circumstances and are surprisingly happy.

One area examined in the survey was money. The researchers wondered if more money made people happier. The answer was somewhat complex. If more money provided the basics of life like food, shelter and clothing, that money did make people happier. However, beyond the basics in life, money was not a significant factor in determining personal happiness.

What about the person who won the lottery, received a huge raise or was the beneficiary of a large inheritance? The research showed that the benefits of the new money did make a person somewhat happier for up to three months. But after three months most people return to their previous level of happiness or misery.

About three thousand years ago an unknown songwriter, full of happiness and joy, wrote some of the most famous musical lines of history. It is Psalm 100 in the Old Testament. Jewish worshipers sang it originally as they marched through their streets in festivals of celebration and worship of God. But the words are so good that they have transcended time and culture and are as relevant today as they were three millennia ago. They say:

Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Joy is one of the most frequent words in the Bible appearing 218 times. Joy was repeatedly the mark of Old Testament believers and New Testament Christians. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the “Good News” of Jesus Christ. When he was born the angels announced that his coming was to bring “great joy” to the world.

Joy is a great distinctive of Christianity. Most world religions are based on fear. Christianity is based on grace and joy.

There is a difference between joy and happiness. Although joy often makes Christians happy, joy is really a deep inner sense that everything is good because of God. It is like the ocean; even though there are hurricanes raging on the surface, there is calm and stability underneath. The intent of God is that the joy on the inside determines how we respond to the circumstances on the outside rather than that the circumstances swirling around us become the determining factor for who or what we are on the inside.

Christian joy comes from knowing that what is most important of all is God and his relationship to us rather than circumstances. Christians live by faith that God exists, God is wonderfully good, God forgives sin, God gives eternal life, God is powerfully in charge of everything that happens, God is intimately involved in our lives and God will make everything turn out right and good in the end. So we believe that no matter what happens to us in life that God knows, God cares and God makes everything eventually okay.

Anyone who really believes and knows this is transformed. Life’s meaning and feeling is not based on physical appearance, job, possessions, other relationships or anything else. All these things are temporary and comparatively unimportant.

Several years ago I wrote a book that began with these words: “Joan Hollister is the happiest person I know.” Joan, a part of the Wooddale Church family for many years, had been diagnosed with cancer. It was the beginning of what would be a long and sometimes painful journey, a journey that not only included cancer for her but for her husband, Jack, as well. Their cancer would eventually take both their lives, Jack first and then Joan. I watched them move from health to sickness to death. They were joyful throughout! Their lives were fixed on Jesus Christ, and they were amazing.

Joy is meant to be expressed, and there are thousands of different ways to express Christian joy. It can be expressed in prayers of gratitude and trust in God. It can be in an anthem that a choir sings. It can be through acts of kindness to others. Sometimes it is simply through a smile. Or it might be as powerful as calmness in crisis.

One of the best ways to express joy is with noise. You can be noisy alone, but it’s more fun to be noisy with others. If you’re a football fan you know that there is a big difference between cheering a touchdown alone in the living room and being in a stadium with 60,000 fans.

For thousands of years believers have gathered together to celebrate. In ancient Israel they marched through the streets singing the words of Psalm 100 as they went. For two thousand years Christians have gathered to sing the same words.

Now, I'm not a shouter by nature and I'm certainly not much of a singer. I don't usually scream at baseball or football games. I don’t do somersaults when I get good news. But I love to praise God with other Christians. It is this wonderful experience of saying and singing joy to the Lord that has a way of getting me out of myself. It lifts my heart.

Many times I have gone into gatherings with other Christians in a whole variety of moods. Then I watch and listen and share in praises to God and I feel my spirit soar. It brings the joy to the surface.

Sometimes I like to look around at others who are expressing their joy. I love to see people’s faces and connect to their celebration when they sing and when they praise God. It is this marvelous thing to see that lifts my heart together with others.

There are many reasons to enthusiastically share in worship together. I encourage every Christian to attend church every Sunday possible and be sure to arrive on time. The Bible commands it. It is an appointment with God. But those are sort of “heavy duty” reasons. The best reason of all is to worship God and to express Christian joy and commitment with other believers. The purpose of the gathered church is to worship God and to shout and sing and express our Christian joy together.

There is only one true source of Christian joy and that it the Lord. No other person or thing can give true inner joy and contentment except God himself.

The people who learn this best are often those who lose everything else. Have you known Christians who were minimally joyful for years when they had good health, stable families and dependable income? Then they lose their jobs, their families fall apart or severe health problems arise. Just when you would expect that person to be miserable and bitter, she is full of joy and talks often about God. He suddenly has a peace and happiness that was never there before.

We are tempted to give psychological names to this appearance of joy. We say it is denial or bargaining with God. Except those who have lost so much and are so joyful say, “No, this is for real. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like it before. I just sense God’s control over my life. I trust him for everything. I really am filled with joy.”

I've seen this many times. I have gone to visit patients in the hospital, dreading the visit. I’ve wondered what to say. I realize that my words can seem so hollow and empty. But I walk into the room and immediately sense the joy. And often I have driven away thinking how much I have been benefited and blessed because I have witnessed powerful, deep Christian joy.

But we don't have to wait until everything else is stripped away to experience this joy that comes from the Lord for it is available to anyone who truly bases life on God. It is available to anyone who loves God and lives for God and trusts God. It is a personal choice. It cannot be made by anyone else. There is no sermon that will do it for you. There is no church program or counselor who can make it happen.

Do you want to try it? How about praying a prayer to God that goes something like this:

Lord, I want this kind of joy so I choose for you to be Number 1 in my life starting today. You will be more important to me than anything else. I really mean this. If you want to, you can take away everything else in my life as long as I have you. You can have my job, my money, my health, my family—everything. As long as I have you, I have all that I need.

Would you be willing to pray that prayer to God? Would you be willing to write it down with today’s date, sign it and save the paper? And would you be willing to tell other people what you have prayed?

If we are honest, many of us are thinking, “I can never pray a prayer like that! What if God took me up on it and I lost all my savings? What if it cost me my house? I could lose my job or marriage or children. I’d be too scared to ever pray a prayer like that.”

We know what we're saying, don’t we? We're saying that our joy in life is really not in God but in someone or something else.

I'll tell you what I want. I want the joy of the Lord. More than anything else! Not that I want to lose the other things in my life that are extremely important and that I value. But I don’t want them to come before God. I want the basis of my life to be nothing but God himself. Because I believe that God alone is more than enough to have the greatest joy possible, I want to trust him enough to make that decision for me.

When you are excited about something good, you usually want to share it. You want other people to celebrate and shout along with you. Think about the last time you had some really good news. It could have been a new job or a new baby, a raise in salary or a benign biopsy report. What was the first thing you did when you heard the news? You probably called home, went to tell a friend or co-worker or found a complete stranger on the street to tell what happened. Exciting good news always has to be shared!

Anyone who has the joy of the Lord wants to shout about it, but not alone. We want our friends and family to join in with us. We want the whole earth to join the celebration. I’m excited about that day that’s promised in the Bible when an uncountable crowd of people from every tribe and language and people and nation will join the shout of celebration and joy for the Lord. But until then, here is the best advice you can get for today:

* Find your joy in the Lord!
* “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.”

One time they went on a longer trip to Florida. The house could have been condemned by a health inspector. One day my parents called to see how everything was going and I said, “Great.” My Mother asked if I was remembering to feed Peter, her pet parakeet. Peter had a huge vocabulary and because my mother is from England, he spoke with a British accent. When I looked over into his cage, Peter was lying on the bottom of the cage, dead, and I knew I was in serious trouble.

After the call I thought about buying a replacement that looked like Peter but I knew the chances of teaching him to talk in three days weren’t good. I had to face it – I was in deep trouble.

Needless to say, when my parents arrived home they were sad and angry. The good news is that they didn’t disown me or stop feeding me. I was still their son. But I’ve always wished that I’d done what I was supposed to do.

I think of that experience when I read what Jesus told us regarding his second coming, “You also must be ready…” and, “from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Jesus calls us to readiness, responsibility and accountability. Are you ready?

One historic night when some of the Magi were studying the heavens, they saw a star unlike anything they’d ever seen before. A group of them decided to leave their homes, putting everything they had at risk, in order to form a caravan to follow the star. When they started they had no idea they would journey two years and a thousand miles – all the way from Persia to Palestine.

Why would they follow a maverick star? Curiosity? Superstition? Adventure? I think it was more than that. It was almost as if that star had a magnetic pull on their hearts. It was actually the pull of God’s supernatural love bringing them to Jesus.

And it still happens today. The magnetic pull of the love of God can move us from where we are to destinations that we cannot foresee. Sometimes the journey takes years and covers thousands of miles, but eventually it leads us, like the Magi, to the Son of God.

In the last book of the Old Testament God is quoted as saying, “I hate divorce.” God hates it when marriages he has blessed split up and families are divided. God hates it when innocent people are victimized by others who destroy or abandon a marriage. Yes, God hates divorce.

But don’t misunderstand – God doesn’t hate divorcees. In fact, God is himself a divorcee. In the Old Testament he says that he divorced Israel for adultery. God himself was the innocent victim of the sin of adultery. God understands the pain.

Yes, God hates divorce, but please don’t think God hates you or isn’t on your side. Whether you are an innocent victim of someone else’s sin, or you are the sinner who has hurt someone else, God loves you. It is the divorce which God hates.

If you have been wronged and your marriage breaks up, God wants you to go forward, trusting him, and live your life in peace. If you are the one who has sinned by causing the divorce, the solution is the same as it would be for any other sin: admit your sin and ask for God’s forgiveness; if possible, ask for forgiveness from those you have wronged and then go forward in peace, trusting God to help you live in his grace.

To give you an idea of how bad it was, one pastor, a godly man named Martin Rinkart, conducted 5,000 funerals in one year for the people of his parish. He averaged about fourteen funerals per day. In 1636, in the midst of that misery, Martin Rinkert wrote a table grace that he taught to his young children that later became a Christian hymn. Listen to his heart:

Now thank we all our God
With hearts and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done,
In whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms,
Hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God
Through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts
And blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in his grace,
And guide us when perplexed,
And free us from all ills
In this world and the next.

Martin Rinkert trusted God and kept a joyful heart, even when “perplexed” by the ills in this world. And that trust is the secret to thankfulness.

Mueller based his life, and the running of the orphanage, on the premise that God was faithful and that He would provide for the needs of his children. Consequently, Mueller was a great man of prayer. Resources were meager and there were times when he would gather the children in the orphanage dining hall, have them close their eyes and bow their heads, and then lead them in a prayer of thanksgiving for their food – even thought there was no food on the table or in the kitchen. Time after time God provided food by the end of the prayer. One time a milk truck broke down in front of the orphanage. The driver knocked on the door while Mueller was praying and said, “The milk and other dairy products in my truck are going to spoil. Would you have any use for them?” Other times anonymous donors generously sent food and meat without knowing what the needs were and it would arrive just when it was needed.

The New Testament says that Christians should, “Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” George Mueller knew how to pray with thanksgiving in all circumstances – even when there was nothing apparent for which to give thanks.

Part 5 of 5 on Sermons People Want to Hear

Everyone wonders about the future. Will I marry? Who will that person be? Will there be children? Where will I live? Will I be rich? Will I be healthy? Will I be happy? Who will win the election? Will the stock market go up or down? When and how will I die?

Most of the time most of these questions are not answered in advance. As Christians we learn to live by faith—that is, we trust God for the direction and destiny of our lives. God knows what we don’t know and he controls what we can’t control.

But there are some things about the future that God has chosen to tell us in the prophecies of the Bible. Biblical prophecies are not given to satisfy our curiosity. Prophecy is given to teach us that God controls history and that history is going somewhere. God was the Lord of yesterday. God is the Lord of today. And God is the Lord of tomorrow. He is the sovereign king of the past, present and future. They are all connected.

Sometimes we may think that human history is chaotic nonsense. It has come from nowhere and is going nowhere. But that’s not true. God has a plan. God’s plan is all coming together, even the parts that seem like nonsense all fit into God’s plan! Biblical prophecy should give us great hope and comfort. We can trust God to make everything work together for good in the end. Even though we cannot control the future, we can trust God for complete control and for great good.

In a survey of “Sermons People Want to Hear” the topic of Bible prophecy was high on the list. So let’s take a look at what’s up for history-to-come.

First of all and most important of all is the really big event—Jesus’ return to earth. By far, this is more important than anything else predicted. Every other Bible prophecy connects to and is dependent on Jesus’ return, but every other prophecy is dwarfed in comparative importance. Never get caught up in overemphasis on anything else. There may be uncertainty and differences of interpretation on all the lesser and more obscure biblical predictions about future events, but not this one. The return of Jesus Christ to earth is Number One.

Forty days after Jesus’ resurrection it was time for him to go home to heaven. Jesus and his followers gathered together on the Mount of Olives just outside of Jerusalem. The record of what happened appears in Acts 1:3-11:

After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them, “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Just as the first coming-to-earth of Jesus was predicted thousands of years in advance, so the second coming of Jesus was predicted thousands of years in advance. Here’s what we know:

1.) It’s a sure thing. It is a biblical promise from God.
2.) The date is unknown to us. According to Jesus, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.” (1:7). God has deliberately kept the date a secret. We’re not told why. Perhaps it would have been bad for previous generations to know that there would be a 2000-year wait. Maybe God wants it to be a surprise. Just be sure to never believe anyone who tells you that they know what Jesus says they can’t know. There have been a lot of badly mistaken teachers and preachers who have claimed to know the date, and every one has been wrong. Never believe the date-setters because they are clearly unbiblical and contradicting Jesus.
3.) Jesus’ return will be like his departure. Jesus’ departure was simple, public and visible. His body left the ground on top of the Mount of Olives and he ascended until he disappeared. While every detail may not be exactly the same, Jesus’ return will be similar. He will physically come to earth from heaven. It will be a public event. If you are around and have a camcorder you will be able to record it on videotape.
4.) Last time Jesus came as a poor peasant; next time he will come as a conquering king.
5.) The purpose of Jesus’ return. He will reunite with Christians. He will right the injustices caused by sin. He will judge evil. He will take over the ruling of the world. He will tie up the loose ends of history. He will fulfill the purposes and plans of God.

The expectation of Jesus’ return makes a difference in the way Christians live right now. We are
to live good and godly lives in anticipation of Jesus coming back. In Titus 2:11-14 we read:

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

As Christians we can and should live godly lives now and look forward to Jesus coming back to earth. This is the really big event of all of future history and Bible prophecy. If you don’t understand or don’t remember any of the other future predictions, remember this one. And never even think about making the other predictions anything close to as important as Jesus’ return!

The Bible predicts that near the really big event of Jesus’ return to earth are two significant but less important events—the Rapture and the Tribulation. Bible scholars and students differ on the chronological order of these nearby events. Some insist that the Rapture precedes the Tribulation; others insist that the Tribulation precedes the Rapture. Personally, I don’t think that the Bible clearly explains the order. It’s good enough for me to just know that they will happen.

The Rapture is the amazing future event when Christians will go to meet Jesus and welcome him back to earth. We will all be members of the welcoming committee for Jesus. It will be similar to biblical times when a king went out to war with his army. When they returned home in victory, the citizens of the city would all leave home and go out to meet the king and his army. Then they would all march back into the city together.

Since Jesus is coming from heaven to earth, we’ll all take a supernatural journey into the air to meet him there. Exactly how this works we really don’t know. It promises to be a fabulous experience. And, since we don’t know when Jesus is returning, we need to be ready to welcome him on a second’s notice. He could return today—and Christians could be raptured to meet him at any time. The Apostle Paul explains this in I Thessalonians 4:16-17:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

It will be thrilling. It will be better than a tourist trip to the International Space Station. But the most wonderful and exciting part of the Rapture is not the journey—it’s Jesus!

The other significant event near the return of Jesus will be the Tribulation. This is a period of about seven years when the problems of our world will really heat up. God’s restraint against evil will be lifted. Evil enemies against God will become political and religious leaders of the world. One of these leaders is called the Anti-Christ. God will pour out unprecedented judgments against evil people and governments. It will be absolutely frightening and literally earth shaking. There has never been anything like it before and there will never be anything like it again. You really don’t want to be here for these worst years in human history.

Some of the awful details are described in the book of Revelation. Righteous saints will be severely persecuted by the enemies of God. At the same time, these same saints will be preserved against the wrath of God that is zapping the unrighteous. It will be worse than any science-fiction movie imagining a war of the worlds. This will be all-out war between good and evil, between God and Satan.

The descriptions of the Great Tribulation are peppered throughout the Bible. Jesus gave us one of those descriptions in Mark 13:19: “those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.”

Sometimes Christians worry about the Tribulation, but I don’t think we should. God promises in Romans 8:1 that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” We may trust God that he will never harm us. However, there is never a guarantee that we are exempt from the evil behavior of others.

Recent stories from the People’s Republic of China report terrible persecution of Christians by the anti-Christian Communist leadership. These stories reminded me of a communication that come out of China years ago when Christians there asked American Christians when the Great Tribulation began so that they could estimate how long it would last.

The Great Tribulation will be a great clash between good and evil when God will clobber those who are bad and give special grace to those who are good.

Remember, the really big event is the return of Jesus to earth. Near this return will be the Rapture and the Tribulation. After the really big event will be the Millennium.

The Millennium is a 1,000-year period when Jesus will rule as king of this world. The Bible doesn’t give all the details, but it promises to be the best time in a long time. There will be a world government. It will be a monarchy. Jesus will be the absolute sovereign king. Christians will hold government posts. There will be a direct link between heaven and earth. The way I understand what the Bible teaches and anticipate what will happen, we will be able to return from heaven to earth to share in this amazing millennium.

It won’t be heaven. It will still be earth. People will be born. Sin will be a choice. Even though Jesus will be on earth and run the earth there will still be the option of not believing in him or following him as Savior and Lord. In other words, all our concerns about government will be gone. Satan will be locked up and unable to corrupt our world. But people will still have the choice to sin and many will exercise that choice.

At the end of the Millennium Satan will break free and will find plenty of recruits willing to rebel against Jesus. He will lead a final cataclysmic conflict between himself and God called the Battle of Armageddon. God will win and this long great era of earth’s history will be over.

This is described in Revelation 20 at the very end of the Bible. It is what is called apocalyptic writing and it is often symbolic and sometimes difficult to understand, but you can get the idea of what to expect. St. John is writing based on a vision of the future that was given to him by God. We find this vision explained in Revelation 20:1-10:

And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

After the Millennium and the final defeat of Satan comes the next predicted event—the Great White Throne Judgment. It is the final judgment by God to determine the eternal destiny of humans. Not too many details are given, but it is clear that the actions of this life determine our eternal destiny in the next life. There is a double basis for God’s sentence: human sins for which sinners may be condemned; and being named in the book of life because of personal faith in Jesus. Here’s what Revelation 20:11-15 says:

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Does this short version of Bible prophecy answer all our questions? Probably not! Scholars have studied the Bible for centuries trying to find all the answers. The truth is that God hasn’t given us all the answers. God wants us centered on him, not the future!

I like the way one Bible student approached the return of Jesus. He said, “I’m not on the ‘Time and place committee’. I’m on the welcoming committee.” God wants us to look forward to welcoming Jesus back to earth and then trust him for working out the details that we cannot fully understand.

One thing is for sure—a Christian never needs to be troubled by fear of the future. When we read and talk about the future we should be encouraged and comforted, but not afraid. We are Christians if we have accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord of our lives. Then we can trust God for the present and the future.

St. Paul wrote in I Thessalonians 4:16-18:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.

It doesn’t say, “scare one another with these words;” it says, “comfort one another with these words.” Be comforted. Be blessed. Be assured that the future of every Christian is in the trustworthy hands of a good and loving God!

Let me share with you how I personally experience this work of Jesus most often. By vocation, I’m the pastor of a church. That means that among my responsibilities, I have to prepare a sermon every week to preach in front of people for whom I care very much. I have many weekends when I know my sermon is inadequate and I plead with God to somehow make it effective. But some weeks I feel as if my words don’t flow, my thoughts are unclear and I feel totally drained.

Then, during the next week, I receive some email or get some calls from people who say things like, “God spoke to me through you last Sunday,” or, “I listened to your sermon and God changed my life,” or “I went home following that sermon and got down on my knees to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior.”

It makes me wonder if they have me confused with someone else. I think they must be mistaken. But then I realize that Jesus has done it again. He has taken the verbal equivalent of five little barley loaves and two dried fish and miraculously turned it into something significant. It amazes me to see what Jesus can do – even when he has very little to work with.

It was a practical suggestion. There were 5,000 men, plus women and children, and the disciples didn’t have food or money to feed such a multitude. But they really weren’t thinking about the needs of the crowd, they were being selfish. They wanted Jesus for themselves. They wanted a quiet evening alone with their teacher.

Jesus saw right through them and laid a direct challenge on his disciples. He said, “You give them something to eat.” He not only rejected their selfishness, he made them responsible for the solution.

Frankly, Jesus’ answer makes me want to squirm. When I’m faced with people’s needs, my first two responses are likely to be, “Let someone else do something” or “Let God take care of this one.” We’re all prone to make excuses and quick to see what can’t be done.

You may already know the rest of the story. The disciples came up with the lunch of one small boy in the crowd and brought it to Jesus. Jesus took the lunch and miraculously multiplied the food so it fed everyone.

The lesson for us is that anything is possible if we’re willing to step forward and offer what little we have for Jesus to use.

Jesus was a celebrity. He attracted huge crowds. On one particular occasion Jesus took his twelve closest followers on a sort of debriefing retreat so they could all report on their travels to different villages to preach and heal. It was their special time to be alone with Jesus and it was to be a well-deserved rest for Jesus as well.

But as often happens, someone leaked information. Word spread about Jesus’ whereabouts and crowds of people started showing up. They were attracted to Jesus like metal to a magnet.

Now, many celebrities are upset at all the invasions of their privacy, but not Jesus. The New Testament reports, “He welcomed [the crowds] and spoke to them about the kingdom of God and healed those who needed healing.” With Jesus, seeking people are always welcome. He delights to teach and to heal and to meet human needs.

Sometimes I hear people complain about churches becoming too large. They want an intimate and manageable group. Crowds of hundreds and thousands make them want to say, “Enough is enough. Let them go some place else!” But Jesus doesn’t have a cut-off number and I’m glad. Think of what it would feel like to have the doors slam shut when you and your family are next in line.

With Jesus there is no limit – he always welcomes more!

The chauffeur treated the vehicles as if they were his own. They were his life work. But they were not his. He was a servant, entrusted with a responsibility. He was accountable to his employer and he took his job very seriously. But the day came when the wealthy man died. It turned out that he had willed all of his vehicles to the faithful chauffeur. They must have been worth a small fortune. His chauffeur had been responsible and he was rewarded.

And that’s what Jesus calls us to do – to be responsible and accountable for whatever resources he puts under our care, and to be rewarded. The more God entrusts us with, the more responsible we are to be.

It is like that with us and God. God has promised that he has a plan for each of our lives but he doesn’t want our hope centered on grabbing ahold of his plan, he wants our hope centered on him. God sends the Holy Spirit to work in our lives and often does it in ways we would never have anticipated. Sometimes when our lives are shattered, the Holy Spirit puts the pieces back together into a new design, far better than the way things were before. He intervenes when necessary and encourages us along the way.

Just like the trapeze flyer in the circus, we must let go and fly through danger – filled with trust and hope. It is our job to trust and God will catch us.

Part 4 of 5 on Sermons People Want to Hear

Some people have an especially great influence on us. They shape our lives in ways that no one else does. They are our role models. They are the ones we look up to, the kind of people we want to be like.

I suppose if a survey were taken on who has most influenced us, for many it would be a mother. Some of us would say that our mothers have been like angels sent from God as special gifts in our lives. It is a high compliment to call anyone an angel because angels are among the most wonderful and magnificent of all of God’s creation.

The popularity of angels has soared in recent years. They even have their own television programs now. They’re on the covers of news magazines and best-selling books. Sixty-nine percent of Americans say they believe in angels, but you’ve got to guess that 100% of Americans talk about angels and have angels as part of their vocabulary. Maybe that’s one reason why questions about angels were among the top choices for sermons that people wanted to hear.

There are thousands of reports of people’s encounters with angels. Sometimes in school, sometimes driving down the highway, sometimes in the midst of an automobile accident or in the emergency room or the operating room or in a family situation. If you don’t have an angel story of your own you certainly can tell the story of someone else. There are lots of angel stories because according to the Bible there are lots of angels. Let me share with you a sneak preview of heaven from a report by St. John in Revelation 5:11-12:

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

“Ten thousand times ten thousand” is a hundred million angels in one place at one time! And that’s not all of them. So obviously there are more angels in heaven and across God’s universe than we could ever begin to count.

There is so much angel talk, fact and fiction, mixed together that we need to see just what the Bible really says about angels. Just because somebody says something about an angel or guesses something about angels does not mean that they are right or that what they say is true. So we do what we always do, we go to God’s book, the Bible, as our source of authority to find out what we want to know concerning angels. And there’s a lot of information there. There are 165 references to angels in the New Testament alone; and there are over 100 references to angels in the Old Testament. So let’s start out by trying to figure out just who angels are.

Martin Luther defined angels as “spiritual creatures without a body, created by God, for the service of Christendom and the church.” So, angels are created beings. We know that because the Bible teaches that in the beginning there was only God and he created everything. Colossians 1:16 says, “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.” In others words, angels are God’s good idea. He thought them up in the first place. He made them and he made a lot of them!

So angels are not our dead ancestors. Angels are angels. They’re not something that was once something or somebody else and then somehow evolved to become what they currently are. Angels are what they were created to be, beings specially designed by God.

We also know that they were and are spirits. Hebrews 1:14 tells us that angels are “ministering spirits sent to serve those who inherit salvation.” That is to say that angels don’t have bodies; angels are invisible; angels are like God. Angels are like our own souls or our own spirits. But it doesn’t make them any less real because they don’t have bodies. Spirits are as real as real can be. They are more a part of the spiritual universe than of the physical universe.

But someone might say, “Wait a minute! What about the stories of people who say they have seen angels, physical angels? And I’m sure that I’ve read many stories in the Bible where angels were physically present. How do you align that with the idea that angels are spirits?”

The Bible teaches that angels can take on different physical forms in order to accomplish the purpose God intended for them. But that’s not essentially what they are. I suppose you could compare it to the clothing that we wear. We can look very different depending on how we’re dressed, but the clothing does not determine who we are essentially as persons. Angels are spirits who occasionally take on physical appearance. The goods news is that angels can be very helpful to us in accomplishing God’s purposes whether we see them or not.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be invisible? Most children think about that; in fact, some are convinced they are invisible! What if you could do whatever you wanted to do and nobody could see you doing it? There would be some disadvantages, but there would be some enormous advantages as well.

Angels are spirits without bodies. But very significantly, angels are supernatural. They are above our idea of what is natural or normal. Psalm 8:5 says that God made man “a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.” Another way of saying that is that God made angels and heavenly beings a little higher than he made humanity. Angels can do things we can’t do; angels can know things we don’t know; and angels can go places we can’t go. But angels are not God! Loads of Bible stories tell of angels doing supernatural acts—miracles—from miraculous announcements all the way to taking a rock that probably weighed about eight tons and rolling it back from the grave of Jesus in the Easter story.

Now we start to put all of that together and we begin to get at least a basic idea of what the Bible teaches about angels. We learn that there are millions of them, that God made them, that they are spirits who can instantly go anywhere and that they have supernatural power. No wonder people are so interested in angels and especially so interested in having angels help us.

But the next obvious question is: what do angels do? The basic answer is that angels do whatever God wants them to do. The Greek word from which we get our word “angel” is “angelos”. It was a common everyday term meaning “messenger”. So an angel is a messenger of God. An angel goes where God wants, does what God wants and obeys what God wants. Psalm 103:20 says, “Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.” It is really important to understand that angels don’t work for us. Angels work for God. They do what God tells them to do. That doesn’t mean they don’t help us. It doesn’t mean that they are not influential in our lives. The truth is that angels do all kinds of good things to bless and help and strengthen and encourage us. But they don’t take their assignments from us. Angels are not genies in bottles that we rub in order to get what we want. Angels do what God wants whether we like it or not.

What God wants is for them to worship God. That is their Number One job description. To worship God means to acknowledge God’s greatness, to acknowledge God’s goodness. It is giving praise and adoration to God for who he is and all he does. Psalm 148:2 says, “Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his heavenly host.”

So there are a hundred million angels surrounding the throne of God and worshiping him. They’re thinking about God. Even when they are not present in heaven, God is the center of their lives. They sing songs; they praise him; they do his beckoning; they do whatever he asks. That is the essence of worship: to speak words of truth concerning God’s greatness and to obey God and do whatever he asks to be done.

Except some of us want to say, “Now wait a minute. If that’s what heaven is all about, just telling God how great he is and doing whatever he asks us to do, that doesn’t seem like a very interesting thing to do for a long period of time.

Allow me to illustrate. If there is someone you really love, a husband or a wife or a parent or a child, someone you really care about, and you go to an activity that is centered on honoring that person, you know that you’re the first to clap and the last to stop the applause. While everybody else can be totally bored, you are absolutely fascinated when wonderful things are being said about the one you deeply love and care about. It totally changes your perspective.

And so it is with angels in heaven. They so love God and are so committed to him that they take delight in an infinite amount of time of praising, worshiping and acknowledging him. That’s what the essence of heaven is for us, too. And angels will be there with us leading in that praise.

Now, the good news for us is that God, who gives his assignments to these millions of angels, gives them assignments that are for our benefit. And one of the top assignments that God gives to angels for our benefit is to watch out for us. That’s because God has our best interest at heart. He wants us to be protected. He wants us to be cared for. So he orders his angels to guard those who are his children. In Psalm 91:11 we read, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” That verse is one of the places in the Bible where we get the idea that God assigns “guardian angels” to guard and protect and take care of those who are his and those whom he loves.

Stories of supernatural protection involving angels are easy to come by. One story tells of a group of three missionaries in a remote area who suddenly found themselves under attack by hundreds of people bent on taking their lives. At the last instant, the attack ended. Their attackers suddenly disappeared and everything was fine.

However, the next day the attackers came back and again the missionaries thought they were going to die, but at the last moment the attack ended. The same thing happened the third day, but again the attack stopped.

A year later one of these missionaries was with the leader of that attacking tribal group. The leader of the attackers brought up what happened in that three-day sequence and said, “We were determined that we were going to kill you, but when we saw those hundreds of soldiers standing around you to protect you, we knew that we could never win.” What the three missionaries couldn’t see but their attackers could see were apparently angels.

Another story tells of a woman who was running across a city bridge being pursued by attackers. In this case, too, her attackers turned and ran the other way. When they were caught and questioned they said that they had seen a pair of men in white robes with swords standing nearby to protect her.

One Christian tells the story of riding in a train on an overnight journey and being in a sleeping car. There were a number of other Christians on that particular train. During the night the train came to a screeching halt in an isolated place where there was no station. Everyone awoke to find that a farmer had flagged down the train and had stopped it only a few yards from a washed-out bridge that would have brought disaster and death probably to everyone on the train. He was questioned as to why he had come out that night to stop the train, something he had never done before. He explained that a stranger had awakened him in the middle of the night and told him to go and stop the train at that place.

Or, a more recent story of a woman who was awakened in the night when she heard her front door creaking open. It seemed strange to her in many ways and frightening since that door was seldom used because it was so warped it was almost impossible for even a strong person to get it open. She went downstairs and found the door wide open. As she went outside, there was her little boy. He explained that a stranger had come into his room and had taken him outside through the front door. The mother then discovered that the child had been playing with matches, the curtains had caught fire, the room was filled with smoke and her little boy’s life had been saved by that stranger who had opened the door that the child couldn’t open.

“For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.”

Not only do angels guard us, they also guide us. One of the most famous examples was in the early life of Jesus. You may remember that after the wise men came to see Jesus Herod the King determined that he was going to have executed every male child under the age of two in the district where Jesus lived. So Joseph and Mary and Jesus became refugees, leaving Palestine and going to Africa and staying there throughout the rest of the life of Herod. But an angel came to Joseph and told him that he should relocate back to his homeland and that the purposes of God in the life of Jesus could then be fulfilled as God prepared Jesus for all he had for him to do. The story is told in Matthew 2:19-21:

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

Discovering God’s direction for our lives is exceptionally important. One of the ways God shows us where to go and what to do is through angels. God orders angels directly or indirectly to get to us the messages that we need so that we can have God’s direction in our lives. Usually those messages come through the Bible, but they may also come through dreams or circumstances. God will use whatever means are necessary to communicate his direction to us.

So what else do angels do? Well, they also encourage us . . . at least that’s what God did in the case of an Old Testament prophet named Gideon. Gideon lived at a time when the enemy of his nation was the Midianites. The Midianites were vicious in their attacks. They destroyed all the crops; they destroyed all the livestock; and they threatened to kill all the people. The people of the nation of Israel were absolutely frightened and so deeply discouraged that they were not likely to mount much of a defense against the invading armies.

The leader at the time was a man named Gideon. He, too, was discouraged, deeply discouraged, until an angel came to him. We’re told in Judges 6:12, “When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.’ ” You know, at that moment he didn’t think of himself as a mighty warrior; he thought of himself as a hopeless failure. But the encouragement that the angel gave and the message from God were sufficient for Gideon to rise up and to lead the nation of Israel to victory.

I understand that because I get discouraged, too. In fact, one of the items on my daily prayer list is for God to give me encouragement. You know that when you work with people, when you live with your own frailties, when you encounter people who deeply discourage you, sometimes it’s just hard. It’s hard to go to work; it’s hard to stay at home; it’s hard to go on with the next day. It’s hard to cope with the things that get us down. It isn’t that we don’t have a lot of things going for us. It’s just that we can’t muster up the spiritual power to deal with all that life throws our way. So God sends encouragement. He sends encouragement to us as he did to Gideon through angels and messages to keep us going.

When we’re really in trouble God uses angels to deliver us from disaster. That’s what happened with St. Peter. He was imprisoned and his life was at risk. In a sense, he was on death row in Jerusalem. But God had more for him to do. He intended for Peter to be one of the founders of the church and it wasn’t his time to die. So Got sent an angel into the prison. He took Peter’s shackles off and walked him past all the guards through locked doors in order to set him free. The story is told in Acts 12. In verse 7 it reads, “Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shown in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. ‘Quick, get up!’ he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.” So God delivered him from disaster.

God often delivers us, too. My guess is that many of us can actually recall stories where God has sent an angel or two to deliver us from present or potential disaster. But I am also sure that there are probably scores if not hundreds and thousands of times when God has done exactly the same thing, but we tend to focus on the difficult things not the multitude of times when we had the near-misses that we didn’t even know about where God delivered us from things that could have been far worse.

Well, last on the list for now is that angels strengthen us. Luke 22 recalls the eve of Jesus’ crucifixion when an angel from heaven appeared to Jesus and strengthened him. If you recall the story, Jesus was anticipating the trials and the crucifixion that were ahead in the next twenty-four hours. The weight of the physical threat and the spiritual trauma that he is going to go through were so overwhelming that Jesus was dying on the night before his crucifixion. If the angel of God hadn’t come and given him strength, he might never have made it to the cross.

Once again it could be that we need angelic strength because the demands on us are many. Sometimes people are hostile; we face situations that are difficult; we feel exhausted and we need help. And God knows that. God has committed to intervene and give to us the strength we need, and angels are significant messengers of the strength that God communicates to us.

Let’s do some quick Q&A of a few other questions. Question: If angels are so helpful, wouldn’t it be good to pray to angels and ask them to help us? The answer is an unquestioned “NO”! The Bible is absolutely clear that we should pray directly to God, not to angels, not to saints, not to anyone else. I Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” So if God has said, “Pray directly to me, don’t go through somebody else,” why would we want to offend God and take any other approach? It’s actually an affront to God to pray to angels or anyone else when he has told us to pray directly to him.

Question: Are all angels good or are there some angels who are bad? The answer is that there are plenty of both. Angels who are bad angels in the Bible are called demons, and angels who are good angels are called the messengers of God. The Bible explains that Satan is an angel. Satan is a demon and this is why it is so critically important that we understand what the Bible has to say and that we have our spiritual defenses up. The Bible explains that Satan will sometimes dress himself up as a good angel in order to deceive us. We see that in II Corinthians 11:14 where we read, “ . . . Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”

Question: With all this information, how am I then supposed to relate to angels? And the answer is: Like them, they’re very likable. Be grateful for them. But don’t focus on angels. Focus on God. It would be a misplaced focus to make angels central. No good angel ever seeks to be the center of attention or to receive the praise or the glory. God is always first for every good angel. Good angels honor God and help us.

If you receive a gift in the mail, something that you had hoped for and dreamed of, are you more pleased and excited about the giver or the messenger? If you get a fabulous love letter from your fiancé, normally you don’t kiss the mail carrier. If your parents give you a check that you desperately need, normally you don’t jump over the counter and hug the bank teller. And if you get a telephone call from your boss saying you just got a promotion and a raise, you don’t hold your cell phone in front of you and say, “Thank you, cell phone, I really appreciate that.” The focus is never on the messenger; the focus is on the one who sends the message.

Understand that angels are messengers of God, but in James 1:7 we are told, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” So, pray to God; trust God; love God; center God on God; and thank God for his grace to us.

Lord, we’re enormously thankful for angels and all the good they accomplish in our lives. They are one of many evidences of your blessing and generosity to us. So, Lord, we thank you, and we pray that the angels of God may touch our lives, that your messages may clearly come through and that your blessings will be great. And may we receive them with praise and gratitude to you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

That was the challenge faced by the Hebrew people after God redeemed them from four centuries of slavery in Egypt. Their journey had started when God miraculously parted the Red Sea so they could escape from Egypt. After three months of living in the desert they still felt like slaves. God instructed their leader Moses to tell the Hebrew people that they were to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation – God’s own people. Then God called Moses to the top of Mount Sinai where he was given a written list of commandments instructing the Hebrew people how to live. We call it the Ten Commandments. It calls for the highest ethics and it is the greatest moral code ever proposed to the human race.

There are two ways of looking at the Ten Commandments. You can see them as an impossible standard – a reminder of how far short we all fall of God’s expectations. Or, you can see them as possible with God’s help – recognizing that the God who can free from slavery will provide the moral and spiritual power to live by a superior standard.

The Ten Commandments were for the Hebrew people set free from the slavery of Egypt and they are for Christians today who have been set free from the slavery of sin through Jesus Christ.

My heart just ached listening to the stories. Approximately 2.1 million people have died in Sudan, most of them simply because of their Christian faith. Their own government shoots them from helicopter gun ships and withholds food supplies so they have starved to death by the hundreds of thousands.

In North Korea, the treatment of Christians is so abominable that many have tried to escape by crossing the border into China. But the North Korean government has made an arrangement with the Chinese government to have Chinese soldiers capture the escaping Christians. They put wires through their noses and pull them back across the border into North Korea to be sentenced to a minimum of seven years in concentration camps where many of them die.

The Bible tells of a coming judgment day when God will judge everyone, both the living and the dead. God isn’t going to let the persecutors get away with their evil. On that day those who have died because of their faith in Jesus Christ will be rewarded by God and the persecutors will be punished. Every one of us will be held accountable for what we have done.

The Old Testament prophet Micah first asked and then answered the question of what God wants us to do. He wrote, “What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

In the New Testament, the Apostle Peter addressed the same issue: “Since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. ”

Peter’s advice is, “As your clock of life ticks down, don’t live for evil human desires. Live to do the will of God!”

Jesus hates sin and what it does to people. He hates it even to the point he was willing to die to deal with it. Jesus saw sin for what it is – temporarily appealing but ultimately destructive. Sin saps our souls, hurts our bodies, destroys relationships, breaks up marriages and alienates us from God. It is the cause of untold suffering. But there’s a side to suffering that can be beneficial. Our suffering can actually help us overcome the sin because the more we suffer from its effects, the more we want nothing to do with the sin that is behind our suffering.

In the New Testament it says, “Since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.”

If we adopt Jesus’ attitude toward sin, even suffering can have a positive benefit. We can let our suffering turn us against sin.

Think of it this way. Let’s say that you were a rebellious teenager. You did everything contrary to your parents’ teaching and values. You stole money from them and would sneak out at night. Eventually you ran away and changed your name. But now recently they’ve reached out to you. They paid to reverse your name change. They set up a generous trust fund for you and invited you to move back home. Everything was going great until last night when you lapsed back into old habits. You stole twenty dollars from your dad’s wallet and at 2:00 this morning you climbed out your bedroom window and ran away from home—just like before. Oh, and did I mention that you are now 50 years old! That would be crazy!

But, you know, sometimes Christians are just that crazy. We finally get right with God by accepting Jesus as our Savior. Our sins are eternally forgiven and we are given a trust fund that includes a deed to heaven. Yet we start sneaking out on God and returning to old sinful patterns. And just like the middle-aged guy in our story reverted to being a rebellious teenager, we go back to the way we were before becoming a Christian. We whine, “I just can’t help it.” But that’s not true.

We all have a choice on what we believe and how we behave. Sin is the path of least resistance so choose wisely.

Part 3 of 5 on Sermons People Want to Hear

Most of life is about relationships. If relationships are good, almost all of life is good and happy. If a relationship turns sour that can contaminate just about everything else in life.

If you are walking through a park and see someone seated on a bench sobbing, your first thought is not that this person is in pain or that this person has just lost a lot of money from a bad investment. Probably your first thought is that some relationship has gone wrong, perhaps through a divorce or through death.

Relationships touch our lives in special and wonderful and difficult ways. As Christians we want to get those relationships right. We want to do relationships the way God wants them done. That’s why the Bible says so much about relationships, especially the most important relationships of life. The Bible includes examples of how people have done it right and how people have messed it up. So let’s look at what the Bible says about five of the most important relationships that we have.

The first and most important of these is the relationship between God and us. This relationship includes three essential ingredients: love, acceptance and love. God loves us; we respond positively and accept God’s love; we love God back again.

Probably the most familiar and most quoted verse in the entire Bible is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Unfortunately, this verse is so familiar that familiarity often breeds neglect. But what it says is astonishing. It says that God passionately and completely and irrevocably loves us. He loves us on those days when we think he doesn’t. He loves us completely at those times when we think he is distant. God is there for us every day, in every situation, and he loves us more than we could ever possibly love ourselves.

The question is: how do we respond to that astonishing love? John 1:12 tells us that “to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” In other words, we have to say “yes” to this love of God. And when we do, we become his daughters and his sons.

However, not everybody wants to be the son or daughter of God. Some people prefer to keep God at a distance. But for those who want this relationship with God, the way to get it is to accept the love of God through Jesus Christ, and then love God back again. Jesus said it well in Matthew 22:37: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” God loves us; we love God. He loves us so fully that he was willing to give his Son for us, and we love him so fully that we willingly give our hearts and souls and minds to him.

Ah, but some will say: I knew that; in fact, I did that. I even remember the time and the circumstance where that happened. But as weeks and months and years have passed the distance between us seems to grow larger and the relationship has become cold and dry. But I’d like to get back to where it used to be. I’d like it to be what it’s supposed to be right now.

The truth is that a relationship between God and us is developed with the same essential ingredients along the way that it began with: love, acceptance and love. We must be convinced that God loves us. Then we can bask in the power and the brightness of that love. We say ‘yes’ to that love and we love God back again.

The second of life’s most important relationships is the one between wives and husbands. Ephesians 5:21-33 says it well:

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Now if you’re a husband and what you just heard is that your wife is supposed to submit and respect you a whole lot better than she does, or if you are a wife and what you just heard is that your husband is supposed to do a much better job at loving you . . . you weren’t listening! We’re not supposed to be so much eavesdropping on the instructions to someone else as we are supposed to be listening to the instructions that God has given to us.

Unfortunately, this wonderful counsel from God is being ignored by a lot of people because our modern human defenses tend to rise over this “submitting” stuff. Within one generation Christians have gone from reading these words routinely in weddings and including these concepts in marriage vows to the virtual exclusion of this concept from almost all marriage vows. The issue is that we’re not going to vow to submit to or obey someone else.

That raises some serious issues on what advice from God means and whether it is for all cultures and times or whether we can accept and reject on a personal basis what God has to say. So here are some points that I think can help us understand this.

Understand that the clear teaching of the Bible is that husbands and wives are both supposed to love each other, but husbands need to give extra-special attention to the way they love their wives. The Bible also clearly teaches that wives and husbands are both supposed to submit to each other, but wives need to give extra attention to the way they submit to their husbands. The point here is never that husbands are supposed to demand submission and respect or that wives are supposed to demand that their husbands be better lovers. We must listen to the advice that God has for us.

We also need to understand that this teaching is for everyday life. It is not a remedy for those difficult times when a relationship has reached meltdown and needs severe and serious intervention. I suppose you could compare it to going to the physician and saying, “I want to be a healthy person and I especially want to have a healthy heart.” And the doctor says, “Okay, then there are three things I want you to do: eat a low-fat diet, take an aspirin every day and exercise regularly.”

But you totally ignore that advice and ten years later you have this feeling like a large animal is sitting on your chest and pains are going down your left arm. Someone dials 9-1-1 and you are rushed to the emergency room of the local hospital. There a team of physicians and nurses surrounds you and tries to save your life. And the cardiologist says, “There are three things that I’d like you to do. I have a salad and an aspirin here that I’d like you to eat. Then run around the hospital twelve times and I’m sure you’ll feel a lot better.” It’s kind of late for that advice. You should have been doing that for a long time on a daily basis. Now it takes something far more dramatic if, in fact, your life can be saved.

What we’re talking about here is routine daily practice to preserve the relationship between a husband and wife in order to avoid the disaster that might come later. It is not suggesting that when that relationship has reached a meltdown this kind of advice is going to become a sudden and instant cure. Instead, every day we must love each other, submit to each other and respect each other in order to grow a strong marriage relationship. But husbands especially, love your wives; and wives especially, submit to and respect your husbands.

Third on this list of life’s five most important relationships is the relationship between children and parents. By the way, that is one of the most durable relationships of life. It begins at birth and extends for a lifetime. If a child dies or a parent dies, in many ways that relationship continues to significantly impact the life of the person who survives the death of the other.

Ephesians 6:1-4 says:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—“that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

God tells us all of us as children to honor our parents, to treat them with respect to their faces and to build them up rather than tear them down when they’re not around. We are to be good and kind and gracious toward our parents.

Some parents wonderfully deserve that kind of respect. They are the best you could ever dream for them to be. Therefore, that kind of respect comes pretty easily. Then there are other parents who rarely warrant much if any respect or honor. To show them honor is an extremely difficult thing to do.

There’s a theme that runs through all the Bible’s teachings about relationships and that is that the way we behave is not dependent upon the other person. Whether someone treats us well or treats us poorly, we are to respond in a way that is most representative of the way God treats us. Therefore, no matter what, we should treat parents with honor and respect.

For young children that is especially the case in terms of obedience. But even if we are adults and our parents are old, the principle of relationship is the same. We are to do the best we can in terms of honor and respect. If our parents are dead we are to show honor and respect toward them and their memories.

God tells parents, especially fathers, not to exasperate their children. Frankly, some parents—and some fathers in particular—are good at exasperating their children. They’re too demanding. They’re too controlling. They’re manipulative. And, tragically, they don’t offer very much encouragement. We need to understand that a word of praise from a father is one of the greatest blessings that someone can receive in a lifetime. It is enormously powerful.

Benjamin West was an American-born artist in the 1700 and 1800s. He was born in the United States, although he moved to Europe and become quite famous, especially in England. He became the artist of history, appointed by King George III, and was the co-founder of the Royal Academy of Arts and the second president of the Royal Academy of Arts.

When he was a young boy, one day his mother left him at home in charge of his little sister. As children often do when they are without adult supervision, he started exploring. He opened the desk drawers and there found bottles of colored permanent ink. He took them out, found some paper and decided he was going to paint a portrait of his baby sister, Sally. In the process, he splattered the permanent ink over the furniture and carpet and made a colossal mess.

When his mother came home and saw the mess she had to make a parental decision. She picked up the paper on which young Benjamin had been drawing and she said, “Why, it’s Sally!” Then she bent over and kissed her young son. For the rest of his life, Benjamin West said, “My mother’s kiss made me an artist.”

She got it. She understood the power of encouragement rather than exasperating. That’s not to say that parents should condone what is wrong. It’s not saying there should be no discipline. But it is saying that a right parent/child relationship needs to be guided by God. That no matter how old you are, children, honor your parents; and parents, encourage your children.

Fourth on this list of life’s most important relationships is the relationship between employees and employers. In the first century in the Roman Empire that was mostly a relationship between masters and slaves.

Please understand that the Bible does not promote slavery. Never! However, it does recognize that slavery was a tragic part of that and other cultures. What the Bible often does under such circumstances is to give instruction and advice on how we are to live even in situations that should not be. So it is in that context that I come to the conclusion that if this will work in slavery, it will certainly work in North America in employee/employer relationships.

Ephesians 6:5-9 says:

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he’s a slave or free.

And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

In other words, God doesn’t recognize human slavery and he makes no distinction between a slave and a master.

When we translate this for today it says that when you go to work, do what your boss says. Do a terrific job. Be a good employee whether the boss is looking or not, whether the boss ever finds out or not. Have a good attitude in your heart. Even if the boss is like a slave master, you still have a good attitude. And the way to do that is to go to work every day and think, “I’m really working for Jesus Christ. He’s my real boss. I’m doing this for him.”

Sometimes it’s hard to show respect to a boss who doesn’t warrant respect. When the Minnesota North Stars hockey team was moved from Minnesota to Dallas, Charleen and I attended the last North Stars game at the old Met Center. It was a chapter in Minnesota sports history when there was a less than positive attitude toward the owner of the North Stars. In fact, there was a chant that used his name with a very derogatory word attached to it. Throughout that last North Stars game thousands of people continuously shouted this derogatory chant.

At that time there were a number of North Stars families who were Wooddalers and they didn’t want to move to Dallas. Their roots were here; their relationships were here. But they didn’t have any say because the owner of the team just decided and did it. The wife of one of the North Stars was driving her car filled with her children and their friends when they broke out into this chant, saying his name and this derogatory description. She turned to them and asked them to be quiet. She said that the person whose name they were speaking is the employer of her husband and the employer of the children’s father and that in that car and in that family his name would always be spoken with honor and with respect. She got it right! Even slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.

But maybe you’re the boss and you’re a Christian. Then treat your employees well. Do not threaten them since you know that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and there is no favoritism with him. Don’t ever think that you’re better than somebody else because you’re the boss. That’s simply not true. Remember that God is the ultimate boss and always treat those who work for you with respect, even if they don’t deserve it.

Now there’s something I think needs to be interjected here. Maybe you know this and maybe I don’t need to say it, but I’m afraid that somebody might not get it. What if your boss asks you to do something that’s illegal or immoral or something that obviously a Christian should never do? Are you supposed to do it just because you know you should do what your boss tells you to do? Well, of course not!

The same goes for parents and children and husbands and wives. None of this is license for someone to demand of us something illegal or immoral or totally inappropriate. Yet, we still treat other people with respect even when they don’t deserve that respect. We bend over as far as we can in order to comply with their expectations. We do our very best. We are willing to go the distance in order to do what is right to make a relationship good.

Last in our list of life’s most important relationships is between citizens and government. If you’ve heard all that has gone before you probably don’t need to hear what is said in Romans because it’s consistent in all these relationships. Don’t worry about what the other person does; treat others the way God has treated you. Do what is right! Romans 13:1-7 says:

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment, but also because of conscience.

This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

These words were written to people in the first century Roman Empire who were under a government where women had no rights, where infanticide was legal, where every day babies were routinely left outside to die, especially female babies. It was a government that condoned and enforced slavery. Sometimes slaves were treated horribly. This was a government were divorce became so rampant that marriage, as an institution, virtually disappeared in many parts of the empire during the first and second centuries. And taxes were often excessive and unjust. And this is the advice on how to live under those circumstances?

Is this saying that we are supposed to condone the Hitlers and the Stalins of history? Of course not! Yet Christians are encouraged to give to the government and to politicians the benefit of the doubt, to give respect and honor and payment of taxes. Christians are not those who bad-mouth the government and politicians. We are the best citizens that we can possibly be.

And if we as Christians are part of the government—routine today, but a rarity in the first century—we need to listen up because God is saying that we are his agents to accomplish what is good and right in our country and within society.

God and us; wives and husbands; children and parents; employees and employers; citizens and government: now we know what God wants us to do. But we still have questions. How does this fit with my situation? Where do I start? We start by doing what God asks us to do. And after that he will explain to us what to do next.

But what if we don’t know where he wants us to start? How are we going to get to the next place we need to be? God wants us to have the best possible relationships, so we begin with what we know God is asking us to do in order to have the relationships that God calls us to have.

Father, I pray that you will bless us in all of our relationships. Be our teacher, our strength and our helper. I pray especially for those who are in difficult relationships, who are facing the hardest of times. I pray that you will give to them your extraordinary grace. And may we be totally Christian in all the relationships we have. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Unmarried partners living together are four times more likely to cheat on one another than if they are married. Secular researchers without any Christian agenda are now saying that couples who live together before marriage are more likely to divorce. The risks are so high that USA Today quotes researcher Scott Stanley as saying, “If you want someone to marry, choose someone who won’t live with you.”
One of the most interesting of quotes is from Dr. Nancy Moore Clagworthy. She started her research convinced that living together is a good thing and sought scientific documentation for her conviction. After ten years of studying cohabiting couples, she concluded that living together without marriage is “one of the worst things that can happen to anybody.”

God’s way, two people joined by the commitment of marriage, is still the best way.

God places great value on the sexual connection between men and women. He created our bodies and souls to work together and his design was to preserve this connection of body and soul within the relationship of marriage. When we use sex casually in ways for which it was not designed, we are sinning, first of all, against God but we are also hurting ourselves. The Bible says, Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. God knew that a gift as valuable and powerful as the soul-connection of sex needs protection so that it can fulfill its God-given purpose. The fence he built to protect that union is high – the permanent and exclusive relationship of commitment called marriage. Both spiritual connection and sexual connection will flourish within its sheltering walls.

Sexuality is a gift from God designed to connect the bodies and souls of men and women united in marriage. The Bible says, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” You see, God placed within us a strong desire for sexual union. It’s his way of populating our world, but it’s far more than that. It’s to be an expression of the connection of the souls of two different people – two becoming one – the ultimate connectedness.

It’s a tragic mistake to separate the physical from the spiritual with casual sex. Sexual union is all about fulfilling our created need to connect our soul to another person.

Let me explain it this way. For some people, their favorite part of a meal is the whipped cream on the dessert. It looks good, tastes good and is good, but a diet of only whipped cream would be an inadequate way to meet basic human nutritional needs. It’s the same with sex. It looks good, feels good and is good, but is ultimately unsatisfying if it’s not meeting the greater human need for soul connection. Make sure you’re not settling for second best.

The apostle Peter taught that Jesus would return someday to take his followers to heaven and give them a “crown of glory that would never fade away.” Peter was using first century terminology when he pictured a crowning ceremony for faithful Christians. Today we might think of it as receiving a Congressional Medal of Honor, a Nobel Prize or an honorary doctorate. Whatever you call it, the point is that Jesus will someday preside over an award ceremony to honor those who have honored him.

At that awesome moment, the experiences of this life will be seen from a different perspective. Our worst days will be distant memories and what we thought of as the best of the best will be nothing compared to what we will experience in the presence of God. If you are trusting in Jesus Christ as your Savior, the best is truly yet to come!

When leading others, don’t arrogantly assume that you know what others should do. Telling people what to do is demeaning. It doesn’t teach them how to handle life but keeps them dependent on the leader. A far better approach is to lead by example. Share your life with others and show them how to live as a Christian in every circumstance. Instead of being ashamed of poverty or proud of wealth, show others how to live Christianly whatever your situation. Demonstrate how a Christian deals with pain and with pleasure, with good children and with prodigal children, with a good job and with a bad job. In other words, be an example to the flock.

Every one of us is surrounded by other sheep trying to figure out how to live life successfully. Our opportunity is to be an example to “those entrusted to [us].”

Part 2 of 5 on Sermons People Want to Hear

You are a Christian. You have committed your life to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. It is your heart’s desire to do what is good and right in your life. But it’s hard.

It’s hard when your child is the victim of a schoolyard bully and the teacher doesn’t seem to understand and the principal isn’t sympathetic. It’s hard when your neighbor’s yard is a disaster and your house is up for sale. Weeds are growing, the paint is peeling and the stereo is loud twenty-four hours a day. When you talk to your neighbor about it he laughs and makes an obscene gesture.

It’s hard when your rich brother gives you advice on an investment that turns terribly sour. You lose just about all your savings and he doesn't seem to care. To him it isn’t that big a deal. It’s hard when your boss is incompetent and you get blamed for things that you didn’t do and for which you are not responsible.

It’s hard when your father has molested you and when you tell your mother she calls you a liar. It’s hard when your church abandons you when you’ve been loyal to the congregation for years. They don’t much care. You don’t seem to matter. And the list goes on because we live in a bad world that is filled with injustice and discrimination, with violence and evil and pain.

We sometimes feel like giving up or giving in because we don’t think we’re going to win anyway. We try to live right but we come to the point where we just don’t know how. We become terribly discouraged. Perhaps that is why, in a survey asking what sermons people want to hear, so many people listed either specific or general situations of harsh circumstances wondering how we, as Christians, can live a good life when we are surrounded by evil.

The Bible is filled with stories that are as vivid as the front page of today’s newspaper and are as harsh as anyone could ever experience. Some people responded in bad ways while others responded wonderfully. Specifically there is advice that comes from the lips of Jesus in the New Testament that rises to the top as the lead advice for good living in a bad world.

Advice Number One is to please God first. II Corinthians 5:9 says, “ . . . (we) make it our goal to please (God).” Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:33, “ . . . seek first (God’s) kingdom and his righteousness. . . .” In other words, pleasing God is a decision. It becomes a mindset for everything that we do and everything that we think.

Perhaps the power of this principle is best understood when contrasted with other alternatives to top priorities in our lives. If, for example, I put money before God then profit is my greatest goal. Every week, every month and at the end of every year I need to be farther ahead financially than I was in the beginning of that time period. And I’ll do whatever I need to do to be financially further ahead.

But the Bible says that while that is a common priority, it’s a bad priority. Hebrews 13:5 says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have.” In I Timothy 6:10 we read, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” So we understand that some people have money as Number One and others have God as Number One.

If I put pride first then I’m most concerned about my own reputation. I want to win the favor of others and will do anything to advance my cause. If I put career first I’ll step on other people in order to get ahead in my chosen profession. But by contrast, if I put God first the constant question in every situation is: What would make God happy?

Pleasing God first may result in different answers for different people. The issue is what will please God in a given situation. As Christians, we need to take a long hard look into our hearts and into God’s Word and ask what God wants us to do. Jesus tells us in the Bible that when we do this there will be two results. One: God will meet our needs; and two: we will not have to worry about tomorrow. So, please God first!

Advice Number Two is to think good stuff. Philippians 4:8 says, “ . . . whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” In other words, what we think about is a significant factor in how we deal with the evil that is in our world.

I heard a story about a man who worried about bad things all the time. One day he was sitting at his desk and he worried and worried and worried until he passed out. He slumped to the floor with a loud crash. People came rushing into his office thinking that he had suffered a heart attack only to discover that he was so worried that it had rendered him unconsciousness.

Some of us may argue that we can’t control what we think. But that’s obviously not true because the Bible is telling us that we should think about good things.

Most of the time I fall asleep very quickly and easily. Usually I’m sound asleep in two or three minutes. Actually, I can go to sleep almost anywhere, anytime, under any circumstances. Here, I’ll show you! But once in a while, sleep just doesn’t come. I lie there watching the numbers pass on our digital clock. And I think.

Sometimes I think about bad things. I think about something that someone said. I imagine that they’re going to act negatively toward me. And like an upside down pyramid, these negative thoughts keep getting bigger and bigger. It doesn’t help me get to sleep!

So I stop, and I realize what I’m doing. Then I think about other things and I choose a different direction. I think about something good: “ . . . whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” It’s a formula for good living in a bad world.

Very different but equally important advice comes from Romans 12:9 where it says, “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” As Christians we need to be careful that we never condone what is wrong. And most of us—most of the time—know what is wrong. Lying is wrong. Stealing is wrong. Murder is wrong. Adultery is wrong. Idolatry is wrong. Sexual harassment is wrong. Racial discrimination is wrong. Injustice to the poor is wrong. The trouble is we live in a culture that gives very high value to tolerance. The attitude is to let people do their own thing. Nothing is wrong as long as it doesn’t hurt somebody else. And sometimes we even go so far as to say that even if it does hurt somebody else it is still not wrong.

By contrast, previous generations said abortion was wrong or pornography or sexual relations outside of marriage. Today’s generation says that’s a matter of choice and personal preference. Having a tolerant attitude means we keep quiet and look the other way. We shut up and mind our own business. But the Bible says that we should hate what is evil and we should not condone anything that is wrong.

Let us also understand that while we cannot and should not condone sin, we do have to pick our battles. When Jesus was here on earth he was surrounded by thousands of people who did all kinds of things that were wrong, but he could not possibly confront all of them. He had to pick the ones he would confront.

There’s a difference between not condoning and confronting. We need to be careful not to become so condemning of other people’s sins and so confrontational that we become self-righteous nitpickers. We must be careful not to lift ourselves up as better than everyone else.

In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:3-5 Jesus asked:

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

In other words, we shouldn’t be so condemning toward others that we forget about our own sinfulness. Clearly, don’t condone sin, but also don’t become totally focused and confrontational on the sins of others.

Advice Number Four is that we must believe that God is greater than evil. This is really important, but it takes a lot of faith to believe and follow this advice. The Bible teaches that there is this horrendous war going on between Satan and God, between evil and good. At times the layers are peeled back and we get a glimpse of the horrors of this great spiritual war. It shows up in things like the atrocities in Auschwitz or the slaughter of a half million people in Rwanda, the tragedy of the AIDS epidemic or the events of September 11.

But more often we see the battle between good and evil in things like road rage or rape or marriages ending in unnecessary divorce or dishonest business deals or political rivalries or sick and dying children, children who have done nothing wrong.

But the Bible has some very good news. In I John 4:4 we are told that the Holy Spirit, who is inside of every Christian, is greater than the enemy, Satan, who is in the world. So when we are tired and beaten and discouraged we need to remember that God is going to have the ultimate victory. When it seems that the worst of evil is going to triumph we must believe from the bottom of our hearts that the Holy Spirit of God who is in us is greater than any evil enemy that is in the world.

All of this leads to a fifth and final piece of advice from the New Testament and from the lips of Jesus. It is that we treat other people well in the midst of whatever circumstance and situation we face for it is our treatment of others that especially distinguishes us as Christians. When we love our enemies, when we are kind to those who are unkind, when we forgive those who intentionally harm us and don’t even want to be forgiven we show that we are really more like God than we are like those who do what is wrong.

The counsel of Jesus in Matthews 7:12, “do to others what you would have them do to you”, has been dubbed The Golden Rule. As Christians, we treat others on the basis of the way we want to be treated and on the basis of the way God treats us not on the basis of the way they treat us. At least we try!

I try to do this. And I find that it can be wonderfully productive, although not guaranteed. When people criticize me I try not to criticize them back. When somebody writes something that is unkind, I try to respond with a call or a letter that is loving and gracious. When we go to a restaurant and the server treats us badly, as a Christian I try to be unusually generous to that person because our generosity is based not upon that person’s behavior but on how I would like to be treated and how God has treated me.

Except, you say, some people are just impossible to get along with. When I treat them well, they treat me poorly. Sometimes I treat people with kindness and they interpret the kindness in some negative way. What are we supposed to do in those situations?

God tells us in Hebrews 12:14, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy.” What if it doesn’t work? In a parallel teaching in Romans 12:17-18 we are told, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” So, as Christians, we do everything we possibly can to live at peace, regardless of what the other person says or does.

If the other person wants a lawsuit, make every effort to avoid it and to settle another way. If the other person wants a divorce, do everything you can to reconcile the marriage. If the other person wants to fight, do everything you can to avoid a fight and to live at peace. It is the Christian principle to do what is right no matter what the other person does. Be like Jesus!

Some months ago a single engine aircraft was flying at a surprisingly high altitude as it crossed the border into Peru along the Amazon River. A reconnaissance plane, owned and operated by the American Central Intelligence Agency, spotted the aircraft and reported it to the Peruvian Air Force. Fighter jets scrambled and, for whatever reason, didn’t check the numbers and identify the aircraft to find out who was in it. They failed to find the filed flight plan for that plane. They were on a different frequency and didn’t hear the radio contact between the pilot and the control tower. They attacked and riddled that aircraft with bullets. They shot the pilot in both legs, disabling him significantly. One of the bullets went through a young mother named Veronica Bowers, instantly killing her and continuing through her body into the head of her seven-month old daughter, killing her as well. The plane, still under attack, went into a steep descent and crash landed in the Amazon River where the pilot of the fighter jet continued to riddle the plane with bullets. He finally left.

Those who were in the place awaited rescue. There was the pilot who was bleeding profusely and a young father trying to console his eight-year old son while holding the body of his wife and baby daughter. After about forty-five minutes a dugout canoe with an outboard motor came to their aid. They weren’t drug runners. They were Christian missionaries.

The funeral service for Veronica Bowers and her baby was held in Muskegon, Michigan. Her husband, Jim Bowers, spoke at that funeral. He said that he spoke for both himself and his wife Ronnie when he declared his love and forgiveness for that jet fighter pilot and the crew.

These missionaries hadn’t done anything wrong. They were wounded and killed in a war between good and evil. They were casualties in a battle where all kinds of things went terribly wrong in a bad world. But they were Christians, and as Christians they believed in God and were committed to Jesus Christ and that led them to good living in a bad world.

We all have our situations. We had our situations last week, and we’re going to have different situations next week. Some of us have been dealing with the great difficulties of harsh situations that have lasted for years and year and years. Who’s been trying to shoot you down? Where are you in the midst of this conflict? What is going terribly wrong? Whatever it may be, remember to please God first and think good stuff. In the midst of whatever your situation, please do not condone what is wrong but believe that God is greater than any evil that you’re up against. And through it all, trust God to enable you to treat others well.

Our God, I pray especially for those who are in a ferocious battle, who are discouraged, downtrodden, wondering whether they should give up or give in. Give your special grace and your special strength to live Christianly. Help them toward good living in a bad world. Assure them of the Holy Spirit inside who is greater than he who is in the world. Give to them strength and victory through Jesus Christ. Amen.

The people of the church wanted to break the cycle so they set up prayer patrols. They drove around the neighborhood praying for the people in the gangs. They parked across the street from the corner and prayed. Then they got out, walked over and said, “We’re the prayer patrol. How ‘ya doin? Is there anything we can pray about with you? Baby sick? Got a brother in jail? You got something we can ask God to do for you?” And then they took the risk of laying their hands on the shoulders of these gang members and praying for them.

And you know what they discovered? The gang members got to know them and to respect them. The neighborhood has been transformed. People change – because prayer works.

If you really want to have a fantastic prayer experience, tell someone else that you’re praying for them. It might be a coworker, or a neighbor, or a missionary. Tell them, “I’ve prayed for you every day since you had your surgery,” or, “You’ve been in my prayers ever since you lost your job.” The amazing thing about prayer is that it not only benefits the person being prayed for, it benefits the person doing the praying!

The people of the church wanted to break the cycle so they set up prayer patrols. They drove around the neighborhood praying for the people in the gangs. They parked across the street from the corner and prayed. Then they got out, walked over and said, “We’re the prayer patrol. How ‘ya doin? Is there anything we can pray about with you? Baby sick? Got a brother in jail? You got something we can ask God to do for you?” And then they took the risk of laying their hands on the shoulders of these gang members and praying for them.

And you know what they discovered? The gang members got to know them and to respect them. The neighborhood has been transformed. People change – because prayer works.

If you really want to have a fantastic prayer experience, tell someone else that you’re praying for them. It might be a coworker, or a neighbor, or a missionary. Tell them, “I’ve prayed for you every day since you had your surgery,” or, “You’ve been in my prayers ever since you lost your job.” The amazing thing about prayer is that it not only benefits the person being prayed for, it benefits the person doing the praying!

One of the ways I love to use my money is by giving it away to make a difference. I love to give money to people in need and I love giving money to the cause of Jesus Christ. I started giving money to spread the Good News of Jesus while I was in college. I didn’t have much to give, but it felt great and it was fun! The Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver and I love being a cheerful giver.

Seeing the results is a great joy. When I see lives changed through the church, when I hear missionaries report about their work, when I know that poor people are helped, it makes me feel great to know that I had a part. It’s the best investment I can make.

And you know – I’ve never regretted giving. I’ve regretted purchases I’ve made. I’ve regretted money I wasted. But I’ve never regretted giving. I’ll admit there have been times when I thought I would because I feared not having enough money for my expenses, but that’s never happened. In fact, the more sacrificial the gift, the more I’ve grown in my faith. Everything we have is a gift from God and he wants us to hold those gifts in an open hand.

And what’s true of Christians as a group should be true of us individually as well. At the end of our lives, we want to be able to say that it mattered that we were here. We want to have made a difference in the name of Jesus Christ. No one wants to finish life poorly. We don’t want the measure of our lives to be the money we earned, the education we received or the possessions we accumulated. We want to make a real difference.

One of the best ways to get started is by simply looking for opportunities. You know those bumper stickers that say, “Start seeing motorcycles”? The point is that there are motorcycles whether you see them or not. Just open your eyes and look around and you’ll see lots of things that you would otherwise miss.

I challenge you to try it for a week. Look for ways you can reach out and make a difference in the lives of other people. God will give you lots of ideas – and they will be ideas that fit who you are and what you can do.

In the first century the Apostle Peter wrote instructions to the followers of Jesus to teach them how to live as Christians in difficult times – times that included tyrannical rulers and widespread acceptance of slavery. Peter explained that all Christian citizens should submit to government authority and all Christian slaves should submit to their masters. Peter was convinced that, with God’s help, submission was a powerful tool to transform the lives and behavior of others. He was not promoting passive submission but an active submission that does good – somewhat similar to the nonviolent approach of Gandhi in India and Martin Luther King, Jr. in America.

Peter goes on to tell Christian wives that the same kind of submissive behavior that transforms governments and work places can transform homes and marriages. He says that husbands who do not believe the word of God may be persuaded to believe without a spoken word – just by the behavior of their Christian wives.

This shows an enormous faith in the power of Christian behavior. It assumes that simply by acting Christianly, God can use our lives to persuade unbelievers to become Christians. The principle is bigger than wives, husbands and marriages. How we live can and will transform the lives of other people – for Godly behavior changes others.

Part 1 of 5 on Sermons People Want to Hear

Each of us will one day face death. Maybe that’s one reason that the topic After Death Experiences is among the top subjects chosen in a survey of Sermons People Want to Hear.

Thousands of people die every day. Just turn on the television, listen to the radio, read the newspaper. Except for maybe the very youngest among us, every one of us knows someone who has died, so every one of our lives has been touched by death.

For some, death comes quickly with the shot of a gun or a car crash. For others death may follow a long, painful illness. For some, it is when young. For some, it is when old. But the truth is that every single one of us has thought about this. We wonder when we’re going to die. We wondered how we’re going to die. What will it be like? Maybe we’ve also wondered about what’s next. What happens a minute or two after we die? What will that be like? Will we experience heaven or hell? Will it be eternal bliss or maybe nothing at all?

What happens when we die has to be one of the more important subjects of life because if we get this one right then all the rest of life can fall into place behind it. But if we get this one wrong, then we have made a tragic eternal mistake. What happens when we die is at the center core of Christianity, for the Bible and Christians have long taught that Christians die differently, that we die with an assurance and a hope that is not available to others. But let’s talk first of all about death itself, that great transition.

II Corinthians 12:9 presents one of the most wonderful promises of the entire Bible when it quotes Jesus as saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Grace is a synonym for the word gift. So what we have here is the assurance that no matter what we ever face in life, God will provide gift resources for us to deal with it. It could be the best of times; it could be the worst of times. It could be the things that we have dreamed of; it could be the things that we have dreaded most of all. No matter what it is that we face in life, God is there for his children and God provides. He gives to us the customized gifts that we need in order to deal with life. Interestingly, the darker the circumstance, the brighter the grace of God shows. He says that in our weakness his grace is most apparent; it is sufficient. And there’s no time when we are weaker than when we are dying.
The moment before death is a great equalizer. It doesn’t matter how old we are or how young we are or how healthy we have been. It doesn’t make any difference if we are rich or poor, if we are people of fame and influence or if we are people that no one has ever heard of. When the physician looks us in the eye and says, “I’m sorry, but there’s just nothing more that we can do,” it doesn’t matter how much money is in the bank or who can be called. Then we face our moment of greatest weakness.

Millions of Christians over thousands of years have experienced dying grace. That is the special loving, caring, powerful, helpful strength that God gives to a believer when going through this great transition of death. Dying grace is different for every Christian. God customizes it for every one of us. So you can’t look at somebody else and see God’s dying grace in that person’s situation and then anticipate that that is the way it will be for you because it will not be.

Nor do we need that grace now. We may be troubled and anxious as we anticipate death but grace does not come until it is actually needed. Our faith is not in what will happen; our faith is in God. We’re convinced that God will be there for us and will give to us whatever we need for that moment of death. It is wonderful grace.

Death is the separation of the body and the soul. Since God created both our bodies and our souls, he knows better than anyone else what that is like and what we will need. Without God’s dying grace, death ought to be feared. It ought to be dreaded. But with God’s dying grace, we are assured that he will carry us through the great transition.

There are many, many examples. One of the most interesting is the biography of Stephen in the New Testament book of Acts chapters 6 and 7. Stephen is there described as a man full of God’s grace and power. He powerfully and significantly communicated the gospel of Jesus. The result was that a mob formed that was determined to kill him, and the form of death they chose was by stoning.

When you start thinking about different ways of dying, stoning has to be among the absolute worst. A person is trapped in a circle of people who won’t let him get away. There’s deep antagonism and animosity, even hatred. They pick up the largest stones they can hurl and throw them at the victim resulting in lacerations, bruises and broken bones. The person tries to fight off the rocks, but it’s impossible because they are coming from every direction. But it doesn’t make any difference because before long the person falls to the ground and, if the blows of the rocks don’t kill, the crushing of the pile of rocks soon will.

We’re told that when Stephen was dying God gave him special grace. In his case, the grace was a picture of heaven where he saw Jesus Christ standing next to God the Father welcoming him to heaven. So when Stephen died, the focus of his attention was not on the horrors that were surrounding him on earth but on the anticipation of what was next going to be his in heaven. God gave him dying grace, but not the same as he’ll give to you or to me or to others. It was customized specially for Stephen.

Much closer, but very different, was my own recent encounter with dying grace. Not too long ago, Charleen and I were packed to go on a three-week trip to India. The trip had been scheduled two years in advance, but shortly before the Sunday that we were scheduled to leave we received a telephone call that her mother was hospitalized in New Jersey, apparently with pneumonia.

Charleen had just been there a few days before and had a wonderful time with her mother. They had gone sightseeing; they had eaten in restaurants; they had played games; they had reminisced. But now she was sick and we didn’t know if we should take the trip. So we prayed for God’s wisdom.

On that Sunday morning, at the last minute, the decision was made to go to Newark instead of to New Delhi. We unpacked the suitcases and repacked them for a different destination. When we arrived in New Jersey we went directly from the airport to the hospital. Her mother seemed fine. She was coherent. She was interactive. She was engaged in the treatment that she was receiving. That was Sunday night. By Tuesday she was diagnosed with leukemia and in less than 72 hours she died.

During those final days, her family gathered from near and far and engaged in an around-the-clock vigil, praying with her, talking with her, holding her hand, providing family support during what turned out to be the final hours of her life. During the last hours of her life, her children and grandchildren sang Christian hymns for five consecutive hours. The last hymn that was sung was the hymn Blessed Assurance. When the last words of the last verse were finished, the line went flat and she died.

What do you call all of that? The week had been set aside two years in advance. The decision to alter the trip was made without adequate information. The family gathered from around the country and united in the singing of hymns and the praying of prayers at the end of a long and godly life. What do you call that? Do you call it “good luck; it ended pretty well”? Do you call it “wonderful circumstances; isn’t that great?” No, I think you call that dying grace. God gave special grace for that special time.

She died at 3:15 on Friday morning. So what did she experience at 3:16 on Friday morning? The Bible teaches that the best comes next, that life after death for the Christian is even better – in fact is always better – than life before.

Perhaps you remember the conversation that Jesus had with the man on the next cross during the crucifixion. He said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” When this man died, one minute he was in the agony of crucifixion and the next minute he was in paradise with God in the presence of Jesus Christ. That is absolutely astonishing, and certainly far better than anything he could ever have experienced in all of his life up to that date. After is better than before!

But if that’s true, then why don’t we all just want to die? Why do we hold on to life so tenaciously? Why do we treasure every breath? Some of the answers to those questions are in II Corinthians chapter 5. I would encourage you to read this chapter for yourself. There you will discover that God designed us to live in these bodies that he gave us. God created us to be this way. That’s why we want to live. That’s why we hold on to life. And that’s good. That’s right. It’s the way God intended for us to be.

But at the same time, we look forward to heaven because this life is hard and because heaven is better. God has designed us and wired us that way, too. So we hold on to life, but we anticipate the next life. We’re caught in a tension, a tension that God designed for us to have.

In the meantime, God gives to us the Holy Spirit, who is God himself, who then resides inside us and gives us the power for living. But more than that, God gives to us a deposit, a down payment, a preview of what heaven will be like in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our job is not to choose how and when we’re going to die; our job is to live now the way we anticipate that we are to live then and that is by pleasing God.

So we leave to God the decision of when this great transition will take place. We’re convinced that God wants us to live but also that God has something better for us and that our goal in the meantime is to please him. II Corinthians 5 says, “So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.”

Here’s what to expect. God will give to us grace for dying. When we die God will instantly welcome us into his heaven, a paradise better than anything we have ever experienced on earth. When we get to heaven, we will love it. We will be right at home; we will not need to adapt. We don’t have to worry about a thing. It will be an instant fit because that’s the way God designed everything to be.

If this were a classroom, hands would pop up all over because there are a lot of questions that still need to be answered. Like, when we get to heaven will we recognize people we knew on earth? Every indication from the Bible is that we will. Not only will we recognize people that we knew on earth, we will recognize characters from the Bible and others that we didn’t know on earth. But be careful here because what makes heaven heaven is not our friends and family that we will be reunited with, nor is it the beauty of heaven or the absence of sin or pain or death. What makes heaven heaven is God! He’s the big attraction. He is what heaven is all about.

When we get to heaven will we know what’s going on back on earth? Will there be HNN or something like that so we can keep up on everything that’s happening here? There are some hints in the Bible that we may have some partial information, but probably not much. There are no promises about information from earth. We should not think that heaven is mostly about earth because it’s not. Earth may be most about heaven and looking forward but heaven is the destination, it’s not about looking back.

Will there be sickness or pain or death in heaven? Absolutely not! Will we understand then and there what we don’t understand now? Indeed, we will. In I Corinthians 13:12 we read, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” In other words, in heaven things that don’t make sense to us now, that seem contradictory or inappropriate, will hang together. Then we will have an understanding that we don’t have now.

What about coming back to earth? Do we die and come back as somebody or something else? Do we get recycled and then die and live and die and live all over again? This is called reincarnation and on that the Bible is quite clear. In Hebrews 9:27 we’re told, “ . . . we are destined to die once.” We have one life and then we have eternity.

Ah, but where will we live and what are we going to eat and drink in heaven? Do we eat and drink in heaven? And if so, what’s on the menu? Will we have pets? What language will we speak in heaven? I need to study up so that I’ll be quick to understand everything that’s being said. The answer to this and ten thousand other questions is this: “We don’t know; there’s no way for us to know.” God has chosen not to tell us either because he doesn’t want us to know or because we wouldn’t understand. What we need to do is trust him. True, it’s fun to guess about some of these things. But we need to be cautious that we don’t put words into God’s mouth that God never intended to be there.

We need to focus upon what we do know. And what we do know is that when we die we’ll go to heaven, but also that our situation will be temporary. Temporary, you say? Isn’t that sort of a new twist? Not at all! We need to understand what happens after death in terms of sooner and later, in terms of before and after the resurrection.

You may want to read for yourself I Corinthians chapter 15 because that is the single greatest concentration of information about life after death in the entire Bible. There and elsewhere we are taught that we all have two parts: physical and spiritual or material and immaterial. We have a body and a soul that began when we were conceived and were there when we were born and have stuck together through all of our lives. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. Death is so traumatic because it’s a tearing apart of what has never been apart before and what God intended to always be together. It’s because of sin that we have death and it’s because of sin that our body and soul are separated. Death is so tough because it’s the pulling apart of body and soul.

But the good news is that God promises that he’ll put us back together again. God will someday reassemble our dead bodies and reconnect those bodies with our souls. That’s called the resurrection. It’s much like the resurrection of Jesus. He died on Good Friday; his body was laid in the grave; his soul ascended to heaven; and on Sunday morning his soul came back to earth being reunited with his body. He was alive again! And the same thing is going to happen to us. That’s what we may expect.

But wait a minute. How is God going to do this? Jesus was dead for only a few days. Some people have been dead for thousands of years and there are no bodies to resurrect. Some people died in explosions; their bodies were blown apart and the pieces are all separated. Some people’s bodies were cremated; there are just ashes left. How can God make a body out of that?

Then the really curious people start going in all kinds of directions. They say, “What if somebody drowns at sea and a fish eats the body and somebody catches the fish and eats the fish? Now how is God going to put that person back together again?”

The answer to all these questions has to do with the power of God. God is able to do what seems impossible to us, what may not even fully make sense to us. He is the God of the impossible. Somehow he will figure it out and do it. When he does, our reconnected or resurrection bodies will be similar to what we have now only different. They will be like Jesus’ body after his resurrection. People recognized his voice; they recognized his face; they examined his hands, his feet, his side. They ate with him. It was exactly the same Jesus. Only different! Different because he could enter a room where they were assembled behind a locked door without unlocking or opening the door. He could ascend to heaven without going through death. The same, but different!

The analogy that’s used in I Corinthians 15 is of a seed, perhaps of wheat. The seed is put into the ground and grows up and becomes something that looks a whole lot different. At first it may seem that there’s not much of a connection, but there’s a direct connection. You can even check out the genetics of the plant and discover that the seed and the plant are connected to each other. But while they are similar, they are also dissimilar. And so it will be with our resurrection bodies. There will be clear connections—the same genetics—but definitely different.

These resurrections are future. There are actually two of them. One is for Christians; the other is for those who are not. One is to eternal life and the other is to eternal death. Until these resurrections take place and our souls are reunited with our bodies, we’re in a temporary holding pattern. Which raises the question that if death separates our bodies and souls and we don’t get our bodies back for a long time, what happens to those who are dead and waiting? And what will be my experience?

Again we don’t fully know the answer. We do know that we will be in paradise. We do know that we will consciously be there. We do know that we will be in the presence of God. We do know that Jesus Christ will welcome us. We do know that everything will be great, but we don’t know exactly how it works. Perhaps we will have some kind of a temporary body, but the truth is that we just don’t know.

What we are taught in I Corinthians 15 is that our resurrection is clearly connected to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that our resurrection bodies will be both similar and dissimilar to the bodies that we now have. Similar and dissimilar, but always spiritual and supernatural and wonderful! I Corinthians 15:42-44 says:

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

There is so much more that could be said, so many more questions to ask, so many more answers in the Bible. But the bottom line is that death is a glorious victory for Christians and a disastrous defeat for unbelievers.

In the media there are stories of people who have near-death experiences. They are portrayed as seeing a bright, white light that is warm and attractive and Jesus is there welcoming people into heaven. What is under-publicized, but equally documented, are those who have near-death experiences with darkness rather than light and with visions of hell rather than heaven.

The powerful message of Jesus is that he wants us to believe in him and thereby to die well and have eternal life. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” So believe in Jesus. Have your sins forgiven. Become a Christian. Get eternal life that starts right now and be assured that God will give you dying grace for when your great transition comes so that when you die the best will be next. Then life after death will be better than anything you have ever previously experienced and you will someday have a resurrection body that will be much like the body of Jesus and will last forever.

Our Father, thank you for the truths that you tell us. Help us to trust you for the questions that remain unanswered. But most of all, thank you for Jesus Christ through whom we have the assurance of eternal life and in whom we have the promise of our own resurrection. Hear us as we declare our belief in faith. In Jesus your Son and our Savior we pray. Amen.

In the first century the Apostle Peter wrote instructions to the followers of Jesus to teach them how to live as Christians in difficult times – times that included tyrannical rulers and widespread acceptance of slavery. Peter explained that all Christian citizens should submit to government authority and all Christian slaves should submit to their masters. Peter was convinced that, with God’s help, submission was a powerful tool to transform the lives and behavior of others. He was not promoting passive submission but an active submission that does good – somewhat similar to the nonviolent approach of Gandhi in India and Martin Luther King, Jr. in America.

Peter goes on to tell Christian wives that the same kind of submissive behavior that transforms governments and work places can transform homes and marriages. He says that husbands who do not believe the word of God may be persuaded to believe without a spoken word – just by the behavior of their Christian wives.

This shows an enormous faith in the power of Christian behavior. It assumes that simply by acting Christianly, God can use our lives to persuade unbelievers to become Christians. The principle is bigger than wives, husbands and marriages. How we live can and will transform the lives of other people – for Godly behavior changes others.

Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers. Not because you must, but because you are willing as God wants you to be. Not greedy for money, but eager to serve. Not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

“Shepherd” is the same word that we call “pastor.” By vocation I am the pastor of a church. That means that I have a great responsibility for the lives and souls of the people. I pray for them daily. I think long and hard about how to care for others, directly and by delegation. I consider it to be both a wonderful privilege and a frightening responsibility to be a shepherd of God’s people.

But pastors aren’t the only ones that shepherd. Most Christians have shepherding responsibilities. Some shepherd co-workers at the office. When misfortune strikes, people look to them for comfort and support. Some shepherd their neighborhoods, seeing to the needs of lonely or hurting neighbors. Christian parents shepherd their children – even after they are grown!

Look for opportunities to be a care-giver for the souls and lives of others whom God has given you to oversee. Be a shepherd who is “eager to serve.”

The best of leaders give the best of help in the worst of times. They are a gift from God. But lousy leaders are one of the worst catastrophes any of us can face.

Imagine if it is the worst of times and the leader to whom you are looking crumbles under the responsibility. If your political leader turns out to be corrupt; if your spiritual leader is immoral; if your CEO steals money from the company, the consequences can be far-reaching and disastrous. When the person you have looked up to and upon whom you have depended goes down, that person often takes others down as well.

Recognizing the immense importance of good spiritual leadership, the Bible urges us to identify and seek godly leaders who are “eager to serve. Not lording it over those entrusted to [them], but being examples to the flock.”

We need godly leaders upon whom we can trust and depend. Make sure you are following the right leader!

I can’t help but wonder if there’s a hint of St. Peter’s own marriage and prayers in these words he wrote: “Husbands…be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect… so that nothing will hinder your prayers,” How did he know that prayers are hindered by shabby treatment of your wife?

Could it be that one day Peter came home full of himself and his own needs? He didn’t ask his wife about her day or listen to her. Maybe he felt that his work as an apostle was more important than anything she did. After dinner, Peter left the table without a word of thanks and went to the garden to pray. He prayed eloquently, asking God for divine help but it seemed as though he were talking to himself. He pleaded on his knees, then lay facedown and wept, but it felt as if his prayers were going nowhere.

Finally Peter may have remembered how he had treated his wife. He went back into the house, kissed her and apologized for the way he had treated her. He asked her how she was doing and listened to her as he had never done before.

Later that night Peter stepped back into the garden to pray once again. This time, it was amazing! Not only did God listen, but God answered.

Perhaps it was the next day that Peter, the husband, penned the words, “Husbands…be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect… so that nothing will hinder your prayers.”

Scan the covers of newsstand magazines and it becomes obvious that most of us, probably women in particular, are very interested in knowing the current styles. Even the Bible addresses this fascination with what’s “in style.”

Listen to it’s advice, written nearly two thousand years ago:

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.

In Roman culture at that time, the height of fashion was for women to have ornately braided hair decorated with expensive gold combs. Scholars tell us that the elite classes spent huge amounts of money in order to look beautiful.

Now the Bible is not giving some kind of mandate that you shouldn’t braid your hair, wear jewelry, or wear nice clothes, but it is saying that a Christian woman should not major on outward appearance. Sure, she should look good. But she should focus her efforts on developing inner beauty. Inner beauty’s a wonderful thing – it pleases God, is attainable by all and won’t run up your credit card bills!

Part 4 of 4 on the Theology of Money

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” according to Genesis 1:1. Psalm 24:1 tells us, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” It is repeated in I Corinthians 10:26, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” And in James 1:17 it says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

A cardinal doctrine in the theology of money is that God owns everything. If God owns everything, then all we have belongs to him. And, if everything belongs to him, we are simply “stewards” who take care of what is God’s.

Stewards are those entrusted with the possessions of someone else. As stewards, we do not really have any money. We don’t own stock or cars or houses or clothes or anything at all. Everything belongs to God and we are the temporary managers of his possessions. The sooner we understand stewardship and operate accordingly, the smarter we are.

Also, God may give or take away items on the basis of our faithfulness in stewardship. However, whether we give or keep should not be motivated by how much we have or don’t have. Our motivation should be to please the owner. Our motivation is to please God.

There are many ways that this whole matter of stewardship may be expressed. None, of course, is greater than that of giving. Giving is a constant reminder to us and an expression to God that it really doesn’t belong to us. Whenever we keep something, we act as if it belongs to us. When we give away according to God’s guidelines, we act as if that something is God’s.

But there is a far more important reason to give than that. It is because God is a giver. That is his standard approach to his possessions. He gives them to others. Since we are stewards of what is God's, we should treat God's possessions the way God treats them, and that means we give them away!

Many Christians do not give! The giving proportions in American churches are stunning. Surveys show that 20% of the people give 80%. The remaining 20% is given by an additional 30% of the people. And 50% of the Christians in America give nothing. That has frightening implications. Either most people who claim to be Christians are not Christians or they do not know they are stewards or they sinfully treat what is God’s as if it is their own!

To those of us who are committed Christians and committed stewards the issue is not willingness but information. We need to know God’s theology of how to manage and how to give away what we are convinced really belongs to God. And there are several key biblical principles to guide us.

The first principle is that stewardship is always responsive. God first gives to us and then we give what he has given us to others. The initiative never begins with us. It always begins with a generous Lord. II Corinthians 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

Our giving is always in response to his giving. Thus, we are not primarily motivated by need but by grace. I give to missions because God has given me the gospel. I give to the poor because God has given to me so that I am not poor. I give to the church because Jesus Christ has given the church to me as a wonderful blessing and fellowship.

Whenever we try to figure out what to give, we must always begin with what we have been given. If God has given us a lot, we should want to give a lot. If we believe God has given us very little, then the appropriate thing for us to do is to give very little. Of course, the truth is that God has given us everything we have—including his Son! That ought to “motivate the socks off us”! God has given us everything!

God gives! We respond.

The second principle is that God’s giving to us is directed. Therefore, if we are to give as God gives, then we also are to direct our giving to others. In other words, it is not just giving for the sake of giving, but it is giving that is directed somewhere specific to do God’s good.

In Paul’s stewardship writing to the Corinthians he speaks of a specific giving target to which money was to be directed. It was to relieve the poverty of the “poor saints in Jerusalem.” Paul introduces the need in I Corinthians 16:1 and then mentions it again in II Corinthians 8:4 when he talks about “the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.”

There are numerous specific giving targets mentioned in the New Testament. Jesus observes and commends a widow giving her mites at the Temple. Paul argues in I Corinthians for the financial support of apostles, pastors, teachers and missionaries. Much mention is made of giving to help the poor.

Rarely, if ever, is directed giving individually decided. It is always a collective decision. The church decided together that their offerings would go to the poor saints in Jerusalem. This is a powerful principle. Christians are not lone rangers in spiritual growth, in ministry exercise or in financial contributions.

What does this mean practically? It means we should know where our giving is going and that its ultimate use will clearly bring glory to God and please him. We should make sure that the person to whom we give money has a genuine need and that the organization is credible.

We should also avoid unilateral giving. That’s why we have the church. That’s why we should all participate in the building of a budget. That’s why church leaders and Christian organizations must be held accountable. We’re representing God!

The third and most practical principle has to do with “how much”. Knowing that all belongs to God, how much of what is his does he want us to give away and how much does he want us to retain and work with?

Many Christians believe that the answer is a tithe, or 10%. If it is a simple guideline or starting point, I think that 10% of our gross income is an okay place to start. In fact, Jesus even affirmed that in Mathew 23:23. However, if it is perceived as a strict rule to be legalistically followed—that is not New Testament stewardship. It is law, not grace, and we might perceive that God has been paid off and the remainder is ours to do with as we please. Tithing is basically an obsolete Old Testament practice that combined taxes and offerings in a law-based theocracy.

The New Testament theology of money calls for proportionate giving. For example, in II Corinthians 8:3 we read, “ . . . they gave as much as they were able.” In other words, if they had a lot, they gave a lot. If they had a little, they gave a little. That may have been measured up and down from 10%. In II Corinthians 8:12 Paul says, “ . . . the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.”

The practice here is not very hard to figure. If we have a lot of money we should give a lot of money. If we have little money we should give a little money. The combination will come out in balance according to II Corinthians 8:13-15. In other words, if you have above average income, give more than 10%. If you are below average give less than 10%. If you are very poor, give very little. If you are very rich, give very much. One very wealthy man gave 90%! The important point to remember is that everyone should give, even if it is only a penny.

The fourth principle is that giving is voluntary. Each of us must voluntarily choose if we will give and how much to give. Since it is an evidence of spirituality and stewardship, it cannot be and should not be externally determined. It’s something that has to be decided on our own. Others must not tell us how much to give or manipulate us into involuntarily giving money or possessions.

In II Corinthians 8:3 Paul says that the Macedonian churches “gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.” And II Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” The Greek word here is hilarion, which means “hilarious”. God loves a hilarious giver. So, it should make you want to laugh out loud when you write a check to put into the offering plate. That’s the way it’s supposed to be!

The practical part of this point is obvious. We need to inform and encourage one another in giving, but we should never coerce or enforce giving.

Occasionally I am told that I should lean harder on people to give more money at Wooddale Church. I am reluctant to do that. Instead, I believe that I should call us all to a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. II Corinthians 8:5 says that the Macedonians “gave themselves first to the Lord” and then stewardship followed. I would rather have the church shut down than in any way be supported by involuntary giving.

According to II Corinthians 8:2, giving is to be a joy. Let us not do anything that will detract from that joy. But, let us lift up giving for the joy and thrill and cheerfulness that it is!

A fifth, and final, principle is that giving should be planned. The Apostle Paul invited the Corinthians to plan in advance what they would give. Giving was not to be a spur-of-the-moment emotional act. It was to be thought through a year in advance and then the plan was to be deliberately and diligently followed.

II Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give.” That means that there should be a thoughtful and a prayerful decision made concerning what to give, and that should be done before the gift is given. Plan ahead!

In I Corinthians 16:2 Paul writes, “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. Then, when I arrive, I will . . . (send) your gift to Jerusalem.” They took Sunday collections for a year. The people gave a week at a time as they had planned in advance.

Today, some people give, but they do not commit in advance. I am grateful for their gifts, but I believe that they are not following the New Testament! Advance planning and commitments are the New Testament way!

Personally and practically, I am very deliberate! Charleen and I decide at the end of the year what to give during the next year. We make a list of all of the next year’s Sundays and the amount to be given each Sunday. Then we write the weekly checks throughout the year.

This ends our series on the theology of money. Although we’ve covered a lot, we haven’t addressed even a small fraction of all the Bible says about money. But the basic topics have been addressed.

Our purpose has been to help us develop our own theology of money. My prayer is that this may be just the beginning of new adventures in living out our commitment for Christ in the attitude and actions of our finances and possessions.

I conclude with what for me is a favorite verse and a wonderful reminder from II Corinthians 8:9:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you
through his poverty might become rich.

When the Old Testament prophet Jonah delivered God’s warning to the city of Nineveh, it was only after being persuaded by an unwilling ride in the belly of a fish. When the people of Nineveh heeded Jonah’s warning and repented, God didn’t destroy them and it made Jonah so angry that he told God, “Take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

I’m afraid Jonah was behaving like an arrogant brat. His attitude was, “If things don’t go my way, I'd rather be dead.”

But, we’re not so different. We want God to do things our way. And when God doesn’t comply, we’re angry.

I wish I could tell you that Jonah started behaving with greater faith and maturity, but he didn’t. After delivering his message he went outside of Nineveh and sat in the desert to get a view of the action. He was still hoping that the people wouldn’t repent and God would blow them away. As he sat there, a Jack-in-the-beanstalk type plant grew up, giving him a few hours of shade. Then God sent a worm that ate the beanstalk and it died, making Jonah even madder. He was upset because his shade-plant died but he didn't care if a whole city were destroyed.

Don’t let your story end like Jonah’s. If you are running away from God’s will, tell God you are sorry and let yourself be controlled by God’s love. It will save a lot of trouble!

The first time around when God asked him to go warn the city of Nineveh to repent, Jonah had refused and run away. He ended up in the belly of a great fish with three days to think about it. Then God caused the fish to vomit Jonah up onto dry land, giving Jonah a second chance.

This time when God said, "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim… the message I give you," Jonah obeyed. He delivered the message, but his attitude hadn't changed. Jonah still hated the people of Nineveh and didn’t want them to repent and be forgiven. He wanted them judged and destroyed. His ride in the belly of the fish had caused his behavior to change, but not his heart.

To Jonah’s dismay, his enemies in Nineveh listened to God’s warning, repented and were spared. Jonah was angry. He didn’t want God to give them a second chance. Jonah did the right thing but with the wrong attitude.

What about you? Don’t wait until you’re in a situation as hopeless as the belly of a fish. Decide right now to do what God wants you to do whether you feel like it or not. If God is offering you a second chance, say “Yes,” but do it with the right attitude!

God heard Jonah's prayer and commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Do you believe that really happened? Do you believe that God actually sent a message to a fish with a guy inside, and ordered it to vomit on command? Well, I believe it really happened and let me explain why. You see, I believe in the supernatural. I believe that God is ultimately in control of everything that happens in our world and that he can do anything he chooses to do. If you don't believe in the supernatural you won’t believe in miracles. But if you do believe in the supernatural, then you can believe in miracles.

For Christians, believing in the supernatural gives us a reason to pray, for we are convinced that God hears and acts. God makes a difference. So whether we are praying about everyday routine events or about a clash of nations, Christians believe there is a supernatural God, and that he can do anything—even make a fish vomit!

The Bible tells the story of Joseph, a young Hebrew man who was sold into slavery in Egypt because his brothers hated him for being their father’s favorite. In spite of the hardships of slavery, Joseph remained faithful to God. After years of suffering, God rewarded Joseph’s faithfulness by having the ruler of Egypt promote him to the position of Prime Minister.

Drought spread throughout the region and because of Joseph’s wise management, only Egypt had food. Joseph’s brothers were sent by their father to Egypt in search of grain. When they stood before Joseph they didn’t recognize him. They thought he was dead.

How would you treat those who had mistreated you if you were in the position of control? At first Joseph struggled with what to do, but soon the character of this man shone brightly. He forgave his brothers, giving them food, protection and land. He used his power for good. When his brothers eventually realized that this powerful prime minister of Egypt was actually the kid brother they had sold into slavery, they were scared to death. But Joseph told them, “Don’t be afraid.…You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

What a stunning perspective! Joseph realized that even when people intend to harm us, God intends those very acts be used for good.

When a caravan of traders came by, the brothers sold Joseph into slavery, telling their father that he had been killed by a wild animal. When the caravan arrived in Egypt, Joseph was sold to Potipher, the captain of Pharaoh’s palace guard.

Joseph suffered the hard life of a slave but he didn’t complain. He honored God and faithfully served Potipher. God blessed Joseph and gave him success. Potipher promoted Joseph to the position of top slave in charge of his estate. But things got worse again when Joseph was falsely accused and put in prison. Two years later, in a dramatic turn of events, Joseph was able to interpret two dreams for the Pharaoh that none of the other wise men in Egypt had been able to do. Joseph spoke with stunning clarity, giving the credit for his wisdom to God. As a result, Pharaoh believed him and promoted Joseph to the position of Prime Minister.

Joseph experienced a life of extremes: hardship, good fortune, imprisonment, release and promotion. Yet he never lost sight of the fact that God is in control.

Part 2 of 4 on the Theology of Money

I Timothy 6:10

Life without money is impossible for all but the very few. The President of the United States and the Queen of England don’t carry cash. Comatose patients in long-term nursing facilities don’t deal with money. But the rest of us can’t live without it. First graders need cash for field trips to the zoo or for milk at lunchtime. CEOs of Fortune 500 companies must write checks to the IRS just like the rest of us.

There is simply no escaping money. It is an essential part of life. Good or bad, rich or poor, Christian or not, we all deal with money. The question is: “What kind of a relationship to money do we have?” Do we love it or hate it? Does it control us or do we control it?

In I Timothy 6 we find four possible relationships to money. The first is contentment. I Timothy 6:6-8 establishes the baseline for a relationship to money. The apostle Paul writes, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.”

Contentment is acceptance of a situation with peace and without regret. In other words, we adjust what we want to fit what we have instead of trying to adjust what we have to fit what we want.

Contentment does not come naturally. It is a discipline that must be learned. That’s why the apostle Paul told the Philippians, “I have learned to be content.” The clear implication is that there was an earlier time in his life when he was not content.

Paul’s theology of money, which he is here sharing with Timothy and with us, establishes a minimum baseline for contentment. He explains that we were born with nothing and we will die with nothing. All we have in between is more than we started with or will end with.

More practically, he specifies that “if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” Assuming that clothing may include shelter, he is saying that all we really need is a place to live, food to eat and clothes to wear. Anything beyond that is extra.

Many have experienced a back-to-basics life. Henry David Thoreau moved into a shack by Walden Pond and enjoyed the contentment of living with little. The Great Depression in the 1930s forced millions of Americans back to basics whether they liked it or not.

What does this mean for us? We may or may not have to live on a baseline minimum. But whether we do or not, we can resolve to seek contentment in our theology of money. To be content is to accept what we already have as adequate to meet our material needs and live at peace. Such contentment promises great joy, less anxiety and enormous economic freedom.

But, such contentment is hard to come by in our culture. We face enormous pressures to be discontent and to continually acquire more and more.

Since contentment is learned, those who want it must try it and practice it. For example, drive your present car another year rather than buy a new one; wear that coat one more winter; if the television quits, be content to get by for at least some period of time without replacing it. Be at peace with that which is basically and minimally adequate.

The second possible relationship in Paul’s theology of money is found in verses 9-10, and it is an awful tragedy by comparison. He writes:

People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Look at the words Paul uses to describe this second relationship. In verse 9 it’s “want to get rich.” In verse 10 it’s “the love of money.” And, again, in verse 10 it’s “eager for money.”

Here is a person whose life is so focused on money that money has become a driving desire, a deep passion and a primary motivation in life. This person works mostly for the money. Everything has a price, including friendships. If it came right down to a choice between money and friends, money would be chosen because you can get other friends. This person is always looking for ways to get more money. He or she defines success and worth in terms of money. This person feels good when money is gained and feels bad when money is gone.

The Bible says that this love of money stands at the root of many of life’s evils. Crime, divorce, depression, sickness and all kinds of sins have at their root the love of money. This is serious stuff! The desire to be rich, the craving for cash, the love of money is a major generator of all the sins in our lives and in our world!

Let’s be honest. Many of us love money. Of all the relationships to money listed in I Timothy 6, love has been our most frequent relationship. And it doesn’t take much money to love it. In fact, it doesn’t take any!

The wisest and best approach to an evil love affair with money is the same as a sexual extramarital love affair. Admit it. Break it off. Build barriers against ever doing it again.

The third relationship in Paul’s theology of money is in I Timothy 6:11-16 and is seemingly unrelated. In fact, some Bible scholars label most of the paragraphs of I Timothy 6 as “miscellaneous concluding admonitions”. The contention is that they really are not related to one another. I disagree. The paragraphs before and after are about money, so I assume that the paragraph in between is about money, as well. See what it says:

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

Money is not mentioned at all. But the third relationship to money is powerfully addressed. It is the relationship of godliness. Godliness focuses on righteousness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness in verse 11. In verse 12, godliness focuses on faithfully fighting for Jesus Christ and upholding a Christian witness. In verse 14, godliness is living a life that is unstained and free of reproach. And in verse 16, godliness is honoring the Lord. And yet there is no mention of money, although money precedes it and money follows it.

The “theology of money thesis” of this paragraph is simple: godly Christians don’t focus on money . . . instead they focus on righteousness, faith, love, endurance, witness, testimony and honoring the Lord Jesus Christ. Money is not a consideration. It is important only in terms of living for Jesus Christ.

What does that mean practically? When money is gained—through an inheritance or an investment or a bonus or the sale of something or a paycheck—the issue for the godly Christian is how to please God in that gain. And, when money is lost—through theft, unemployment, a loss in investments or perhaps through some great calamity—the godly Christian focuses on how to honor God in the loss. In either case, God is always central and money isn’t.

In I Timothy 6:17-19 the apostle proposes a fourth possible relationship to money: riches. Here he speaks specifically to those who already have riches and not to those who are seeking riches. Here is what he says:

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Paul’s instructions on how to relate to money are several. Number One: “don’t be haughty.” Don’t become proud, pompous and arrogant. Don’t think that you are better or more important than anyone else simply because of how rich you are. This is stated because it can be a major pitfall of the rich. Don’t think you are exempt or different. Don’t be haughty.

Second, don’t set hope on uncertain riches. Another likely possibility is to find security in money. Don’t do that! Set your security in the Lord who gives us everything to enjoy.

A third instruction is to do good. Assume that your purpose in life is to do good to others, especially through liberally and generously giving from you riches.

The pastor of a well-to-do church in Beverly Hills, California, once told me that from his years of observation, the more money most people have the less they give until they eventually have so much that they give nothing!

Paul’s theology of money neither commends nor condemns riches, as long as those riches are not loved and as long as they are rightly related to.

So, we have four different possible relationships to money: contentment, love of money, godliness and riches. But there are actually seven different combinations that one might come up with in terms of those four relationships. For example, it is possible to have contentment and be at peace with just the bare necessities of life, to genuinely not love money, to perhaps be broke and not have any riches, but also be ungodly.

A second possible combination is to really love money. However, if you really love money, it is very difficult to be content, so that’s excluded. And, if one really is in love with money then godliness is also very difficult, if not possible. Actually, it is possible to love money and not have any, but still have our lives totally built around the love of money.

A third possible combination is to have riches and not love them yet still not be godly. It’s possible to have riches and not be content. Riches merely stand alone.

Combination number four is to have godliness and contentment. As Paul explains, this is a wonderful combination. This person is focused on the Lord, is honoring him and is content to live at the economic baseline of food and clothing, and may, in fact, have no riches at all. If a person is godly and content there is no place for the love of money in that person’s life.

There is a fifth possibility and that is to have godliness and contentment and riches. Of course, that would exclude the love of money because if you have godliness and contentment with your riches, you surely could not love money. That could not be the primary focus of life.

A sixth possibility is to love money and be rich. In our society, that is the quest of life: to really love it and to have it. That, of course, excludes both contentment and godliness.

Or, it’s possible to have a seventh combination, and that is to have contentment and riches. There are many people who think that’s the best way to do it. Don’t be in love with money, but care about God. So, have money and be at peace with the money you have.

Which of these seven combinations would you like to describe you? Some will surely say, “I choose Number Five. I’d like to be godly, content and rich!” That’s okay if you are already rich. But if you not already rich and you choose Number Five then you are really in love with money and have actually selected Number Two. You love riches, and that excludes both contentment and godliness. That is the greatest loss of all.

The best choice is to focus on godliness, choose contentment and accept riches if and when they come as a powerful but dangerous tool to be used for the glory of God.

It’s important enough to him that the third of the Ten Commandments is, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” The initial meaning of this commandment was not what we most often think of today. It was saying that when you use God’s name to swear a promise, as in a court of law, always make sure that you keep the promise. It still applies to marriage vows, baptismal vows, court testimony or whenever the name of God is invoked.

The second understanding of misusing God’s name is profanity. One of the most frequent insertions into every-day American conversation is, “Oh my God.” People say it in regards to the weather, sports, or just about anything that is happening. I don’t even know that they hear themselves saying it. But such flippancy in the use of his name is really an insult to God. We wouldn’t like it if our names were used in a similar way, and God doesn’t like it either. It’s a matter of respect. Remember, “The Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”

The Bible was written during the time of the Roman Empire and the picture is of soldiers marching to battle. In the Roman army a unit of one hundred soldiers was called a century – and its leader was a centurion. If the century was marching along and one soldier tripped or fell, the assurance was that the century would not leave that soldier behind, they would help him up.

The same promise is being made to Christians. Becoming a Christian isn’t just an insurance policy for heaven after we die, the benefits begin immediately. And one of those benefits is that God will come along side of us and help us not to fall or be destroyed by the circumstances of life.

A second benefit is a rich welcome into the presence of God. Every Christian is guaranteed a place in the eternal kingdom of God. When you think of it, this life is comparatively short, while eternity lasts forever! Believing in Jesus fills our lives with joyful anticipation of the destination that awaits us.

You know, eternity is a very long time. This matter could not be more important and, like Alan Iverson, we want to know for sure. That’s why St. Peter wrote these words, “Therefore, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Peter wanted us to know that through Jesus Christ, God has given us everything we need to succeed in this life and to be sure of eternal life. If you have doubts, I invite you to tell God that you believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins. Tell God that you trust Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin and for eternal life. And then ask God to confirm your salvation, so that you can be totally sure of where you are going.

I was reminded of St. Peter’s words when he told us to be “eager to make your calling and election sure.” Peter wasn’t writing about an airline destination, but about our eternal destination. He was talking to those of us who have called up God in prayer and asked for a reservation to go to heaven.

God gives two confirmations. First there is confirmation from the Bible. It says, “If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Then there is a change in our behavior. Becoming a Christian changes a person’s desires and behavior. It’s not that living a good life makes us a Christian; it’s that being a Christian makes us live a better life.

Seeking confirmation of our eternal destiny from God enables us to joyfully anticipate the benefits of our reservation.

There’s a story about a father who found out from the school authorities that his son had stolen pencils. The father was outraged. When the son came home, he gave him a spanking and said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Why do you steal? Don’t I bring home enough pencils for you from work?”

Compare that with the actions of Ascension Franco Gonzales, an illegal immigrant living in Los Angeles. He earns $1,300 a month as a dishwasher and sends $800 of that to his parents in Mexico every month to help them build a concrete block house. The newspaper reported that Gonzales saw bags of money fall out of an armored truck. He agonized over what to do but then called the police and turned it in, knowing that he risked being deported. It turned out to be $203,000. He said he just couldn’t keep it. It wouldn’t be right. He was raised by his parents to be a good Catholic and he could not steal what was not his.

In both stories it was like father, like son. If we are trusting in God as our father, when we face temptation we’ll know what to do.

Part 2 of 4 on the Theology of Money

I Timothy 6:10

Life without money is impossible for all but the very few. The President of the United States and the Queen of England don’t carry cash. Comatose patients in long-term nursing facilities don’t deal with money. But the rest of us can’t live without it. First graders need cash for field trips to the zoo or for milk at lunchtime. CEOs of Fortune 500 companies must write checks to the IRS just like the rest of us.

There is simply no escaping money. It is an essential part of life. Good or bad, rich or poor, Christian or not, we all deal with money. The question is: “What kind of a relationship to money do we have?” Do we love it or hate it? Does it control us or do we control it?

In I Timothy 6 we find four possible relationships to money. The first is contentment. I Timothy 6:6-8 establishes the baseline for a relationship to money. The apostle Paul writes, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.”

Contentment is acceptance of a situation with peace and without regret. In other words, we adjust what we want to fit what we have instead of trying to adjust what we have to fit what we want.

Contentment does not come naturally. It is a discipline that must be learned. That’s why the apostle Paul told the Philippians, “I have learned to be content.” The clear implication is that there was an earlier time in his life when he was not content.

Paul’s theology of money, which he is here sharing with Timothy and with us, establishes a minimum baseline for contentment. He explains that we were born with nothing and we will die with nothing. All we have in between is more than we started with or will end with.

More practically, he specifies that “if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” Assuming that clothing may include shelter, he is saying that all we really need is a place to live, food to eat and clothes to wear. Anything beyond that is extra.

Many have experienced a back-to-basics life. Henry David Thoreau moved into a shack by Walden Pond and enjoyed the contentment of living with little. The Great Depression in the 1930s forced millions of Americans back to basics whether they liked it or not.

What does this mean for us? We may or may not have to live on a baseline minimum. But whether we do or not, we can resolve to seek contentment in our theology of money. To be content is to accept what we already have as adequate to meet our material needs and live at peace. Such contentment promises great joy, less anxiety and enormous economic freedom.

But, such contentment is hard to come by in our culture. We face enormous pressures to be discontent and to continually acquire more and more.

Since contentment is learned, those who want it must try it and practice it. For example, drive your present car another year rather than buy a new one; wear that coat one more winter; if the television quits, be content to get by for at least some period of time without replacing it. Be at peace with that which is basically and minimally adequate.

The second possible relationship in Paul’s theology of money is found in verses 9-10, and it is an awful tragedy by comparison. He writes:

People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Look at the words Paul uses to describe this second relationship. In verse 9 it’s “want to get rich.” In verse 10 it’s “the love of money.” And, again, in verse 10 it’s “eager for money.”

Here is a person whose life is so focused on money that money has become a driving desire, a deep passion and a primary motivation in life. This person works mostly for the money. Everything has a price, including friendships. If it came right down to a choice between money and friends, money would be chosen because you can get other friends. This person is always looking for ways to get more money. He or she defines success and worth in terms of money. This person feels good when money is gained and feels bad when money is gone.

The Bible says that this love of money stands at the root of many of life’s evils. Crime, divorce, depression, sickness and all kinds of sins have at their root the love of money. This is serious stuff! The desire to be rich, the craving for cash, the love of money is a major generator of all the sins in our lives and in our world!

Let’s be honest. Many of us love money. Of all the relationships to money listed in I Timothy 6, love has been our most frequent relationship. And it doesn’t take much money to love it. In fact, it doesn’t take any!

The wisest and best approach to an evil love affair with money is the same as a sexual extramarital love affair. Admit it. Break it off. Build barriers against ever doing it again.

The third relationship in Paul’s theology of money is in I Timothy 6:11-16 and is seemingly unrelated. In fact, some Bible scholars label most of the paragraphs of I Timothy 6 as “miscellaneous concluding admonitions”. The contention is that they really are not related to one another. I disagree. The paragraphs before and after are about money, so I assume that the paragraph in between is about money, as well. See what it says:

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

Money is not mentioned at all. But the third relationship to money is powerfully addressed. It is the relationship of godliness. Godliness focuses on righteousness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness in verse 11. In verse 12, godliness focuses on faithfully fighting for Jesus Christ and upholding a Christian witness. In verse 14, godliness is living a life that is unstained and free of reproach. And in verse 16, godliness is honoring the Lord. And yet there is no mention of money, although money precedes it and money follows it.

The “theology of money thesis” of this paragraph is simple: godly Christians don’t focus on money . . . instead they focus on righteousness, faith, love, endurance, witness, testimony and honoring the Lord Jesus Christ. Money is not a consideration. It is important only in terms of living for Jesus Christ.

What does that mean practically? When money is gained—through an inheritance or an investment or a bonus or the sale of something or a paycheck—the issue for the godly Christian is how to please God in that gain. And, when money is lost—through theft, unemployment, a loss in investments or perhaps through some great calamity—the godly Christian focuses on how to honor God in the loss. In either case, God is always central and money isn’t.

In I Timothy 6:17-19 the apostle proposes a fourth possible relationship to money: riches. Here he speaks specifically to those who already have riches and not to those who are seeking riches. Here is what he says:

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Paul’s instructions on how to relate to money are several. Number One: “don’t be haughty.” Don’t become proud, pompous and arrogant. Don’t think that you are better or more important than anyone else simply because of how rich you are. This is stated because it can be a major pitfall of the rich. Don’t think you are exempt or different. Don’t be haughty.

Second, don’t set hope on uncertain riches. Another likely possibility is to find security in money. Don’t do that! Set your security in the Lord who gives us everything to enjoy.

A third instruction is to do good. Assume that your purpose in life is to do good to others, especially through liberally and generously giving from you riches.

The pastor of a well-to-do church in Beverly Hills, California, once told me that from his years of observation, the more money most people have the less they give until they eventually have so much that they give nothing!

Paul’s theology of money neither commends nor condemns riches, as long as those riches are not loved and as long as they are rightly related to.

So, we have four different possible relationships to money: contentment, love of money, godliness and riches. But there are actually seven different combinations that one might come up with in terms of those four relationships. For example, it is possible to have contentment and be at peace with just the bare necessities of life, to genuinely not love money, to perhaps be broke and not have any riches, but also be ungodly.

A second possible combination is to really love money. However, if you really love money, it is very difficult to be content, so that’s excluded. And, if one really is in love with money then godliness is also very difficult, if not possible. Actually, it is possible to love money and not have any, but still have our lives totally built around the love of money.

A third possible combination is to have riches and not love them yet still not be godly. It’s possible to have riches and not be content. Riches merely stand alone.

Combination number four is to have godliness and contentment. As Paul explains, this is a wonderful combination. This person is focused on the Lord, is honoring him and is content to live at the economic baseline of food and clothing, and may, in fact, have no riches at all. If a person is godly and content there is no place for the love of money in that person’s life.

There is a fifth possibility and that is to have godliness and contentment and riches. Of course, that would exclude the love of money because if you have godliness and contentment with your riches, you surely could not love money. That could not be the primary focus of life.

A sixth possibility is to love money and be rich. In our society, that is the quest of life: to really love it and to have it. That, of course, excludes both contentment and godliness.

Or, it’s possible to have a seventh combination, and that is to have contentment and riches. There are many people who think that’s the best way to do it. Don’t be in love with money, but care about God. So, have money and be at peace with the money you have.

Which of these seven combinations would you like to describe you? Some will surely say, “I choose Number Five. I’d like to be godly, content and rich!” That’s okay if you are already rich. But if you not already rich and you choose Number Five then you are really in love with money and have actually selected Number Two. You love riches, and that excludes both contentment and godliness. That is the greatest loss of all.

The best choice is to focus on godliness, choose contentment and accept riches if and when they come as a powerful but dangerous tool to be used for the glory of God.

For four hundred years the Hebrew people had lived under the control of the Egyptians who worshipped many gods. Then, under the leadership of Moses, they were suddenly set free from their slavery in Egypt. Talk about a life change! Even more revolutionary, Moses had a mountaintop encounter with God where God gave him Ten Commandments. The first commandment was, “You shall have no other gods before me.” All they knew was living with multiple, conflicting gods. Now they were being told that their God (Yahweh) was to always have precedence over other gods. This was a risky notion. What if the other gods didn’t like it?

An even better translation of the Hebrew words in the first commandment is, “You shall have no other gods besides me.” In other words, Yahweh was not to be their top god, he was to be their only God.

We live in a society with many competing gods with names like “Luck,” “Money,” “Science,” “Counseling,” “Education,” and “Things.” We often believe that these gods can cure our cancer, solve our problems and get us what we want in life. But the Lord of heaven and earth is saying that it’s not that way. He alone is the true God and we are to swear our allegiance to Him and Him alone.

In the New Testament it says, "By Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.”

In our world, creation defines ownership. Those same science fiction film makers “own” the movie they create. If God created the world, then he owns it. In the book of Psalms it says, "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it.”

One of the most basic questions of life is over the question of ownership. Does everything belong to God or do we own it? Is it our world and our environment for us to treat as we please? Are these our bodies so that we can determine our own destiny? The answer to this question of ownership is the essential difference between being a Christian and a non-Christian, between being a believer and an unbeliever. If God is truly the creator, and therefore the owner, then we are accountable to Him.

The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket. The conductor rushed back and said, ‘Dr. Einstein, don’t worry. I know who you are. You don’t need a ticket. I’m sure you bought one.’ Einstein looked at him and said, ‘Young man, I too know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going.’”

Billy Graham went on to explain to his audience, “I not only know who I am, I also know where I’m going.” He knew he was trusting in Jesus and that the Bible promises, “whoever believes in [Jesus] shall not perish but have eternal life [in heaven].” Do you know where you are going?

Fighting for composure, he continued, “It’s like the miracle of the shipyard. Almost every part of our great ocean-going vessels are made of steel. If you take any single part…and throw it into the ocean, it will sink. Steel doesn’t float! But when the shipbuilders are finished, when the last plate has been riveted in place, then that massive steel ship is virtually unsinkable.”

“Taken by itself, my son’s suicide is senseless. Throw it into the sea of Romans 8:28, and it sinks. Still, I believe that when the Eternal Shipbuilder has finally finished, when God has worked out his perfect design, even this senseless tragedy will somehow work to our eternal good.”

In the midst of his despair, this Christian father’s hope was in God’s promise to “work for the good of those who love him.” He came to realize that God shapes our lives through both agony and ecstasy to make us more like Jesus.

You will do well to pay attention to [the word of the prophets].… Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation, for prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

The authors of the Bible didn’t think up what they wrote all by themselves. They didn’t spin their own interpretation of history. They didn’t make up a religion. They spoke the words God gave them and they wrote with the authority and accuracy of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible is the most studied and documented book in history. What it says has been dissected, analyzed, attacked, criticized and verified for almost two thousand years. Bottom line, the Bible is the Word of God and it’s the truth. And when you put your own personal experience of faith together with the truth of the Bible, you have the two pillars upon which Christianity stands – faith and the Bible, personal encounter and truth. Christianity is not just your own experience and it’s not just the truth of the Bible. It’s a supernatural combination of faith and facts. And, together, they are life transforming.

Part 1 or 4 on the Theology of Money

Very few of us even pretend to understand the complexities of today’s economics. I certainly have no prophetic notion whether we are in for economic expansion or economic disaster. If I did, I suppose I could become very rich selling the information.

As Christians, we should seek to understand and then apply God’s view of money to our personal as well as national finances. That may sound simple enough, but be assured, it is not easy to develop a theology of money.

While the Bible says a great deal about money, Bible scholars and Christian economists who are well informed struggle to come up with consistent teaching concerning the Bible’s theology of money. Some claim that Jesus says more about money than any other topic, with the sole exception of the kingdom of God. In many of the parables there is a connection between the teachings about the kingdom of God and the Bible’s teachings about money.

Yet, committed Christians differ drastically on their theologies of money. Francis of Assisi grew up in a very wealthy home, but he gave up everything to become poor for Jesus’ sake. His father thought he was crazy and disowned him. He took a vow of poverty and literally lived that vow, going door-to-door and begging alms. When he found someone poorer than he, he would take his coat off and give it to that person. He believed that as a Christian he was called to be the poorest of all.

By contrast, modern “health and wealth” teachers claim that God wants us to be rich and something is spiritually wrong if we don’t name it and claim it. They say we have a rich God who wants us to share in his riches.

Reformed and Puritan theologians take the focus off money and put it on work and frugality. They say it doesn’t matter whether we get money or not. Ironically, many with this view have ended up being pretty wealthy people because they worked so hard!

Liberation Theology is a strong system in the Third World, especially in Latin America. With strong Marxist influence, the liberation theologians argue that the oppression of the poor is because of the money of the rich. Money should be used to overthrow the rich and redistribute the money to the poor and to do it in the name of Jesus Christ.

Missiologist Ralph Winter has a mission-based theology of money. He argues that we should use money to win the world to Jesus Christ. He has come up with some interesting ways of attempting that. He has suggested that Christians in America who are seriously committed to Jesus Christ should live on a missionary’s income and give the rest to support missionaries. He is a Presbyterian who has figured out that if every Presbyterian in the United States lived on the average Presbyterian pastor’s salary there would be $2 billion more for missions. That is more than three times what all Americans give to missions!

The Bible has a lot of bad things to say about money, as well as a lot of good things to say about money. Let’s look at three basic tenets to at least begin the structuring of an overall system or theology of money.

Tenet Number One is that money is a means. Again, the Bible speaks both positively and negatively about money. For example, you remember Abram in the Old Testament, later named Abraham. Abram, the great godly patriarch of the Old Testament, is described in Genesis 13:2 as “very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.” This would indicate that richness and godliness are compatible with one another.

In Deuteronomy 8:18 we’re instructed, “But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.” My, that sounds like a clear endorsement in terms of wealth coming as a gift from God.

But then we go to the New Testament. Remember the story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked, “What good thing must I do to get eternal life?” Jesus told him to keep the commandments, and he said he did. Then Jesus added, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your\possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” One of the saddest verses in the Bible then follows in Matthew 19:22, “When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.”

It would be interesting to have Jesus try the same test on some of us, particularly those of us who have accumulated great wealth. What would we say if Jesus asked us to sell everything and follow him? Might we, too, go away sad because we have “great wealth”?

It’s later in Matthew 19:23-24 that Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Or, later in I Timothy 6:10, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

When comparing the Old Testament and the New Testament, it appears that money is spoken of much more positively in the Old Testament and much less positively in the New Testament. Perhaps that is why those who like money prefer to build their theology more on the Old Testament than on the New Testament!

These and other verses lead me to a theological premise that money itself is primarily a means to something else. It is intended by God to be understood as a means and not as an end. This premise has numerous implications. It implies that money may serve positive ends or money may serve negative ends. And, it implies that money must always serve some end.

Let’s pause on this third implication. Many people want money just for the sake of having money. This is making money an end rather than a means, and this is wrong. God never intended money to be an end in itself. To desire money for its own sake is to love money, and that is a root of all kinds of evil.

There are days when I would like to have a lot of money. I have fanaticized about it. I have imagined what it would be like to have hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. I have imagined winning it, inheriting it, receiving it through a clever business transaction or a best-selling book. Who knows? Maybe even a record album! Some imagination! But such fantasies are seldom tied to a purpose. I want riches in those fantasies for their own sake. Biblically, that is wrong because it makes money an end in itself rather than a means to an end.

However, all that being said, I fear there really is a subtle but unstated purpose, and that purpose is power. I imagine that if I have great wealth I will then have power over other people. I can buy and sell, hire and fire, influence others and seem better than my neighbor.

That is absolutely contrary to what it means to be a Christian. Jesus has called me to be a servant, not a lord. He wants me to be humble and not haughty. To desire money as a means to exercise power over others is totally contrary to the example of Jesus in Philippians 2:5-7:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Let me tell you candidly, many of us as Christians have a defective theology of money. We view money as either an end in itself or as a means to power over other people. That defective theology of money then ricochets through our lives until we become tempted to greed, covetousness, selfish ambition and a host of other sins.

What then are the legitimate ends to which money may be a means? Well, our primary zeal should be to glorify God, to enhance his reputation. This may be expressed in proper provision for our families, care for the poor, evangelism and even in the enjoyment of God’s gifts to us, including the gift of life.

So how do we put this into practice? I suggest that every Christian who is serious about developing a theology of money sit down and decide what is the purpose for the money I have? What am I saving for? What are my goals? What do I spend my money on? For example, I may be saving for a house or for a car. Why? Is there a God-centered reason for owning a house or having a car? I believe there may well be!

Too often we begin in the wrong place. We try to decide on a budget, on how much to owe or not to owe, on whether to save or give. These are not the first questions. The first question should begin with God: what is my purpose for God that money can fulfill? A clear theology of purpose will control our budget, it will direct our response to financial losses and gains and it will give meaning to money that is not humanly-centered, but is divinely centered.

Well, let’s move on to a second tenet in trying to build this superstructure of an initial theology of money, and that is that money is a stewardship. If Tenet Number One was hard to understand, Tenet Number Two is hard to accept. That’s because we live in a culture where the possession of private property is basic. One sure word in a two-year-old’s vocabulary is “Mine!”

Charleen and I went for a walk in the woods awhile back. We were on a public path near a park and some neighbors had posted signs that said, “Private Property, Do Not Trespass”.

I even see this territoriality at church. When people come to church and find someone else in “their” seat there’s a tension between trying to get that seat and trying to display Christian virtue at the same time. It’s a real struggle for many of us because we have this sense that something is mine. It’s possession. It’s territoriality. Yet, that’s not what the Bible teaches.

In Job 41:11 God tells Job, “Everything under heaven belongs to me.” In Exodus 19:5 God said to Moses and to the people of Israel, “ . . . the whole earth is mine.” David writes in Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” And, in II Corinthians 6:10 St. Paul describes himself as “having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” He knew that he may have hold of things as temporary possessions, but he didn’t own them because they were God’s.

Legally, we own whatever is in our name. It may be money in the bank, the car in our garage, the furniture in our home or a house to which we have the title. It is ours!

But theologically, we own nothing. Everything we have belongs to God and we are merely temporary caretakers. Everything is his!

Stewardship is using and caring for that which belongs to another. Obviously, we treat something differently when we know it’s not ours. We may even enjoy it more because we know we have it only temporarily.

A few years ago someone backed into my car. Only the door was dented so I wasn’t in a hurry to get it fixed. A friend was going away on a trip and said I could use his car while mine was in the shop. His car was a brand new Porsche. It was great - - - except when I drove it to church one Sunday during a series of sermons on stewardship. After that I parked several blocks away and walked.

I treated that Porsche differently because it wasn’t mine. I drove more carefully. And I think I enjoyed it more because I knew I would have to give it back.

In our theology of money we should believe that everything we have is God’s. It is ours to manage for a while, but whenever he wants it back, it’s his to claim. We’re accountable to him. What we have is not ours. Furthermore, it must always be used in a way that is consistent with who he is and what he wants. This is an extraordinarily freeing concept.

When John Wesley’s house burned, he exclaimed, “The Lord’s house burned. One less responsibility for me!” When we believe that money is a stewardship we are free to give God the responsibility. We don’t hold the ultimate responsibility for our investments or our cars or our houses. We don’t have to impress anyone but God. We are liberated from greed.

Charles Finney was one of America’s great 19th century theologians and preachers and the President of Oberlin College. In 1835 he published a series of lectures on revival in which he gave instructions to young Christian converts. Here’s how he started: “Young converts should be taught that they have renounced ownership of all their possessions, and of themselves, or if they have not done this they are not Christians.”

Wow! Those are strong words! But they are words worth hearing. Stewardship!

This tenet needs a great deal of reinforcement. Perhaps we need to write on every piece of furniture, on the inside of our cars and on every stock and bond - - - “This belongs to God!” We need to constantly be reminded that nothing that we have is ours. We are simply stewards. Essential to any biblical theology of money is the firm belief and commitment that MONEY IS A STEWARDSHIP.

A third tenet, and maybe the most controversial of the three, is that money is a god. In Matthew 6:24 Jesus made an astonishing statement: “No one 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. You cannot serve both God and Money.” Jesus here personifies money as if it were a person, or, more specifically, as if it were a god. Money is a god that is in competition with the God of Heaven for our allegiance.

Some may say, “That’s stupid. Money isn’t a god. It’s just paper or metal or plastic or computer data. It’s not a god like the God above.”

But money is a god. Money is as much a god as the carved images of the Old Testament or of modern India. It can be loved, worshiped, trusted and lived for. It has extraordinary spiritual power. It is the basis of trust for healing illnesses, solving problems, making happiness and giving meaning to life.

Married couples really believe money can solve their problems. Those who are depressed believe money can lift their mood. Money can buy forgiveness for certain types of sins like breaking the law. Money is a reward for doing what is right and good. In fact, money may be an easier god to understand and relate to than an unseen Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Think this through. Money is the god of a materialistic society. It has extraordinary power and influence to the point that it can and often does control our lives.

You may think this is farfetched, but there is a sense in which money has become the religion of our country. It has its temples called banks, its clergy called financiers, its numerous religious publications and its multitude of liturgies. We take it with us wherever we go. We value one another according to how much money we earn and have. It’s frightening!

Because of this, money must be theologically perceived as more of an enemy than a friend because it is often THE primary competition for our spiritual allegiance to the lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives.

Martin Luther observed that “there are three conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, mind and the purse.” Luther understood that money is a competing god from whose power we must be converted.

The pressure to live for and worship money as a god is extraordinary. It takes a deliberate spiritual commitment to serve Almighty God rather than the almighty dollar.

Quick review:

Money is a means.
Money is a stewardship.
Money is a god.

God has been great in his faithfulness to us. Let us resolve to live his theology of money in faithfulness that honors him!

Many people have stories to tell about their own personal experiences with God. Most of them are wonderful, a few are weird, and some are downright wack-o. But what we need to understand is that faith is always tied to personal experience with God and these experiences are different for everyone.

Personal faith is how a person becomes a Christian. That’s why we talk so often about a personal prayer of commitment to Jesus. Faith is not something that someone else can decide and do for us—every one of us needs to experience Jesus Christ. But it’s important that we don’t try to copy somebody else’s experience. If we climb a mountain expecting to see Jesus, as Peter, James and John did, we’re going to be deeply disappointed. That was their experience. Unfortunately, some well-meaning Christians try to impose their experience on others. They expect others to see their visions, to speak in their tongues, or to experience their miracles. But that misses the point. For God’s plan is for each one of us to personally experience Jesus Christ.

This commandment has been terribly misused through the years. Some legalists have tried to turn Sunday into an enforced Sabbath day with a thousand regulations about what you can’t do. It became a day of misery rather than a day of blessing. I find it interesting that in all the recorded teachings of Jesus, keeping the Sabbath was the only commandment he didn’t affirm. Not that it wasn’t important, but he certainly didn’t emphasize it as much as the other commandments.

So, what does it mean for us today? Work six days and take a day off. Enjoy your day of rest and focus on God. If Sunday is your Sabbath, great. If it can’t be Sunday, pick a different day. But don’t work seven days a week. This is a commandment of trust. It demonstrates that we trust God to help us accomplish our work in six days so that we can celebrate this gift of a day from God. It demonstrates that we are working for God, not ourselves.

Unfortunately there are some who don't even want to consider the possibility of the Biblical story. Several years ago a Wall Street Journal article reported on the work of a Chinese paleontologist. He lectures around the world about recent discoveries in his country that are inconsistent with the assumptions of the Darwinian theory of evolution. When his lectures upset some American scientists he observed, “In China we can criticize Darwin but not the government. In American you can criticize the government but not Darwin.”

His comment was very perceptive. We need to read the Biblical account with an open mind, looking beyond the details and the arguments to the central message that everything began with God.

The Bible says that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” When God created the heavens he also created the earth. For some unspecified period of time the earth was “formless and empty,” quite unlike the way we know it today.

In six creative acts God changed the formless and empty earth into the world that we know. The Bible says “days” but in Hebrew that could refer to twenty-four hour periods or millions of years. The focus is not on the clock, but on the Creator.

On day one, God created light. On day two, the atmosphere; on day three, the land and the plants; on day four, the sun, moon and stars; on day five, the birds and fish, and on day six, animals and humans. On day seven he rested, for he was finished creating his wonderful world.

When we contemplate those ten thousand points of light in the sky, we see how insignificant each of us is in a universe so vast. But this same God who created the heavens and the earth loved us enough to sacrifice his beloved Son on our behalf. The very vastness of creation serves as a reminder of the vastness of God’s love for us.

As the Bible describes the different days of creation, it says that every day God stopped to review what he had done and observed that it was good. He did not make an evil world but a good world. It was carefully designed to work well and to be beautiful. This was God at his creative best.

On the seventh day God rested. That is not to say that he napped or abandoned his responsibilities of running his universe, it’s saying that he stopped what he was doing — for he was finished. He had done a marvelous job and it was very good!

The last book of the Bible describes a magnificent scene in heaven where angels lay their crowns before the throne of God saying, "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created.”

From beginning to end, the Bible demonstrates that our response to God’s creation should be to worship him — to acknowledge his greatness. Our design, our destiny and our privilege is to worship our Creator!

1 Peter 1:13-16

You may know at least part of Lisa Beamer’s story. She was catapulted into tragedy and fame on September 11, 2001, when her husband Todd phoned from United 93 to say that his plane had been hijacked and he and other passengers were going to fight back. His last words were ricocheted into history by President George W. Bush as saying, “Let’s roll!” Lisa Beamer was honored before a joint session of the United States Congress on September 20, 2001.

But this was not the first tragedy in Lisa Beamer’s life. She was a 15-year-old growing up in Shrub Oak, New York, when her father, Paul Brosious, an IBM research physicist, suffered an aneurysm at work. He was rushed to the hospital and died the next morning. At first this rattled the teenager’s Christian faith, but eventually, she says, “I hit an understanding that God knew what was going to happen to my father but, for whatever reason, chose not to change it.”

After Todd died she said, “My father’s death prepared me for what I’m going through right now. . . . (God) could have changed the day of Todd’s meeting or had him leave the night before . . . (but) it was better for him to be on that plane.”

Lisa Beamer is quoted as saying that she could continue to live in fear rather than hope, but that she chooses to live in hope. She was hit hard by the powers of evil and she chose not to let evil destroy her, frighten her or shape her life.

How does a Christian do that? We live in a world where evil constantly surrounds us. It sometimes appears in suave sophistication—dressed in evening gowns and tuxedos. Sometimes evil appears loaded with money and promises of possessions and power. Other times it comes in flames of fire, taunts of evil, horrors of pain and threats of death. Every one of us knows about evil and every one of us should hate the thought of evil shaping our lives. But how do we avoid it? St. Peter wrote about this in 1 Peter 1:13-16:

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

Preparation for an assault from evil is a key to success. A common report from police officers, fire fighters and soldiers is that they survived an unexpected attack because “training kicked in.” I remember a TV interview with a soldier who said, “I was too scared to think. I just did what they trained me to do and it worked.”

1 Peter 1:13 says to “prepare your minds for action.” Great! But how do we know what to prepare for? Life has too many surprises. How can we know if we will be robbed, disabled in a car accident, attacked by a terrorist or betrayed by a friend? How can we know whether to prepare for the risk of wealth or poverty, divorce or cancer, addiction to alcohol or pornography?

There are several possible answers to this important question. One is anticipation. If you are a public servant like a police officer, anticipate the possibility of being offered a bribe. If you work in an office where business dishonesty is common consider how to handle an opportunity to steal. If you are surrounded by sexually immoral people, imagine how you will respond to an illicit sexual opportunity.

A second answer is values. If you have thought through what it means to be honest, to be faithful to God, to keep your commitments, to treat people justly, to be a good moral person you will be in great shape when evil strikes. These values will guide you through unanticipated crises and pressures that will try to shape you into something you don’t want to be.

The third answer really isn’t understood until after the fact, and that is trust. This may sound strange to those who are not Christians, but it didn’t sound strange to Lisa Beamer. When her husband tragically died when she was 32 she said that she was being prepared by God when her father tragically died when she was 15. While she couldn’t see all this in advance, it became evident later that God used one circumstance in her life to get her ready for a later circumstance.

The point here is obvious: you have to get ready in advance! This is so obvious that some people miss it. The time to get ready for hard times in life is before they come. Become spiritually strong before troubles arrive; otherwise it may be too late.

The second way to not let evil shape our lives is to take control. 1 Peter 1:13 says, “. . . prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled.” Actually, Peter’s literal words weren’t “be self-controlled” but “be sober.” He used the term for “don’t get drunk.” The Greek words in the original New Testament refer to abstinence from wine. You can take it literally: Don’t drink alcohol so that you don’t lose control of your behavior. You can take it figuratively: Don’t let anyone or anything take over your life and behavior so that you are no longer in control. Don’t get carried away with substances, ideas, fads, politics or people who will mess with your judgment so they are doing your thinking for you.

Let’s suppose we take this literally. Don’t let alcohol cloud your judgment or your self-control. We all know the consequences of drunken driving or people showing up for work while they are high or what alcohol can do to a marriage or a family.

I was the speaker at a conference. One of the officers of the organization sponsoring the conference took me out for dinner before the evening session. He ordered a drink from the bar. (I don’t drink—for biblical, personal and a whole lot of other reasons.) He turned to me and asked what I wanted to drink and then said, “Oh, you’d better not drink because you have to speak tonight.” I know what he meant—if I drank alcohol it might mess up my judgment and I wouldn’t say what I was supposed to say. I wanted to tell him maybe he shouldn’t drink because alcohol might mess up his judgment and he wouldn’t hear what he was supposed to hear when I said what I was supposed to say!

We know the rules: Don’t drink and drive; don’t drink and fly an airplane; don’t drink and drive a snowmobile; don’t drink and go hunting; don’t drink if you need to make important decisions and if you need to have all your wits about you. But Peter is saying that Christians live in a world where we are always at risk of danger and evil and we always need to have all our wits about us. Be self-controlled.

Peter’s third way to avoid being shaped by the evil around us is to think ahead with hope. Hope is the expectation of a better tomorrow. Hope is what keeps us going when life is tough. Hope is the source of our strength when everything awful presses down on us. If we have hope we can keep going.

Why do soldiers endure in POW camps? Why do employees stick with a company that’s going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy? Why do husbands and wives stay in marriages that look impossible? Hope! They hope the war will be won soon. They hope the company will succeed. They hope the marriage will survive. This is how Christians survive and thrive in tough times.

“. . . prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Here Peter is pointing to the return of Jesus Christ to earth. When Jesus ascended to heaven he promised he would come back. The Second Coming of Jesus has been and still is a core belief of Christianity. When Jesus returns he will give gifts, goodness, victory and happiness to Christians. It will be the best of the best—sort of like the end of World War II when there was wild celebration across America. The soldiers were coming home; happy days were here again! And it was true. America experienced a generation of unprecedented peace and prosperity.

When Jesus returns to earth it will be infinitely better! There will be an unprecedented outpouring of the goodness and grace of God upon a world that has been under the troubles of evil for far too long.

But look and listen carefully to the Bible’s words here on how to avoid being shaped by the evils of the world before Jesus returns. We should be fixed on and filled with hope for a better future because of Jesus. When discouraged, when wanting to give up, when tempted to yield to the pressures of evil—hang on to your hope. Keep believing. Look forward. Think ahead. The best is yet to come.

Please note: Just because God has so much grace coming in the future doesn’t mean that his grace is in short supply now. One of the clearest promises of the Bible is 2 Corinthians 12:9 where God says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God will always give us whatever help we need to do what he wants us to do. He will give us the strength to get through our weakest situations. He will give us courage to do what is right. He will give us whatever we need. No matter how hard life is, no matter how great the pressures on us today think ahead, keep the faith, hold on to hope. God will bring the ultimate victory.

As Peter continues to write he builds up to the point he is making. While 1 Peter 1:13 is helpful it is really leading up to 1 Peter 1:14 where it says, “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.” God is going to take care of us. God is going to help us. But God wants us to avoid evil along the way. If we really love God, if we really belong to him, if we really want to please and obey God we have to do our best not to be shaped by the evil in our world or the evil desires in our hearts.

The movie A Beautiful Mind received four Golden Globe Awards. It is the true story of John Nash, a genius PhD student at Princeton University in the 1950s. He wrote a theory of economic equilibrium that won him notoriety and a great job. He met and married a beautiful woman. He had a lot going for him but he also had undiagnosed schizophrenia. The movie is a vivid and sometimes frightening portrayal of the battle for his mind. With the help of family, friends and professionals John Nash was able to live outside a mental hospital and eventually reconnect with Princeton. But he still saw and heard people who were not there who called him to strange and destructive behavior. He fought a life-long battle against the enormous forces inside of him. In his case it was a well-fought battle. In l994 he was awarded a Nobel Prize and still lives in Princeton and offices in the Mathematics Department of Princeton University.

In the Bible Peter portrays us all as having a battle going on inside us. It is not schizophrenia; it is sin. We have evil desires that speak to us, push us, tempt us and can destroy us if we allow them to control our minds and souls.

Some of those desires are violent and harmful; some are actually prized and promoted by our culture. Before we become Christians we may not be able to tell the difference, but as children of God we grow and learn and are no longer ignorant. We come to understand the evil of prejudice, injustice, racism, sexual immortality, greedy ambition, abuse and a thousand other “evil desires”. As Christians we must decide if we are going to allow evil (on the outside and the inside) to shape our lives.

Let me give you an example. It comes from an article in Shine Magazine written by Dr. Linda Mintle, a professional counselor and author:

Tom was a bright guy who found himself restless and bored at his job. He began flirting with a co-worker. Business lunches led to after-hours drinks. One late night turned into two, then three. Tom dreaded going home to his mundane life. He and Susan had grown apart, and he resented her preoccupation with the family. Instead of talking to her about it, he allowed the stimulation of this new relationship to father momentum. Finally, a woman who understood business appeared to be interested in his every thought. Even though Tom was married, he convinced himself that his extramarital relationship was harmless. There were lively discussions and growing intimacy. This new relationship was an exciting escape from the boredom of real life. It felt exhilarating. Tom wanted more. Yes, there were moments of guilt, but the immediate gratification felt too good to stop.

Eventually, the relationship became physical. Fearing he might have stepped over his self-imposed line, Tom came to therapy. His first question was, “Have I really been unfaithful to my wife? I haven’t had sex. We’ve done a lot of kissing and fondling, but does that really count?” My response: “If you told your wife what you just told me, what would she say?”

Tom grew silent. He knew the answer. Infidelity is a breach of trust, a breaking of the covenant, a betrayal of the relationship. It goes beyond sexual intercourse to include the physical, emotional and thought life of a person.

Tom knew better. He couldn’t have been that ignorant. “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.”

Peter wraps up his principle “Don’t let evil shape you” with one more piece of advice: Be different! Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1:15-16, “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’ ”

As a college student I spent a summer trekking and studying in Europe. On numerous occasions people would walk up to me and say, “You’re an American, aren’t you?” Usually I would ask how they knew and they would laugh at the question. Sometimes they just said, “It’s obvious!” and walk away. Other times they said it was the way I talked, the clothes I wore and the style of my glasses. I was just different. I looked like an American.

The word the Bible uses for different is “holy”. When the Bible says that God is holy it’s saying God is different. He is holy and good and loving and generous and powerful to an extent that makes him unique.

In the Old Testament God wanted the Hebrew people to stand out as different from all the other nations—uniquely belonging to God. So, God gave them a thousand rules about how to dress, eat, worship and all kinds of other things to make them different from everyone around them.

God wants us to be different as well. Different good! He wants us to avoid evil by having as many things as possible in our lives that identify us with him. He wants our dress to be modest. He wants our lives to be peaceful. He wants our families to be strong. He wants our treatment of others to be fair. He wants the way we do business to be honest. He wants our language to be clean. He wants us to be different. He wants us to be holy. He wants us to look like we belong to him.

No one is exempt from the problems of evil in our world. What’s a Christian to do to avoid being sucked in, totally shaped and maybe destroyed?

. . . prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

God, we’ve heard the principle and we’d like to live
that principle, but we need your help. Lord, whether evil comes
at us with a vengeance and a fire and bellowing attack or evil
comes with some subtlety that sneaks into the back recesses of
our souls, let us be shaped by the choices that we make and the
influences you give and not by the evil that seeks to turn us away
from you and what is right and good.
All this we pray, in Jesus name. Amen.

Historically we have taken non-Christian symbols and activities and Christianized them. One is the Roman cross. We have taken what was a symbol of hatred, pain and condemnation and turned it into a symbol of hope, love and eternal life. The German Yule tree has been renamed a Christmas tree and the celebration of the winter solstice has been replaced by the celebration of the birth of Jesus in the third week of December. We refer to the hymns written by John and Charles Wesley, the founders of the Methodist church, as traditional Christian music. We forget that the Wesleys used the contemporary music of their day. They wrote Christian lyrics for the tunes that were popular in the pubs of England.

Christian missionaries have sometimes gone to other cultures and insisted that they dress the way that we dress; sit in chairs as we do; gather together for worship on Sunday morning as we do and worship with our kind of music. None of that is biblical. It has nothing to do with true worship. What matters is bringing people to the point of trusting in the one true God – and in Jesus Christ, his only son, who came into this world to save sinners from every culture.

But all was not as it appeared to be. I picture them lying in bed in the dark discussing the sale of their property. Ananias told Sapphira that they’d been offered $100,000 cash for the land – much more than what they had expected. He told her if they donated fifty thousand and kept fifty thousand for themselves, everyone would come out ahead. Sapphira loved the idea. They both went to sleep that night dreaming of what to do with the extra cash – maybe a vacation in Egypt with enough left over to buy more property. It would be their little secret.

When the day came to give the money, Ananias laid the cash at the feet of the apostle Peter. I'm not sure how Peter knew what was going on, but he knew. He accused Ananias and Sapphira of lying to the Holy Spirit and stealing from God.

Peter asked, "What made you think of doing such a thing?" and one after the other, both of them fell down dead.

The last line of this story is a masterpiece of understatement, “Great fear seized the whole church.”

Two thousand years later, failure to keep our promises to God is still serious business.

The police officer said “What you say is true, but I’ve been following you. I saw you wave your fist at that lady in the left lane who wouldn’t get out of your way. And then when that Hummer cut you off, I was close enough to see how red your face turned. You were really flushed. I couldn’t understand the words you were saying but it appeared that they were pretty explosive. And then, back at the exit when the traffic was all backed up, I could see you pounding on the wheel. So I decided to pull you over.”

The man said “Wait a minute. Since when are any of those things crimes?”

The police officer replied, “There’re not – but when I noticed the bumper sticker on your car that says ‘JESUS LOVES YOU AND SO DO I,’ I figured this had to be a stolen car.”

What’s my point with this story? Some of us are not what we claim to be. We pretend to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ when, in reality, we’re hypocrites. Let us examine ourselves to make sure that we are living in a way that honors Jesus in all that we say and do. Jesus calls us to walk in integrity.

It appears that the world issue for the 21st century is religion. Around the globe there is fierce competition for the religious allegiance of our souls. What happened in America on September 11, 2001 was not the cause, but an effect of the religious competition that is sweeping the globe. It made Americans more interested in Islam than ever before.

Christianity and Islam are the world's two largest religions, together making up about half of the world’s population. Both are multi-national, evangelistic, and growing very rapidly.

In America we are mostly Christian. We belong to different branches of Christianity with names like Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist or Methodist; but the rest of the world lumps us together under the broad title of “Christian.”

With the Muslim population in the United States steadily growing, we are very aware of Muslims. Public opinion ranges from seeing Islam as a religion that is equal to and as acceptable as Christianity, to a well-known leader describing Islam as an “evil and wicked religion.”

So, what’s a Christian to do? Just be yourself! As a devoted follower of Jesus, see Muslims as potential friends rather than as enemies. Treat Muslims as you would treat any one else – with the love and kindness of Jesus Christ.

I said no because it’s against the law to smuggle literature into that country, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He said that some Bibles and books would be delivered to our hotel early the next morning and we should ask God what we should do.

Overnight I decided that a Bible or two might be okay, but I was unprepared for the small library of Bibles and Christian books that was delivered. I can’t explain why, but we divided up the Bibles and books among the four of us, filling every available space in our luggage.

Before landing, the flight attendants distributed forms asking our names, passport numbers and a short check list asking if we were bringing guns, narcotics or literature into the country. The four of us sat paralyzed. If we said we weren’t bringing literature, we were lying. If we checked that we were bringing literature, we were equally in trouble. The Holy Spirit led us to a simple solution. We left the question blank.

Our forms were carefully scrutinized as we passed through immigration and we were waved through. I still remember the secret nighttime meeting when we delivered our library of literature to Christians in the underground church and saw the joy on their faces. Was it worth the danger? – Absolutely!

1 Thessalonians 4:18

We have considered some of the top ten lists from the Bible including: top ten reasons to be a Christian; top ten good things to do; top ten sins to avoid. Today we page through the Bible to draft a top ten list of things God has planned for the future. We are all curious about the future because we are personally involved. God’s future is also our future.

The list is not necessarily in chronological order because the Bible doesn’t always tell the chronology and because some items on this list may overlap with one another. For example, if you were to list the top ten great events in your life you might include education, marriage, a new job, having a baby, moving to Minnesota. There could be lots of overlap because you were married while you were in graduate school and your second child was born during your move to Minnesota. So, don’t worry too much about the order of God’s future plans. Just be impressed that God has definite plans for all of our tomorrows.

First on the list is an item you may not think even belongs on the list. It is preparation for the future. If we believe God has plans for tomorrow and for eternity and that our part depends on our choice now, we want to be well prepared for what is to come. It is like studying for a test or prepping for a job interview or packing for a long vacation. Getting ready is the all-important prelude to God’s future.

Jesus makes a couple of important points in Mark 13:32-33. First, he says that no one knows when predicted events will occur. Second, he says we should be ready whenever they occur. Mark 13:32-33 quotes Jesus as saying, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.”

Jesus’ clear teaching is that none of us knows in advance when things are going to happen, although that is a clear teaching of Jesus that has been ignored for centuries. In AD 960 a German theologian, Bernard of Thuringa, calculated that the world would end in AD 992. He was so sure and he convinced so many people that panic swept across Europe. It didn’t happen.

On New Year’s Eve AD 999 thousands of people packed into St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to pray with Pope Sylvester II because they believed that the end of the age was coming at the stroke of midnight. It didn’t happen.

German astrologer Johann Stoffler predicted that an overwhelming flood would occur on February 20, 1524. When it didn’t happen he revised his date to 1588. It still didn’t happen.

In 1874 Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, predicted the Second Coming of Jesus would occur in 1914. When it didn’t happen in 1914 the prediction was changed to “very soon after 1914.”

American Herbert W. Armstrong, publisher of The Plain Truth magazine, focused on January 7, 1972. Nostradamus, the famous 16th century prognosticator, anticipated a Martian invasion of earth in 1999. And, for those who consider some of these to be ancient nonsense, remember the Y2K scare that swept across America? Millions of Americans hoarded gas, food and cash in dread of midnight on December 31, 1999.

Jesus was clear that God does not reveal dates. Jesus was equally clear that we need to be ready all the time. Just as you want to save money before a rainy dayor learn the Heimlich maneuver before the person next to you is chocking, so you want to get ready for God’s future plans before they begin.

Number two on the list of things God has planned for the future is the return of Jesus Christ to earth. It is by far one of the most important upcoming events on God’s calendar. While there are differences and controversies among Bible scholars about some of the future events, on this there is broad agreement. As Jesus once came to earth as a poor baby visited by shepherds, he will return to earth as a triumphant King for the world to see.

After Jesus’ death, resurrection and forty days of appearances he ascended to heaven. Angels appeared to Jesus’ followers who witnessed his ascension and gave a very specific prediction that we find in Acts 1:11, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Now understand that this is a really big deal. It is a central teaching of Christianity. It is the cornerstone of all biblical prophecy. It has been and is the basis for Christian hope, that no matter how wonderful or painful this life has been, the best is yet to come. Jesus will come back to earth to be reunited with Christians and to judge and rule the world.

This makes a difference in how we live. Anticipation of Jesus’ return is a key basis for Christian living. That was pointed out by St. Paul when he wrote in Titus 2:11-14:

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Number three on the list is the rapture. Just as the citizens of ancient cities would run to welcome home their conquering king, so Christians will be supernaturally transported to meet Jesus when he returns. It will be a wonderful and unexplainable experience. It’s described in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17:

According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

The details are few but the prospect of being on Jesus’ “Welcoming Committee” is glorious.

Number 4 is not so glorious although it is on the list of God’s top ten plans for the future. It is called the Tribulation. This period is typically calculated to be somewhere in the vicinity of seven years when there will be a great cataclysmic conflict between the forces of good and evil. This is an exponential escalation of what history has previously known. The wars are worse. Bloodshed is enormous. Diseases are awful. It is a battle for the human race. For those then living it will be a terrible ordeal! Jesus describes it in Mark 13:19 saying that “those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.”

Number 5 is resurrection. This is very different from much of the rest of the list. Resurrection is mostly spread out over the future, but it is also part of history. Jesus rose from the dead on Easter and became the prototype for future resurrections.

Those in industry know well that a prototype is a very expensive sample that is built to prove that the technology exists to make millions more. When Jesus came back from the dead God proved it could be done and showed us what to expect for ourselves. It’s really amazing.

The Bible predicts life after death. But understand that it is not just bringing back to life this body exactly as it is. It is not resuscitation of the bodies we have now. Nor is it reincarnation—coming back as something else or in someone else’s body. Resurrection is different. Resurrection is a new body that is supernaturally cloned off the bodies we have now—although definitely upgraded. Resurrection isn’t a point in time event; it will happen at different points along God’s future timetable. Here’s what it will be like according to St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44:

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

The week after Easter 2004 the Wooddale Forum sponsored an event featuring a scholar named Dr. Gary Habermas, an authority on resurrection. He is a PhD who has studied the topic for nearly 35 years and written many books on resurrection. What he didn’t tell us when he was here was his own experience.

In 1995 his wife, Debbie, had the flu. When it didn’t go away she went for some medical tests. The doctor told her, “You have got some serious problems here.” She died four months later of stomach cancer at age 43.

In coming to terms with his wife’s death, he moved beyond the historical and theoretical evidence. He imagined a conversation with God that whenever he asked questions about Debbie’s cancer and dying God would say, “Gary, did I raise my Son from the dead?”

“Of course you did, Lord,” he would respond. “But why is Debbie dying?”

“Gary, did I raise my Son from the dead?”

“Yes Lord, but . . . .”

“Gary, did I raise my Son from the dead?”

Gary Habermas says, “I imagined God repeating the same question until I got his point. There was an answer to Debbie’s suffering, even if I didn’t know it. If Jesus has been raised, then I can trust that Debbie will be raised too.”

Winston Churchill planned his own funeral for St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. When the funeral was over and the benediction had been pronounced, a bugler high in the cathedral’s dome played Taps, the universal military tune signaling day is done. Then, another bugler elsewhere in the dome of St. Paul’s played Reveille, the universal military wake up call.

It’s all about number 5 on the list of things God has planned for the future.

Number 6 is the Millennium. This word comes from the French word “mille” which means thousand. The Millennium refers to a future time of one thousand years when peace and prosperity will prevail across the earth and Jesus Christ will directly rule our world. It will be the best of times with true liberty and justice for all. The kingdom of God will control our earth.

This amazing ten century period is hinted at in the Old Testament but is specifically described at the very end of the Bible. It is graphic language with lots of symbolism telling what happens after the Tribulation and how the Millennium happens. John says in Revelation 20:1-4:

And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan. and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Number 7 is judgment. It is in the courtroom of God where humans and history are judged and eternal consequences are announced.

It’s interesting to know what Americans think about the judgment of God to come. According to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of adults over age 18, 79% of Americans say that “there will be a day when God judges whether you go to heaven or hell.”

That day is described in Revelation 20:11-15:

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were open. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Number 8 on this list is heaven. Actually, heaven already exists as the home of God. While it is true that God is omnipresent, that he is everywhere, there is one place that he lists as his address—the place he calls home—and that is heaven. Heaven is the promise of God to all those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sin and eternal life that they will get to be with God forever.

This heaven is better than anything we could ever imagine. Typically we take the best of everything we now know and extrapolate that into the future and say that’s what heaven must be like. But heaven is the best God can design. And the truth is that Christians are designed for heaven. We will be a perfect fit for the heaven God has created. We’ll be right at home!

Jesus talked about heaven, promising that he will have it ready when we get there. In John 14:1-3 Jesus is quoted as saying:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

Number 9 on our list is hell. Just as heaven is on our list, so must hell get equal time and place. Hell is the eternal destiny of those who do not believe. Hell is forever without God. Hell is death that lasts for eternity.

While most Americans seem to assume they will go to heaven no matter what, the belief in hell is amazingly strong.

Dr. Maurice Rawlings, a cardiologist at the University of Tennessee, and his colleagues interviewed more than 300 people who reported near-death experiences in the hospital emergency room. These interviews took place immediately after the near-death experiences occurred, unlike other studies with interviews long after the near-death experiences.

Rawlings found that nearly 50% of those interviewed reported images of fire, torment and sights that were far from what you would expect to see in heaven. However, in follow-up interviews months and years later Rawlings’ colleagues found that many of these people changed their stories. What they later reported in their near-death experiences was much more positive and pleasant. Apparently they felt it was too painful to tell their family, relatives and even researchers what they had actually experienced.

Dr. Rawlings says, “Just listening to these patients has changed my life. There is a life after death, and if I don’t know where I am going, it is not safe to die.”

Number 10 and last on the top ten list is a new heaven and a new earth. The Bible anticipates that one day our world will die and God will replace it with a new earth and a new heaven that are far better. It will become everything God originally intended—like the Garden of Eden—only better! 2 Peter 3:13 says that “in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”

Our family purchased the movie “Miracle” on DVD. It is the story of Minnesotan Herb Brooks and the upset victory of the USA Olympic Hockey Team over the Soviet Union in Lake Placid, New York. I was caught up in the tension. I anxiously watched every play and player. There were moments when I was scared that Team USA might lose. Then I thought, “Hey, I haven’t seen this before, but I know how it ends. It wouldn’t be a movie if we lost. We’re going to win.” I didn’t know all the details or exactly how it was going to happen, but I knew that in the end the USA was going to win.

It’s the same with God’s future predictions whether there are one or ten or more. Watching history unfold we can get kind of nervous and worried. We don’t know the details or exactly what is going to happen, but we know the end—and God’s going to win!”

We should not confuse proselytizing with evangelizing. Nothing is more Christian than evangelism, but we do not proselytize. Evangelism is persuasively presenting the truth of Jesus and inviting unbelievers to become Christians, but leaving the decision up to them. We respect the beliefs of others. We respect the teachings of other religions even if we disagree. We respect unbelief.

Proselytism, on the other hand, uses pressure, manipulation and threats to force people to convert to a religion through fear, enticement or trickery. Proselytism is more about what we want than what the other person chooses and it’s disrespectful of others and their beliefs.

The apostles, Peter and John, told the truth of Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the dead. They offered the powerful testimony of a man healed by the power of Jesus. Then they left the decision to accept or reject Jesus up to those who heard both the truth and the testimony. This was the New Testament pattern for evangelism.

Proselytizing is unnecessary for Christians. We believe that faith is an individual’s choice. We tell the truth about Jesus and report our testimony of faith. The ultimate evangelist is the Holy Spirit while we are merely the messengers.

The religious high court told Jesus’ followers, Peter and John, “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.” Although the court had the authority to make that demand, Peter and John immediately answered that they would disobey the ruling because their ultimate allegiance was to God and not to government.

What if everybody did this? If we each decided to pray about what speed we should drive instead of accepting the speed limit laws, we would have automotive chaos. On the other hand, if government must be obeyed without dissent, we have the potential for totalitarian oppression.

Listen to what the New Testament teaches, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.”

That seems pretty clear to me! Christians are to keep all laws. Yet those words were written by Peter – the one who told his leaders he was going to defy their orders to keep quiet about Jesus.

The broad Christian principle here is that Christians should do their best to obey every law even when the laws are wrong. However, there are limits. God is our highest authority and we must ultimately obey God even if it means breaking the law.

One day Jesus was visiting Jerusalem when he saw a man who was born blind. Those around him asked a theological question: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered that the blindness wasn’t because of the sin of the man or his parents, but that’s not the point here. My point is that it was a popular notion to blame victims for their problems. According to that notion, if God was punishing someone for sin, it could be considered morally wrong to help that person escape God’s punishment – even if it was blindness or paralysis.

Most of us think that such thinking is atrocious, although it may be more common in our generation than we imagine. When people are sick, poor, alienated or desperate, others frequently blame them for their problems. Sometimes I’m stunned by the hardhearted condemnation of people who are really hurting.

Jesus was kind and helpful even when others were clearly to blame for their own misery. He gave money to the poor, healed the sick and forgave sinners. The early church continued his ministry to hurting people.

Today there is a multitude of opinions around volatile issues such as poverty, race and immigration. As Christians, let our first response always be rooted in compassion and kindness. Being slow to blame and quick to help is the way to be like Jesus and to change the world!

The irony of persecution is that history is full of examples of how prison can have the opposite effect than that intended by the government. Dissidents like Adolph Hitler used their prison cells to write books that led to revolution. Nelson Mandela's imprisonment on South Africa's Robin Island built relationships that later led to an historic overthrow of the country’s system of apartheid. In America today young offenders are sent off to the penitentiary for a few years where they learn to become hardened criminals.

When first century Christians were thrown in jail, God used it for their good. When they were beaten, they became stronger in their faith. When they were persecuted, they turned to each other for help. When they were martyred, their executioners were so impressed with the way they died that they told others and some of them became Christians themselves.

The early church historian Tertullian penned these famous words, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

So, don’t think that bad things happening to Christians is always a bad thing! God is a master at taking the worst things that happen in our lives and turning them into the best. And that includes prison and persecution.

On March 15 of 2004 I was in Atlanta to speak to a group of Southern Baptist church leaders. Our conference was interrupted with the sobering announcement that five Southern Baptist missionaries in Iraq had been killed that day. One of them, a woman named Karen Watson, had left a letter with the pastors of her church to be opened and read only in the case of her death. Near the end of her letter Karen Watson wrote this exhortation to her fellow-Christians:

Care more than some think is wise.
Risk more than some think is safe.
Dream more than some think is practical.
Expect more than some think is possible.

Evangelism is caring about the eternal destiny of other people and communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who haven’t heard. It’s what Karen Watson and the other four missionaries were doing. As Christians, we believe in evangelism because we believe that people are lost without Jesus. We have experienced the presence and power of Jesus ourselves and we are satisfied customers. In fact, I don’t think that we can call ourselves Christians unless we evangelize. Evangelism is what we do. It’s a lifestyle.

In practical terms what does that mean? It’s caring more than some think is wise; it’s risking more than some think is safe; it’s dreaming more than some think is practical and expecting more than some think is possible. It’s what God wants us to do.

Exodus 20; Proverbs 6:16-19

Sins are like diseases; the list of possibilities is virtually endless. Just as all diseases are bad, so all sins are bad. And just as all diseases are to be avoided, so all sins are to be avoided. But some diseases are higher on our avoidance list than others. Not that all diseases and sins are not bad, but some are clearly worse than others. Heart attacks and cancer make the Top Ten list of diseases to avoid while athlete’s foot is not even in the top one hundred.

As Christians we want to avoid sin for Jesus’ sake. Every sin is an offense against God; however, avoiding sin is good for us as well. Sins are bad for God and damaging to us.

Some people think that prohibitions against sin all come from a God who is a grouch and does not want us to have any fun. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Let’s compare God’s rules to a child’s car safety seat. Children used to have unrestricted and unrestrained access to any passenger seat in any car. Thousands of children needlessly died in automobile accidents that ended their lives and broke their parents’ hearts. Then came laws requiring safety seats facing the right direction, properly secured and in the back of the car. New moms could no longer sit in the front seat holding their babies on their laps. There is even a fine for breaking the child safety seat law. Restrictive? Yes. Is it a really good idea? Absolutely.

When it comes to making a Top Ten list of sins to avoid the Ten Commandments clearly come to mind. Let’s take a look at the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20:2-5. Actually, I am going to take the liberty to leave out a couple and add a few from elsewhere in the Bible. By the way, different denominational traditions have different lists of the Ten Commandments. It is not that the content varies but different traditions use different approaches and numbering when counting the commandments in Exodus 20:2-5.

The number one sin to avoid is idolatry. It is the sin of substituting anyone or anything for God. Exodus 20:2-5 tells us:

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God . . . .”

The sin of idolatry was first understood in terms of the pagan religions surrounding the Hebrew people. They depicted God in art and other images. These images became competitors of God or substitutes for God. The essence of this sin is making anything more important than God. So we are to avoid anything that triggers the jealousy of the God we love and serve.

What does this look like today? Ask yourself the simple question, “What might God think is more important in my life than God himself?” It might be a person or a possession. Idolatry can come in almost any form—whiskey bottle, fishing pole, SUV, bank account, college degree, boyfriend or a good luck charm worn on a chain around your neck.

It is a constant battle. Every one of us has a long line of applicants for “first in our lives.” When we reject one applicant another shows up. There is constant pressure to push God into second or lower place on the list of importance. So, avoid anything and everything that competes with God for number one place in your life.

Second on the Top Ten list of sins to avoid is profanity. There is a difference between profanity and obscenity. Obscenity is a whole dictionary full of mostly four-letter words that are generally related to sex or bodily functions and parts. Most obscenity is rooted in the person’s anger, frustration, limited vocabulary or other personal problems. Obscenity is common in our culture and increasingly common on television and in the movies. Obscenity is vulgar and inappropriate and, while I would certainly include obscenity on a longer list of sins to avoid, it does not make the Top Ten. Profanity does, however, make the Top Ten list at number two.

Ironically, our culture is more accepting of profanity than obscenity. If I list for you the more frequent profanities in our vocabulary they include “Oh, my God” and “Jesus Christ”. But if I speak the most common obscenities or even suggest the first letters of the most obscene words you will be offended and even outraged. The Federal Communications Commission allows profanity but bans obscenity.

Profanity is misusing the name of God. It is swearing by God’s name and not keeping that vow. It is invoking God’s name to make a point or to get attention. Exodus 20:7 tells us, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”

One new Christian struggled to break the habit of bad language. He agreed to an accountability system with a Christian friend. He kept track of how many times he swore during the week, wrote a check for $5 per profanity and put the check in the weekly church offering.

The first week it cost him $100. The second week he did better ant it cost him less. But he just could not seem to break the habit. Then his friend unilaterally changed the contract. Instead of the guy who swore paying the weekly fine, his friend wrote the check each week. They would meet at church on Sunday morning and the mentor had the check all made out and signed. The man with the swearing problem just wrote in the amount. This helped him to understand God’s grace and forgiveness and within a few weeks his profanity stopped.

Number three is overwork. It is actually a chronic sin of many hard-driving Type-A Christians today. There are many reasons why overwork is a sin, including abusing our bodies, idolizing achievement and not trusting God. In Exodus 20:8-11 we read:

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

The principle here is clear. Take time off. Take a day off. Take a vacation. Lighten up. Trust God to help you do your work in less than 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Work hard, but don’t overwork!

The fourth sin to avoid is murder. Most of us breathe a sigh of relief on this one because we have not killed anyone and probably never will. But, before we overrate ourselves, take note of news reports analyzing the behavior of American prison guards in Baghdad. American soldiers, intelligence agents and contract workers accused of prisoner abuse were ordinary people who would not have predicted their own behavior. Some of them are described as committed Christians and faithful church members. Before we assume ourselves incapable of abuse and murder, let’s assume that we might take another person’s life if we were caught in certain circumstances.

In the Ten Commandments it is only a few words: “You shall not murder.” One of the ways to avoid this terrible sin is to assume that we might commit it and deeply resolve in advance that we will never take another human life. It is true that sometimes we may face a tragic moral choice where self-defense or a just war invites life taking. If so, may such behavior be the last resort and with deep regret.

The taking of life has long been an area of moral debate. This debate has been mingled with political positions and government policies at home and abroad. In some cases our nation has been deeply divided. My advice to you is to promote, defend and celebrate human life as a gift from God. As for me, I want to avoid life taking and seek to be consistently pro-life at every opportunity and on every issue. From abortion to capital punishment, I want to protect life.

Number five is adultery. Simply defined, adultery is sexual unfaithfulness to a marriage covenant. The Bible is simple and clear in Exodus 20:14, “You shall not commit adultery.” Adultery is a sexual sin. But it is not primarily a sexual sin. It is primarily the breaking of a marriage vow and relationship between a man and a woman and God.

Marriage is God’s design as the best and most intimate of lifelong relationships between a man and a woman. When God’s best is exchanged for an encounter with someone else it deeply wounds the souls of everyone involved. What may seem like a good idea at the time turns out to be a moral disaster. Smart Christians not only avoid adultery, they avoid anything that might lead to adultery.

We hear a strong pro-adultery message ricocheting in our culture to the point that you might think everyone is unfaithful. There is a story about a dozen married women who met for lunch. One of them asked how many had remained faithful to their husbands throughout their marriage. Only one of the twelve raised her hand. Later that day, one of the women who did not raise her hand went home and told her husband what had happened. She said she had lied because she had been faithful to him. When he asked her why she didn’t raise her hand she answered, “Because I was ashamed.”

Never be ashamed of avoiding the sin of adultery even if it looks like everyone else is doing it! The truth is that everyone is not doing it! The National Research Center at the University of Chicago conducted five studies beginning in 1988 and reported that 15% of Americans have ever cheated on a spouse and that in any given year the range is somewhere between 3-4% of husbands and wives are unfaithful.

If you are having an affair, end it. If you have never committed adultery, don’t!!!!

Number six on the list of the Top Ten Sins to Avoid is stealing. This sin does not need much of a definition. It is taking something that we have no right to take. Exodus 20:15 is just four words: “You shall not steal.”

Amazingly, some of the most famous shoplifters in America are superstars with millions of dollars. Stealing is often not about the items stolen. It is done simply for the joy of stealing. The average value of shoplifted items in America increased 53% from 2000 to 2003. Towels disappear from hotels. Church hymnals disappear. Employees pilfer. Workers come late and leave early for full pay. People lie on income tax returns and expense reports. Stealing is a common sin that we easily rationalize and justify. We tend to say the company owes us, no one will know or it will never be missed.

If it’s not yours, don’t take it.

Number seven is lying. This is such a common and easy sin that it is universal. Some people lie when they would be better off telling the truth. Exodus 20:16 tells us, “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”

Lying is really a form of stealing because it robs others of the truth. Lying destroys trust. Lying undermines relationships. It cheats others out of the advantages of honesty. It is extremely difficult to rebuild a relationship when lying has torn that relationship apart.

USA Today reported an analysis of 7,000 resumes that were submitted by applicants to potential employers. They found that 71% lied about the number of years in a previous job; 64% exaggerated accomplishments; 60% exaggerated the size of the organization they managed; 52% reported partial education as fully completed degrees; 48% exaggerated the compensation they previously received.

Liars don’t trust God. God stands for truth and when we lie we decide that truth is not good enough and that God can’t take care of us unless we corrupt the truth. God loves the truth. So let’s avoid the sin of lying.

Number eight of the Top Ten is coveting. This sin is very different from the rest. The other sins are mostly external but coveting is mostly internal. Exodus 20:17 says, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” This is a sin of the heart. It is all about contentment—being satisfied with what we have and not lusting for what belongs to someone else. Coveting is where adultery, stealing and murder all get started. When we yearn for the power, prestige and possessions of others we light the fuse of further sins.

Another way of defining coveting is that it is envy. Envy is when I feel really good about bad things that happen to you or I feel bad about the good things that happen to you. It is a lack of contentment over the blessings God has given to me.

We can control our thoughts. We can choose to be content with what we have. We can avoid the sin of coveting.

Number nine is actually a list within a list. It is found in Proverbs 6:16-19 and it is a statement of what God hates. Since we as Christians care about what God likes and what God doesn’t like God’s hate list belongs on our list of sins to avoid. Some of this list-within-a-list repeats some of the Ten Commandments but some are new. Let’s look at what God hates:

There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Don’t walk around looking proud. Don’t scheme up evil in your heart. And, never sin by causing dissension between other people.

Last on the list of the Top Ten Sins to Avoid is unlike all the rest. It is not the sin of what we do; it is the sin of what we don’t do. In James 4:17 we read, “Anyone who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” In other words, it is a sin to passively sit by and do nothing when we know the right thing to do.

Twenty-four year old Army Specialist Jeremy Sivits pleaded guilty at a U.S. Army court martial in Baghdad. He was an army mechanic who was invited to take photographs of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib Prison. He never kicked, punched, stripped or humiliated any Iraqi prisoner. But he did not stop those who did. He did not report the abuse to the chain of command. He could have done good and he did nothing. He was sentenced to a year in prison followed by a bad-conduct discharge.

Whenever you can do good, do it. Avoid the sin of undone good.

Rebecca Oehrig is a young woman who has spent time as a missionary in Mozambique. On October 17, 2005 she wrote this “Lament.”

“My country is dying. It is my country not by birth, nor by nationality, nor by choice, but it is my country that has chosen me and despite my best efforts to remain somewhat aloof, has entwined itself in my heart. Today I weep for Mozambique.

“I weep for the sorrow that salts the air in the throes of a deadly acronym. I weep for the daily funerals. I weep for the broken homes, destitute widows, orphaned children. I weep for the still-breathing skeletons with hollow eyes that sit in a lonely wait for death. I weep for the hunger pangs, the bloated tummies, the oozing sores that eat at flesh which hangs like oversized clothing. I weep for the helplessness, the despair, the loneliness. I weep for myself because to me AIDS has names and faces. To me, these are my friends.”

It’s obvious that Rebecca cares deeply for the people of Mozambique. We can’t all care about everyone and everything. Frankly, we just don’t have it in us. But we need to care for someone. We need to care for something beyond ourselves. Caring for others as Jesus cares requires a decision on our part. May our choice be to care deeply for others in Jesus’ name.

During the 19th century the Dutch ruled a part of South America that is now called Suriname. Off the coast of that Dutch colony there was an island that some missionaries wanted to reach for Jesus. Most of the islanders were slaves and the plantation owners forbade the missionaries access out of fear of what would happen if the slaves became Christians. They were concerned that outside influence could cause an uprising. As a result, the plantation owners made a rule that effectively excluded missionaries from their property. It said that only slaves may talk to slaves.

Do you know how those missionaries responded to this edict? They sold themselves into slavery. In spite of the harsh treatment and the tropical diseases, they worked on the plantations for the rest of their lives.

Like St. Paul, they became slaves to reach lost people for Jesus.

Jesus said, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already.”

In 1854 a criminal named Charlie Peace was hung in London. In those days part of the execution ritual was having an Anglican priest read this liturgy as the condemned was led to the gallows: “Those who die without Christ experience hell, which is the pain of forever dying without the release which death itself can bring.”

Charlie Peace shouted at the priest, “Do you believe that?”

Surprised by the unexpected outburst, the priest haltingly replied, “Well...I...suppose I do.”

“Well, I don't,” said the man about to die. “But if I did, I'd get down on my hands and knees and crawl all over Great Britain, even if it were paved with pieces of broken glass, if I could rescue one person from what you just told me.”

If we really believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven and that we can affect a person's eternal destiny by sharing that information, we will tell others.

That’s the way it is with the very good news of Jesus Christ. It’s too important not to share. Jesus started out with a handful of followers and today it is estimated that there are almost two billion people around the globe who call themselves Christians. How did it happen? The answer is obvious – Christians convinced unbelievers to follow Jesus. That’s what Christians do. We tell others about God. We explain the gospel of Jesus Christ. We send missionaries. To be a Christian is to act in ways that produce more Christians.

When Jesus returned to earth after his death and resurrection, he told his followers, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Jesus expected every Christian to join with him in recruiting new Christians who would be real Christians – disciples who are baptized and learning to obey everything Jesus commanded.

For the short term, it’s important to avoid the temptation to hastily respond to criticism in ways that will make matters worse in the future. For example, don’t lose your temper in writing. It can come back to haunt you!

Another tactic is to try avoiding the criticism in the first place. This is actually a Biblical approach. Because the apostle Paul knew that money matters can trigger criticism, he wrote, “We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.” Paul made an extra effort to head off the criticism before it came.

As for the long term approach, allow me to share a great story about Colonel George Washington Goethals who worked on building the Panama Canal. Although he faced formidable problems with weather and geography, his biggest burden was severe criticism from people, politicians and the press back at home. A co-worker once asked him when he was going to answer his critics and Goethals said, “When the canal is finished.”

The Bible says, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God.” In other words, the best long term response to your critics is a life well lived and a job well done.

One of the most important teachings in the Bible appears in Ephesians 2:8-9. It says, “ . . . it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” This is the Bible’s teaching that we cannot rescue ourselves from sin and eternal death by being good. Salvation from sin and becoming a Christian is possible only because of God’s generosity. It is not because of anything good that we do. No matter how hard we try there is no way we could ever earn a relationship with God that would last for eternity. This is a basic and essential truth of Christianity.

We must not stop reading, however, until we see what the bible says next in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” In other words, doing good works will never make anyone a Christian but real Christians will always do good works. In fact, one of the proofs that somebody really is a follower of Jesus Christ is the good that person does. So, real Christians do good! And we are going to look at the Top Ten good things we can do.

Number one on that list is to tell God, “I love you!” Actually, Jesus said this is number one on his Top Ten List of Things To Do. It was in response to a question from a lawyer who may have been working on a Top Ten list of his own. The lawyer asked him, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” And Jesus replied in Matthew 22:37-38, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”

God loves us and God wants us to love him. It is most about the actual loving with heart, soul and mind. But, it is also about telling. There is something powerful and intimate about saying, “I love you!” Just as we like to hear those three wonderful words, God likes to hear us say them to him.

You probably know the story about the husband who never told his wife that he loved her. One day she confronted him. He explained that he had said “I love you” on their wedding day 38 years before and he would let her know if anything changed.

That is not good enough in a personal relationship. Lovers say the words often.

Let me tell you some things I do. When I take communion and drink the cup in memory of Jesus I silently pray and say, “I love you.” When I pray in the morning I tell God, “I love you.” When I am driving alone in the car I tell God in short simple prayer, “I love you!” Sometimes I say it out loud. (If you are ever driving in the next lane and read my lips, I am not talking to you!)

Telling God “I love you” is number one on the Top Ten List of Good Things To Do. Tell him often. Tell him now! Right where you are, pray your silent and sincere words telling God, “I love you, Lord!”

Jesus’ next words were about loving others. Matthew 22:37-39 tells us that:

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”

Throughout the Bible God shows a compassionate bias toward helping the poor. Jesus repeatedly benefited the poor. The New Testament church constantly gave money and helped the poor. It is what Christians do.

How could we do that? Give money to charities that benefit the poor. Share job information with the unemployed. Mentor refugees who don’t know how our system works. Oppose greed at the expense of those with little money and power. Be an advocate for poor people at your business. Support fair wages for workers, including a generous minimum wage. Show compassion toward immigrants, including those who are undocumented. When is the last time we helped a poor person? Without a doubt, helping the poor is one of the Top Ten good things God wants us to do.

Number three is to be baptized. Here is how it works. Baptism in the Bible is the Christian’s way of declaring faith and solidarity with Jesus Christ. It is Jesus’ idea! Not only was Jesus himself baptized in the Jordan River but he was very clear about the importance of baptism for Christians when he spoke his words of commission in Matthew 28:19-20:

“ . . . go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

While some Christian traditions practice baby baptisms, consider getting baptized as your own choice rather than your parents’ choice.

Pat Summerall, the famous sports announcer, battled alcoholism and finally came to personal faith in Jesus Christ in his late 60s. Here is what he said about his baptism as a believer: “I went down in the water, and when I came up it was like a 40-pound weight had been lifted from me. I have a happier life, a healthy life, and a more positive feeling about life than ever before.”

Many people have told me that their baptism as a believer was one of the single best day of their entire lives. It was a significant and powerful spiritual turning point for them. I have never had anybody tell me that they later regretted being publicly baptized as a believer in Jesus Christ. It delights the heart of God and it is clearly one of the Top Ten good things a Christian can do.

Number four is to give away something valuable. This may be hard for some of us to understand, but it is actually an astonishing spiritual and personal experience. You see, we tend to be more greedy than sacrificial in our giving. So, once in a while, give away something that is really valuable to you. Not for tax deductibility. Not for thanks. Just to give it away. It will change you forever.

There are many interesting examples of this. King David once paid 50 shekels of silver as an offering to God. When he was discouraged from giving David said, “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God offerings that cost me nothing.”

When I was a young pastor a woman put her diamond engagement ring in the offering. It was a major decision for her but impressed me for a lifetime.

Osceola McCarty lived in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Her entire life she had one job: laundry. For decades she washed laundry by hand for fifty cents per load. She saved a little of her income every week. When she retired at age 87 she asked the banker how much she had. The banker told her she had $250,000. She gave $150,000 of her savings to fund scholarships for African-American students at the University of Southern Mississippi.

My father-in-law used to get two weeks of paid vacation every year. He used one of those weeks to drive a bus to transport children to summer Vacation Bible School. Half of his vacation every year he gave away to serve others.

Number four is not a suggestion to give away a lot. It is a call to give away something you consider valuable. It will change your life.

Number five is to forgive someone who didn’t ask. In the Lord’s Prayer we ask our Father in heaven to forgive our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. Here is how it works. Choose someone who has hurt you, offended you, cheated you, upset you, disappointed you or simply ripped you off. Whether they ask or not, forgive that person. Let it go. Give it to God. There may be no need to tell the person you have forgiven. The real forgiveness takes place in the heart and it will immediately show up in attitudes and actions toward the forgiven person. Forgiveness is a very good thing to do.

Number six is to offer to pray for someone else—at work; at school; next door; even a stranger. Tell someone you will pray for her and ask, “What would you like me to pray about?” Ask someone you know if he would like your prayers. Then do it. Pray!

Charleen and I went to eat at a popular Eden Prairie restaurant with some out-of-state guests. We were seated, ordered beverages and the meal and were talking together. One of the men spoke to our server and asked her when the food would arrive. She said, “In just a few minutes.” He said, “Fine because we want to have a prayer shortly before we eat and I was wondering if there is anything you would like us to pray about for you.”

I was a little taken back. I feared she would be offended. To the contrary, her whole demeanor changed and she said, “Would you pray for my mom?” She then explained her mother’s medical problem and was delighted that a customer cared enough to pray for her mom.

Want something really good to do? Offer to pray for someone else.

Number seven is to tell somebody about Jesus. This is one of the very, very best things any Christian can ever do. But, honestly, for many of us it is kind of scary. So, think it through. Pray for God’s words to say. Look for the right time and opportunity. Keep it simple. Focus on someone with whom you already have established a relationship. Tell about the difference Jesus has made in your life.

You don’t have to have all the answers. Nobody has all the answers. You may tie it to a book you read, a movie you saw or an invitation to church. Think how great it will be that you have been the messenger of God in communicating the good news of Jesus. Someone or many may spend forever in heaven with God because you told them about Jesus. And, by the way, who would be a good person for you to tell?

Number eight is to volunteer. Americans are among the very best volunteers in the world. And the number one place in America where people volunteer is in the context of the church because churches are essentially volunteer organizations with a vast array of opportunities—opportunities to befriend people, to pray for people, opportunities to be ushers, teachers, counselors, musicians and a whole lot more.

At Wooddale Church we have a pastor who specializes in volunteer ministries. She is not an advocate for positions to be filled but for those who want to volunteer. She matches up the person with skills, passions, gifts and interests with tasks and people who could use those interests and abilities. Sort of a volunteer placement service!

But, volunteering does not need to be in the context of the church. Out in the community there are all kinds of opportunities for volunteering. So, volunteer to tutor immigrants, work in an inner city ministry, answer phones for some charity. If you have a professional skill offer pro bono service for somebody who could not afford it. If you are among those rich folk who would rather give money and let someone else volunteer, think again. Money is good but never enough. Do good personally!

Psychiatrist Carl Menninger was asked what someone should do who feels on the verge of a breakdown. Menninger answered, “Lock your house, go across the railroad tracks, find someone in need and do something for him.” You may discover that the person that benefits the most when you volunteer is you.

Related to that is number nine: teach a child. Once again, you can do this in the community, but I particularly encourage you to teach a child in the context of the church. Most people come to personal faith in Jesus Christ as children. Childhood shapes a lot of life and teachers shape childhood. Whether it’s a baby in the nursery, a third-grader in a classroom or a junior higher at camp, you can make a lifelong difference.

Let me tell you what has happened in America. For decades, women were the ones who did much of the teaching in the community and the church. But as women have entered the workforce and become extremely busy, fewer volunteer. Busy parents want someone else to teach their children because they are tired. So we are at a time when teachers of children are more needed, have greater influence and are in shorter supply.

It is very rewarding, but it is not always easy. Without a doubt, teaching a child in Sunday School or in the community is one of the absolute Top Ten good things for a Christian to do.

Number ten is very different. It is get a will. Admittedly, this may not be on everyone’s list. If you are young, have more debts than assets and are single without children there may not be much point. However, if you are an adult and own a house, car, retirement plan, other assets or have children you should have a will. If you don’t you are not being the best steward of what God has entrusted to you.

In your will, provide for your family but also provide for the advance of the cause of Jesus Christ. Include the church or other Christian organizations that you trust and know will use your money well to make more disciples for Jesus.

Don’t procrastinate on number ten. See an accountant, financial planner and lawyer to find out what you should do. For example, if you have a 401k retirement plan you may be able to do greater good by willing it to a church or charitable organization than having family members pay all the taxes that will come due. Many Christians are surprised how well they can provide for their families and bless others for many years to come.

That’s ten and time is up. This is only intended to prime the pump. Do all ten and pray for ten more ways you can do good things for God. Remember the words of Ephesians 2:10: “ . . . we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

In other words, when our critics are malicious and spiteful we are to bless them – whether their criticisms are right or wrong. This could be one of the hardest things we’ll ever do in our Christian lives.

When we are unjustly criticized, we can choose to curse or bless our critics. The Bible makes clear which way a Christian should choose. It says, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” An Old Testament Proverb says, “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

The ultimate example here is Jesus Himself. After living a sinless life, he was crucified by his enemies. What was his response? He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Jesus wants us to pray for our critics. This doesn’t mean praying that they will be run over by a truck and die. It means praying for their success. It is asking God to turn a bad situation into good. It’s seeking a positive solution. You’d be amazed at the difference it makes when you pray in response to criticism, rather than becoming angry.

The Bible tells us, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” We need to look at what is happening in our critics’ lives. Why are they so angry? What is their need?

Sometimes the criticism has little to do with us and everything to do with the critic. Some people don’t know how hurtful their words are. They’ve never learned to be kind. They’re not just that way with you; they’re that way with everyone. We sometimes need to feel sorry for the critic, instead of being angry with the critic. Hostile criticism from someone may be a sign that something else is going on in the critic’s life – a lost job, poor health or low self-esteem. All these may burst out in criticism against others. And you may be a handy target. Hurting people often act out against parents, teachers, friends or persons in positions of authority. You may be the target of criticism because of who you are, not what you’ve done.

Some people are critical of everyone and everything. We should not reward their dysfunction by taking their words as seriously as those of thoughtful, loving, careful and occasional critics. When you are criticized, analyze the critic and the criticism. Consider the source.

In the New Testament, James wrote, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”

It’s important to hear what a critic says. Restate the criticism back to that person to be sure you correctly understand. It doesn’t mean the critic is right; it’s just that we need to humbly listen.

In the book of Proverbs it says, “A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.”

The advice here is to take it slow when you’re insulted or criticized. Take a deep breath. And ask God for wisdom. Tell God what has happened and ask him if you should answer your critic or just let it go. Think through your response. Don’t escalate the situation; deescalate.

Then it’s always good to talk it over with a godly Christian. Many of us are deeply hurt by criticism and it’s easy to get defensive and angry. Talking to a wise and godly Christian can help to settle us down so we can process what’s been said and test some possible responses.

Personally, I’ve been enormously helped by trusted fellow Christians. They have helped me respond with strength and love. They have counseled me to accept the criticism and change. They have helped me to laugh it off when appropriate.

Coping with criticism is much easier if we hear out our critics, pray before responding and seek the counsel of godly Christians.

Nehemiah was the trusted confidant of the king of ancient Persia and God’s agent to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. Nehemiah was a good man on a great mission who faced severe criticism.

St. Paul was a great missionary, church planter, theologian and author of many New Testament books. Yet he was often criticized by people in the churches he started.

Even Jesus was called a drunk, a liar and a tool of the devil.

And then there was Ethel. She sat by her husband of 55 years in his hospital room. “Is that you, Ethel, at my side again?” he whispered.

“Yes, dear,” she answered.

He softly told his wife of a lifetime, “Remember years ago when I was so sick in the Veteran's Hospital? You were with me then. You were with me when we lost everything in that fire. And, Ethel, when we were poor – you stuck with me then, too.”

Then he sighed and said, “I tell you, Ethel, you are bad luck.”

There’s no getting around it – criticism hurts. Even when the criticism is valid, it’s still hard to take.

When you are faced with criticism, remember, God knows you better than anyone else. He knows your strengths and weaknesses, your successes and failures and loves you in spite of everything. God will help and heal, encourage and bless, and lift you over the worst of critics and criticisms. His love is sufficient!

I think we can safely assume that none of us enjoys being criticized. So what should we do when we’re the one being criticized?

We should listen to the criticism. The New Testament says, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” It’s important to pay close attention because the critic may be right.

David was a man in the Old Testament whom no one would want to criticize. He was the king! But he had a critic named Nathan, who was a prophet. Nathan dared to confront King David about his adultery and murder. Now, it’s not easy to confront a king. You do so at risk of your life! But Nathan had a message that David needed to hear and he was right to confront him. David’s response was stunning. David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” He listened to the criticism, considered it and realized that Nathan was right.

We would be wise to heed David’s example. We should hear our critics out and humbly consider what they have to say. Because, often they’re right!

Long before we ever began to celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May each year, mothers were storied and honored in the Bible. Some would find that surprising since most ancient societies were patriarchal and male-oriented. Actually it is quite amazing that the Bible honors women and especially mothers long before it was the socially acceptable thing to do.

Of all the mothers whose stories are recorded in the Bible, I want to tell you about ten.

Eve is the first woman in the Bible and her story is famous. God created the universe, the earth, animals and two humans. God named the man Adam; Adam named his wife Eve. Adam and Eve had a marriage that was made in heaven and was lived out in paradise. But paradise was lost when this first couple succumbed to a temptation to sin that was offered by Satan. They sinned against God and contaminated not only their own lives but the rest of the human race. Although Adam was equally guilty, Eve has gotten more of the blame.

If you asked her husband what she should be remembered for he would not mention a snake or forbidden fruit. Adam wanted Eve to be remembered for being a mom. In fact, the first time her name is mentioned in the Bible is in a quote from Adam in Genesis 3:20: “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.”

Scholars have debated for centuries exactly what the name Eve means and how that connects to being a mother. But, regardless of the etymology, what made this woman famous was her motherhood.

Modern mothers need to learn from the Bible’s lesson about Eve. Whether you make small mistakes or great mistakes, what you are most remembered for is being a mother who impacts the lives of others.

Second in our list of mothers is Sarah. Sarah lived generations after Eve. She was a truly amazing woman. Let me tell you some of what we know about her.

Sarah was absolutely gorgeous. The Pharaoh of Egypt wanted to recruit her for his harem, as did another king named Abimelech. She was adventurous. She was a pioneer who left her home country and moved to another country and began all over again, leaving everybody she knew behind. She became rich and extremely powerful. She was a model wife who is celebrated in the New Testament in 1 Peter 3:6 as one of the best examples of what a wife is supposed to be like. And she was infertile. The one dream of her life was to become a mother, and she couldn’t do it. She lived a long life of 127 years.

God promised Sarah a miracle. When she was 90 years old God announced that she would bear a son. She laughed out loud. Retirement homes don’t have nurseries and Medicare doesn’t cover pregnancy. Besides, her husband Abraham was 99 years old. He would be 118 when the child graduated from high school. It was way too old.

But God got the last laugh. The child was born exactly as God had predicted. And they named him Isaac, which means “laughter”. Sarah learned a lesson for every mother to learn, and that is that God does the impossible. God actually performs miracles.

Number Three on the list of the Bible’s top ten mothers is actually a quartet—the four wives of Jacob. Their names were Leah, Bilhah, Zilpah and Rachel.

Polygamy in the Bible was rare and clearly outside of God’s plan and design. Frankly, it is not a pretty picture. Jacob loved and wanted to marry Rachel. In those days women wore veils that covered their faces, so Rachel’s father switched brides at the wedding. It wasn’t until the next morning after the wedding night that Jacob found out he had actually married the ugly older sister Leah. Having been tricked, he still wanted to marry prettier Rachel, so he married her as well. Married life was not off to a good start. He was married to two sisters who were competitive in their relationship with their husband to the point that they insisted that their maids have children by their husband. So Jacob got two more wives named Bilhah and Zilpah. It was a mess with jealousy, intrigue, insult and slavery.

These four women bore twelve sons and a daughter. It was the beginning of a nation that continues until today. God renamed the father, Jacob, and changed his name to Israel. The sons multiplied into the twelve tribes of Israel. They became one of the greatest nations and one of the few ancient peoples to survive to modern times.

These four mothers taught us all about the good God can bring out of the messes we make.

Rahab would not be an easy mom to find a Mother’s Day card for at Target or Hallmark. She was a prostitute. As much as prostitution has been idealized by modern myths and movies, the truth is that it is a dreadful and a demeaning way of life.

Charleen and I visited missionaries ministering in the Red Light District of Calcutta, India. We walked the streets of an area about the size of the Wooddale Church campus where 6000 prostitutes line the streets each night. They have been sold by their families because they needed money or were kidnapped or were forced into the trade. They earn as little as 50 cents a day, barely enough to provide a meal for themselves and their children. It is the kind of life that I imagine Rahab lived in the Middle Eastern city of Jericho.

Rahab was not Jewish but she came to believe in the God of the Hebrew people of the Old Testament. She escaped her profession, became a mother and raised her family in her adopted nation of Israel. Her son’s name was Boaz, her grandson was Obed, her great-grandson was Jesse and her great-great grandson was David, King of Israel. Her most famous direct descendant was Jesus of Nazareth.

Rahab taught us that God changes people and that the least likely person can become a marvelous mother influencing for good generations to come.

Naomi was a very traditional mother. She had a nice Jewish wedding to a good Jewish man named Elimelech in a nice little Jewish community called Bethlehem. God blessed them with two fine sons named Mahlon and Kilion. Life was about as good as it gets.

And then life turned bad. There was a famine. Her husband Elimelech lost his job. In desperation, looking for employment, they moved away from home and out of their own country to a place called Moab in search of a job. Her husband died, leaving her a widow in a foreign country with two sons. She did her best but was heartbroken when they both chose pagan wives to marry. Then her sons died. She had no husband, no sons, no grandchildren, no reason to live. So she officially changed her name to Mara which means “bitter”. She had lost everything and she was too old to start all over again.

Naomi’s story is not unique. She belongs to a large sisterhood of mothers who have lost children they loved. There are no words to describe the loss. There are no remedies to fully heal the soul. There is no later joy to fill the void of lost children. There are no Mother’s Day flowers for those whose children have died. There would be no Sarah-like miracle for her; no surprise pregnancy in old age. She would never have children again.

Naomi had done absolutely everything right and it had all turned out terribly wrong. But she did not stay bitter. She is Number Five on our list of the Top Ten Moms of the Bible, but to get the rest of her story we need to go on to Number Six, and that is Ruth.

Ruth was Naomi’s daughter-in-law. For her life was equally bad. She also was a widow, although a much younger widow. She also had no children. She had never had a child to love and lose. She never had a child at all. And it seemed unlikely that she ever would.

But then something amazing happened. Ruth asked her mother-in-law to take her along with her back to Israel. She wanted to convert from a pagan Moabite to a believer in God. Why would she do that? Why not send her mother-in-law, who was so bitterly depressed, back to the land from which she came? Why did she want to be like her? Because Ruth saw in Naomi, in the midst of her grief and bitterness, a God who was powerful . . . and she wanted that God.

Sometimes we think that when we are at our very worst there isn’t anything attractive about us and certainly no evidence that God is there. But it was far to the contrary. God’s power and presence showed through anyway. It is like the words of Jesus recorded in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Ruth and Naomi walked all the way back to the little village of Bethlehem and went on welfare because there were no jobs and there was no money. It was while they were on welfare that Ruth met and married a relative of Naomi named Boaz. She bore to him a son named Obed who became the adopted grandson of Naomi. Naomi helped raise Obed who became the grandfather of King David. As she was raising this adopted grandchild, Mara changed her name back to Naomi which means “delight”.

Naomi belongs in the Mothers’ Hall of Fame for faithfulness to God in the midst of hardship and heartbreak.

Ruth is the converted pagan who became a mother in Israel and after whom one of the books of the Bible is named.

Number seven is Hannah. She was a good woman with a good husband named Elkanah. And she was infertile. Infertility was a difficult burden for a woman to bear back then. It was considered to be a curse from God. And, to make things even worse, Hannah was continually criticized and tormented by another woman named Peninnah because she had children and Hannah did not.

Infertility can be a heavy burden in any culture or generation because it is all about unfulfilled dreams. It’s about the way life was supposed to be. It is everything that was imagined that somehow has not come true. It touches the deepest of human instincts. It’s all about future generations that will never be.

Hannah passionately pleaded with God and totally trusted him. She went to the Temple in Shiloh and it was there that she pleaded her case before God. She prayed so passionately that Eli the priest concluded that she was drunk. In fact, he censored her for coming to the Temple when she was in a drunken state. She explained that she wasn’t drunk, that she had a heavy heart and was pleading with God to intervene. Hannah trusted God to make a difference in her life. She asked God to give to her a son and promised God that if her prayer was answered she would return him to God for the rest of his life.

God said “yes”. She gave birth to a son and named him Samuel. When he was still a young boy she took him to the Temple at Shiloh and gave him to God. She left him there to be raised by the priests, visiting him only once a year. Samuel grew up to become one of the greatest prophets and leaders in the entire Bible.

Hannah wanted to be a mother. She totally trusted God. She even trusted God enough to give up her son.

Number Eight is the most famous mother of all. More girls are named after Mary than after any other woman in all of history. God picked her from the lineup of all the women of history to be the mother of his Son. The Christmas story in Luke 1:26-28 says:

. . . God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

What astonishing words for God’s head angel to speak to a teenage girl, to tell her that she was highly favored and would give birth to the Son of God!

There is a sketch by Frederick Buechner that depicts the angel Gabriel talking to Mary, his hands behind his back and his fingers crossed. It must have seemed astonishing even to an angel . . . that God would trust Mary with his Son! But, that is exactly what God did. God trusted Mary.

And, that is what God does with every mother. He trusts her with the life of a daughter or a son.

Number nine is the saddest story on the list. It is the mothers of Bethlehem. They are actually part of the Christmas story, the part we seldom tell. For when King Herod heard that a king had been born in Bethlehem, he told his soldiers to kill every baby boy under the age of two. It was an act of despicable cruelty. Those babies died and the hearts of their mothers were indescribably wounded.

In Matthew 2:18 the historian Matthew quoted the poetry of Jeremiah to capture the pain of a mother “weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more.”

Some of the top mothers of the Bible are those who were very good moms, who did everything right, and who loved and lost. This is also the story of a long line of those for whom Mother’s Day is not an easy celebration. Isn’t it interesting, amazing and wonderful that God has not forgotten those who hurt deeply? Even though it painfully interrupts the story of Christmas, God insisted that the story be told so that those mothers would not be forgotten. They are acknowledged and honored by God, and they must be acknowledged and honored by us.

Last on this Top Ten List is Mrs. Zebedee. Some people would say she does not deserve to be on the list at all because of her behavior. Mrs. Zebedee did something for which she has been criticized now for two thousand years. One day she went to Jesus and asked a personal favor. She knelt down and asked Jesus to appoint her two sons to the top spots in heaven. She said in Matthew 20:21, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”

What about all the others? Why should her sons get this kind of preferential treatment? So, she has been criticized ever since. But I don’t see her that way. I see her request differently. I see her as a mother who wanted more than anything else that her children be as close to Jesus Christ as they could possibly get. And she was willing to get down on her knees and beg if that would help. That was not a bad thing but a good thing.

Mrs. Zebedee is the kind of woman that I would put on every list of top moms. Blessed are those mothers who want their children to be close to Jesus.

What makes Cornelius unique was his fascination with the Jewish faith, in spite of the animosity between Romans and the Jews. Cornelius reverenced the God of the Bible. He prayed regularly. He even gave money to Jewish charities.

So why is his story included in the Bible several times? God was doing something new and different. Cornelius was the “poster child” to demonstrate that Christianity wasn’t just for Jews. Jesus died on the cross for everybody. The church is for everybody – even the improbable, like a Roman Centurion. Jesus goes after pagans and seekers.

Is Jesus pursuing you? Cornelius was on his way to becoming a Christian, but he wasn’t there yet. Are you, like Cornelius, curious about religious things? Do you pray, not really knowing God personally? If you’d like to move from being a seeker to being a real Christian, I invite you to pray this prayer with me, right now.

“Thank you, God, for pursuing me. I want to become a Christian today. I admit that I’m a sinner and I’m sorry. I know that Jesus died for my sins and is the way to eternal life. I vow my full allegiance to him today and forever. I pray this in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

A Biblical example of a pre-Christian is a man named Cornelius. If you checked his census profile he would officially show up as a Roman soldier and a Gentile - but not a follower of Jesus. Yet listen to what the Bible tells about him: “[Cornelius] and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.”

Cornelius was an officer in the Roman army occupying the land of Israel. Neither the Romans nor the Jews trusted each other. Cornelius’ interest in the faith of the Jews put him in a precarious position. Since Roman soldiers were required to take an oath of allegiance to the emperor as divine, worshipping the Jewish God could have been considered an act of treason.

I believe that God was at work in the heart of Cornelius for a long time. God was teaching him through the Old Testament and drawing him with the Holy Spirit. God was preparing him to believe and Cornelius was responding. However, sincere prayers and good works were not enough. Cornelius was still a pre-Christian.

Then God told Cornelius in a vision to invite the apostle Peter to his house to tell him how to believe. After Peter explained the good news that Jesus died for our sins and “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name,” Cornelius believed. He moved from being a pre-Christian to a Christian.

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways.

The phrase, “Delight yourself in the Lord,” means putting God absolutely first. Whatever God wants is what we choose – even if it’s none of our preferences.

“He will give you the desires of your heart” doesn't mean we get our preferences, but that God will change our preferences to want what is best.

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him” means having absolute confidence that God will accomplish his purposes in our lives.

“Wait patiently” means trusting God's schedule.

“Do not fret when others succeed” means we don't need to compare; just trust God.

Allow me to put these ideas into a prayer. I encourage you to pray along with me. “God, I commit the purpose of my life to pleasing you. You will be number one all the time with everything. I trust you to fulfill your purposes in me even if that means giving up my preferences. I’ll leave the timing to you even if it means dying without knowing. My life purpose is to please you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

That was my favorite excuse every time I did something stupid. And it was true. To this day I'm still missing the back half of my front tooth and I want you to know that I didn’t do it on purpose.

Life is all about purpose. Some things we do on purpose and some things we don’t. The practical question for us as Christians isn’t about what we didn’t do on purpose. The practical question is what we did do on purpose. Let us think through every day how we can purposefully, thoughtfully, intentionally and deliberately live our lives to please and honor God.

Bethany Hamilton was the best amateur teen surfer in Hawaii until she was attacked by a tiger shark and lost her arm. As a Christian, Bethany planned to fulfill her purpose riding a surfboard. After her accident, she told her father that if she couldn’t reach the top in competitive surfing with only one arm, then she'd see about playing soccer.

St. Paul wrote, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” When Paul said “I can do everything” he didn’t mean that he could buy a mansion when he was broke or magically create food when he was hungry. He meant that he could change his plan and fulfill his purpose for God even when his circumstances changed.

And circumstances are always changing. Bethany lost an arm. Paul went to prison. We get older. But God stays the same. Our purpose is to honor him in every circumstance.

Psalm 103:13

This weekend we specially honor fathers. For me, it is about memories since my father died several years ago. Of course, when it comes to memories there are tens of thousands of them, but one especially stands out in my mind.

Our family vacations were always along the east coast of this country and usually near a beach. From Cape Cod to Fort Lauderdale we lay on the sand and dove into the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

My mother didn’t swim. She even wore high heeled shoes to the beach. But my dad was a strong swimmer. When I was a little boy I would put my arms around his neck and hold on tight as we would go into the waves and he would swim out beyond the breakers. I can still remember the feel of his skin and the strength of his muscles as he swam. For me it was both exhilarating and very risky. I was in way over my head and I didn’t have a chance of survival without him because I couldn’t swim. But with him I could have the time of my life. I always felt safe in my father’s strong arms.

That is the way a father is supposed to be—strong and safe in deep waters and pounding waves. It’s the way many of the top ten fathers of the Bible were to their sons and daughters. But none more so than the greatest Father of them all, Father God.

In the Old Testament God was known by many different names like Yahweh and Elohim. They were and are powerful beautiful names that communicate God’s greatness, power and covenant. But it was Jesus who taught us to call God “Our Father who art in heaven.” Oh, it’s true that we still say, “Hallowed be your name” because he is still holy, powerful, righteous and transcendent. But he is also our Father.

But Jesus used more than the formal expression “Father”. He also used the Hebrew word “Abba”. The ancient word is still used in modern Middle Eastern languages. I have heard little children running down the streets of Old Jerusalem calling out, “Abba! Abba!” It is like saying, “Daddy! Daddy!” God is “Our Daddy who is in heaven.”

Some people tell me they feel very uncomfortable even thinking of God as their father because to them “father” means being drunk every night, physical and sexual abuse, anger, shouting or desertion. They have told me that words like “father” and “dad” are some of the ugliest and most frightening terms in our English language.

Please don’t judge God by the failures of some earthly father. All good things can be sinfully corrupted and misused. A knife in the hands of a surgeon is an instrument of healing; a knife in the hands of a murderer is an instrument of death.

When it comes to God, “Father” is his name of choice. It represents the best of all that a father is supposed to be—love; kindness; generosity; protection; and more. God is our father. He is all of that to us. Even if some human father fails us, God never does.

No one knew God the Father better than Jesus. He compared our Father in heaven to the best of fathers on earth and here is what Jesus said in Matthew 7:9-11:

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

God is good. God loves to bless us with generous gifts. God is our Daddy!

Second on this Top Ten list is the father of our human race, Adam. His story is famous and is reported in the opening chapters of the Bible. He was God’s dream come true and one of God’s greatest disappointments.

The Bible tells us that God created Adam in his own image or likeness. He was like God intellectually and emotionally, but not physically—he was still his own man. God named him Adam which means “red” in Hebrew, referring to the color of the ground from which God formed Adam’s body.
Adam was the best of the best—God-like, creative, brilliant, ambitious, independent and naive. He foolishly tried sin and infected himself and the entire human race with a malady that still wreaks havoc in the 21st century. In this he was a disappointing father because every war, every disease, every crime and every evil dates back to Adam.

Adam’s first child was born after his expulsion from the Garden of Eden. He and Eve had sinned and moved on. Now a new chapter of life was beginning and they had no experience with which to handle it. Adam had no earthly father for a role model, but he did as so many of us fathers have done. When Cain was born he hoped and prayed that his son would never repeat his mistakes and would instead build on his successes and strengths. New fatherhood is scary but it is also filled with hope.

There were other children, too, for Adam and Eve. Cain was their first child, then Abel and then Seth. Later there were other sons and daughters. Adam tried his best to raise them to be the best. If they didn’t turn out well he couldn’t blame the schools, pop music, MTV, drugs or bad friends. It was up to Adam. But never in his wildest dreams could Adam have imagined what would happen. His oldest son, Cain, murdered his second son, Abel. The agony of heart for Adam and Eve must have been beyond description.

From Adam we learn almost too much. We learn that God gives us great gifts but we are responsible to use them well. We learn that even the most gifted families have great heartaches. And we learn that you can’t quit being a father even when fathering is indescribably difficult. For Adam there were other children who came along and he learned from his mistakes and did the best he could with the gifts that he had.

Father number 3 is Noah. He carried the DNA of Adam and Eve in a later generation. His story is told in Genesis 5 though 9. It is such a well-known story it barely needs retelling. God told Noah to build an ark and take into it a pair of every kind of animal to ride out a huge flood and start the world all over again. Here’s what is says in Genesis 6:5-14, 22 and 7:1:

The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

This is the account of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.”

Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

The Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.”

This example of Noah is a powerful example for fathers of every generation. It proves that even in the worst of times you can still live a righteous life and save your family. Even when all your neighbors laugh at you for obeying God you can choose God over culture and raise godly children. It is not the times in which we live as much as it is the way we live and raise our children in those times.

Job is number 4 on our list. Although most famous for his suffering, but he was also a fabulous father. Job was an exceptionally successful man—the richest man of his generation and one of the wisest. He owned 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yolk of oxen and donkeys and had lots of servants on his staff. He was so wise that people came from great distances to hear his wisdom. And he was so righteous that God chose him in a competition with Satan himself.

Then one awful day he lost everything. Messengers delivered bad news upon bad news. Enemy soldiers stole his livestock and killed his servants. Those that survived were burned with fire. He later became painfully and chronically ill. But try to imagine the horror when a messenger brought him news about his seven sons and three daughters. In Job 1:18 we read:

. . . “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who escaped to tell you!”

Job’s biography is 42 chapters long. It is a sad and difficult biography to read, but it ends with prosperity. Job 42:12-13 reads:

The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yolk of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters.

Everything was doubled except the number of children because the children who were lost could not be replaced. He was a faithful father to those who had died, grieving for them and missing them for the rest of his life, but he was also a marvelous father to those who came as later blessings.

Abraham is number 5 on our Top Ten list. He is still one of the most famous men in the world, claimed as the spiritual father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. His biography is spread over much of the Old Testament book of Genesis from chapter 11 through chapter 50.

His parents must have thought he had father-potential from the day he was born because they named him Abram which means “high father”. But God later changed his name to Abraham which means “father of a multitude”. God had a greater dream for him that he would produce generations with millions of people who would become his descendents.

Read his biography for yourself. It is a mixture of stunning faith and surprising stupidity. He was not a perfect man. He wasn’t always the best father. His famous sons were Isaac and Ishmael (modern Jews claim to be the descendants of Isaac and modern Muslims claim to be the descendants of Ishmael). Isaac was born to Abraham’s wife Sarah; Ishmael was the son of Abraham’s mistress Hagar. After Sarah died, Abraham remarried and fathered more children. Abraham was not the perfect parent; he made his share of tragic mistakes.

But Abraham is known in the Bible for two great accomplishments. First, Abraham was a man of faith. He believed God and God credited him as righteous. Abraham is also famous as the father of millions of descendents who carried forward his faith.

The lesson for modern fathers is plain and simple. The greatest heritage you can leave your children, grandchildren and future generations is not money, property, education, business or title. The greatest heritage you can give is faith. At your funeral, may your children say, “More than anything else, my dad was like Abraham. He believed in God and so do I.”

Number 6 is Isaac, Abraham’s son. His place in history is overshadowed by his more famous father. Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90 when Isaac was born. His father was not only godly and famous, he was old. Isaac never knew what it was like to have a young father.

Isaac didn’t marry until he was 37 and didn’t become a father until he was 57. He was faithful to his beloved wife Rebekah. Together they had twins, Jacob and Esau.

Isaac was not an impartial father. He always considered Esau his favorite and gave him special treatment. However, God’s favor was not on Esau but on Jacob. The brothers competed and fought for most of their lives. While Jacob sought a believer in God for a wife, Esau fell in love with and married a pagan woman, breaking his parents’ hearts.

Isaac lived a very long time. He died at 180 years old. That was long enough to see his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up. He saw before his eyes the fulfillment of God’s promise to make his father’s descendants into a great nation.

Let me tell you my take on Isaac. He had a very famous and significant father, Abraham. He had a very famous son, Jacob, whose name God later changed to Israel, the name given to the nation. But in between was Isaac. He was not all that famous or important. Like so many of us fathers he was part of the in-between generation. But, if it were not for Isaac the chain of faith would have been broken. Instead, the chain of faith was strengthened. God bless those fathers who make the next generation great for God!

Number seven on this Top Ten list is a man who was neither famous nor a father. His story is recorded in the only book of the Bible that never once mentions the name of God, the book of Esther. His name was Mordecai and he lived under the rule of King Xerxes in Persia. He was a Jew who relocated to the city of Susa where King Xerxes’ palace was located.

The king became unhappy with Queen Vashti and deposed her. A contest was set up for the most beautiful young women in the country to compete to become the next queen. The winner was a gorgeous Hebrew girl named Esther. Apparently her parents had died and she was adopted by her relative Mordecai who had raised her.

Mordecai was a devoutly godly man. When he found out that an advisor to King Xerxes named Haman had tricked the king into ordering the execution of all Jews in the empire, he called on Queen Esther to intervene on behalf of her people. The risk was great. First of all, the queen couldn’t even talk to the king without his prior invitation. Second, no one knew she was Jewish and therefore included in the order to slaughter. She could keep her mouth shut and have a comfortable happy life or risk her own death by intervening for her people.

In a very famous challenge in Esther 4:13-14, her adopted father told her:

“Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”

Esther chose to heed the words of her adopted father and to do what was right even if it meant risking her life. As a result she saved an entire generation of the people of God.

Mordecai is a champion of adopted fathers in every generation who lead their daughters and sons to do what is right.

Number 8 on our list is one of the first fathers in the New Testament. Like Mordecai he was not a natural father; he was a step-father. Step-fathering can be one of the highest callings a man can have. It is the opportunity to shape a life that has been brought to you by the hand of God rather than through the usual process of procreation. Step-fathering can also be a difficult assignment. When the inevitable hardships of parenting come there can be the temptation to say, “This is not my responsibility!” Or there is the possibility that the child may say, “You aren’t really my dad!” Perhaps this is the greatest opportunity to show the power of love that is greater than the product of two microscopic cells joining together.

Number 8 is Joseph. He was not a step-father by choice. He was drafted by God. The odds were against him because the expectations were way too high. His son, Jesus, could always say, “You’re not my real father. My Father is God. And you don’t measure up!” That’s a tough challenge to answer. Joseph knew he could never measure up to Jesus’ real Father.

You can read about Joseph in the Christmas story where there is one very interesting line. It’s not about Jesus the baby but Jesus the grown man. It’s in Luke 3:23: “Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph.” Isn’t that amazing? They saw the miracles he performed and said, “That’s Joseph’s son.” They heard Jesus speak like no one had ever spoken before and said, “We know who he is; that’s Joseph’s boy.” They saw someone with stunning character and integrity and said, “Oh, yea. His father is Joseph.” When they saw Jesus they thought of Joseph, his step-father. You might think that was intended as an insult but to Joseph it was the greatest of compliments. The step-father had helped shape the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

Number 9 is a father you may not know. His story is reported by Dr. Luke, the physician/historian in Luke 8:41-42 and 51-54:

. . .a man named Jarius, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying.

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him.

When (Jesus) arrived at the house of Jarius, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were waling and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said, “She is not dead but asleep.”

They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.

Jarius makes our Top Ten list of biblical fathers because he humbled himself for his daughter’s sake. He was an important and powerful leader; a proud man. He was the president of the synagogue, a leader of the community. Synagogue leaders weren’t supposed to beg from free-lance rabbis like Jesus. It was difficult for Jarius to ask for help from this prophet from Nazareth, but his daughter was dying and he was desperate. This father would not hold on to pride. He would do whatever he needed to do. So he fell down in front of Jesus and pleaded with him. If the people took away his position, they took away his position. If they laughed because Jesus said he could bring her back to life, let them laugh. He put his confidence in Jesus Christ. Blessed are fathers who are willing to humble themselves for a daughter’s or a son’s sake in order to bring them to Jesus.

Last on the Top Ten list is a man never known to have had children. In modern America he would not be honored on Father’s Day. Although he was probably once married, his wife is never mentioned. Perhaps he was a widower or divorcee. It was Paul and he was a saint!

Paul was a different kind of father. He was like a father to Timothy, his young friend and colleague. He took Timothy with him on trips, wrote letters to Timothy, spent hours talking with him and counseling him, introduced him to all the right people, prayed for him and loved him. Although Paul wrote them, the books of 1 and 2 Timothy are named after his spiritual son. He made him famous. He was like a father to Timothy. Paul wrote to other people telling them how proud he was of Timothy. In Philippians 2:22 he wrote, “You know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.”

Blessed are those men who, like Paul, become proud fathers of young men and women whom they mentor to become everything God wants them to be.

There are so many ways to be a father—from nature to nurture; from physical to spiritual; from here to eternity.

May God bless every man who holds others in his arms and teaches them to live for God.

I’m impressed with the emphasis that the Bible puts on purpose. In the first chapter of the New Testament we learn that Joseph’s purpose was to marry Mary and serve as Jesus’ father. Mary’s purpose was to be the mother of the Son of God. Jesus’ purpose was to “save his people from their sins.”

If our purpose is to please God and live for him, we need to examine all areas of our lives against this purpose: our marriage, job, budget, friends and how we spend our time. We need to devise a plan to fulfill our life’s purpose and then follow it. We also need to regularly ask ourselves, “How am I doing at fulfilling my purpose?”

The amazing thing about our lives as Christians is that God has established a purpose and plan for us as well. Listen to this supernatural promise, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.”

God is working to make everything come together for good in our lives, even our mistakes. His plan is to make us like Jesus.

Philip, a man from a Greek cultural background, was a Jewish leader of the Jerusalem church who dared to overcome the prejudice of his day. The New Testament reports, “Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there.” That may sound harmless, but the feelings between the Jews and Samaritans could be compared to the Israelis and Hezbollah in Lebanon or Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland.

Philip crossed the line. I can imagine what others must have thought: “If Samaritans become Christians they will ruin the church. They don't worship the way we worship. They don't look or sound like us. There are parts of the Bible they don't believe.” Preaching to the Samaritans was spiritually risky business.

But it was because of Philip and other Christians like him that the church changed the world. They were willing to cross lines, take risks and reach out to new people. If they hadn’t, Christianity would still be a sect of Judaism with a handful of purists tucked away somewhere around Jerusalem.

We need to ask ourselves if we are uncomfortable with the way some people differ in their beliefs, race, language or culture. Many of us are. The lesson to learn from the early Christians is to take a risk. Be a Philip who loves people who aren’t just like you.

That’s the way it was with Jesus’ followers when the church was just a few months old. On the day of Pentecost 3,000 new believers were added to the church. Within months the Jerusalem church exploded to as many as 15,000. The church was blessed by God and extremely popular with the people of Jerusalem.

And then bad things started to happen. The Bible says, “On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.”

It didn’t look good for those first Christians. Stephen was killed because he was a Christian, believers were being thrown in jail and many others fled Jerusalem to save their lives. But their situation was a picture of how God often operates – he uses bad things for good ends.

When the Christians were run out of town, they told about Jesus wherever they went. Without persecution, they never would have reached out to Judea and Samaria. It was the persecution that scattered them to nearby provinces where they began to fulfill Jesus’ command to “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

Stephen, one of the most promising young Christians in the early church was murdered by a mob. Leaders of the religious establishment pressed charges against the leaders of the church and a rising protagonist named Saul became the primary persecutor of those who believed in Jesus.

The Bible tells us that on the day Stephen was martyred, “Saul began to destroy the church.” Saul went house to house looking for Christians. He had authority from the religious establishment and warrants to arrest and imprison. And it wasn't just the leaders he was after, Saul seized anyone he could get his hands on, men and women alike, and threw them into prison. He was out to stop the church of Jesus Christ no matter what it took.

But, let me tell you, the church cannot be stopped. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” The Sanhedrin, the religious court of the day, couldn’t stop the church. The critics couldn’t stop the church. Saul couldn’t stop the church. Satan himself cannot stop the church.

Wherever the Christians went in those early years, the results were amazing. In spite of persecution, people believed the message of Jesus, felt the power of the Spirit, and experienced the joy of God.

I believe that God is sovereign, as the Bible says he is. I believe he created the world, that he revealed himself in the Bible and that he is the God of history. I believe he can do absolutely anything. But, I also believe that he created an ordered universe. The laws of science were his invention. Miracles are exceptions, not the norm. We pray for miracles and sometimes God says “yes,” and sometimes God says “no.” Since God is the sovereign Boss, we trust him to give the right answer, whether we like that answer or not.

When God chooses to perform a miracle that solves our problem, we are deeply grateful. But when God says “no,” we must be deeply faithful. When we pray, we should ask God to give us the strength to make it through our problem. Our desire should be that whatever God does in our lives will bring glory to his son Jesus.

God does not guarantee he’ll make all our problems disappear. But he does guarantee that he will see us through them to bring glory to Jesus.

Occasionally God allows us to meet some of his choicest servants. That’s the way I remember meeting Dr. V. Raymond Edman, former president and later chancellor of Wheaton College. He was a warm Christian, a godly example, a capable leader and educator.

In 1967 Dr. Edman was speaking at a chapel at Wheaton College on the topic of worship. To illustrate to the students in chapel the grand privilege of stepping into the presence of God he told about a personal experience he had some years before when he had an audience with Haile Selassie, the long-time emperor of the African country of Ethiopia. He described what it was like—the pomp, the procedure, the protocol of standing before a king. Then he compared that to the gathering of college students in chapel and the privilege that was theirs of being ushered into the very presence of God together in worship. Before he had finished his speech he collapsed to the floor and died. At that very moment he was ushered into the heavenly presence of the King of kings!

When we gather together in church on a Sunday morning it is far more than an ordinary meeting of people to hear music and a speech. We come to be ushered into the presence of Almighty God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. We gather together to worship. Worship is acknowledging God’s worth. The Psalmist said in Psalm 29:2, “Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name.” Worship is centering on God rather than on self. And worship is giving rather than getting.

While worship can and should be done alone, the Bible also calls us to gather together for the corporate worship of God. Unfortunately, it is too easy to gather but not to worship. We come to meet our friends more than to meet God. We come to get more than to give. We come to listen more than to praise. We come and go in the wrong way and thereby we miss out on the highest calling we have.

What is on your mind when you attend a worship service? Do you think about the platform? The pews? The musicians? The people? The preacher? How does it all fit together in your mind? Did you know that worship is not a spectator sport?

Soren Kierkegaard, the famous Danish philosopher, compared corporate worship to a play. But the congregation is not gathered to see a performance. The congregation is actually the actors. God is the audience. The leader, the choir director, the minister are merely prompters who cue the actors in their lines and provide the props and atmosphere.

What a revolutionary perspective that brings to the whole process of worship! The congregation is not the audience who comes to sit back and hear the choir sing and the pastor preach. We, the congregation, are on the stage and God is the audience! We come to acknowledge his worth. We come to center on God and not on ourselves. We gather to give and not to get.

Teddy Roosevelt was no great philosopher but he got it right when he said, “Even though the preacher can’t preach for sour apples, and the choir is more than a half note off-key, you can always get something out of worship if you will put yourself into it.”

It is true! The more we put into our worship the more we get out. But far more than for our benefit, we gather to worship God for his benefit.

How does that happen? It begins with preparation. If we come prepared we worship well. If we come to church unprepared or with sin in our lives that we will not forsake we may not be able to worship at all. It all begins with our attitude.

Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4:24, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” In other words, truth alone is not enough. Our spirit, our attitude, must be right! Before we ever swing open the doors of any church building it is up to us to prepare for worship with an attitude of expectancy, of worship, of giving rather than getting, centering on God and acknowledging his great worth.

It is extremely important that we choose to have the right attitude and not allow others to control our attitudes for us. The argument at the breakfast table, the person who cut us off on the highway or the critical spirit we carried around all week can destroy worship before it begins. It’s up to you and me to decide to have the right attitude as preparation to worshiping God together with other believers.

Right relationships are as important as right attitudes. We will not worship right if we harbor bitterness toward another Christian. We dare not pray to God or praise him if we are not on good speaking terms with a fellow church member. Before we worship we must first make our relationships right. In Matthew 5:23-24 Jesus said:

“. . . if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”

Do you have a wrong relationship with another Christian? You will never be able to worship God the way you should until you make every reasonable attempt to make that wrong relationship right. Until then there will be little joy in giving, the music will not bless your heart, the sermon will be hollow and the Lord will be displeased. So before you worship, make relationships right!

The Jews used the day before worship to prepare for worship. According to John 19:14,31 and 42 everything possible was done the day before to make worship better. In more recent times the Puritans referred to Saturday night as the “vigil” saying that it was then that they warmed the ovens of their hearts toward God so that on Sunday morning it would be easy to rekindle that flame of devotion and love to God.

When our children were young we worked at that (now we have Saturday night services so it is more difficult to follow this pattern). We made an effort to avoid outside commitments on Saturday nights. We stayed home and had dinner together as a family. Together we read the Bible, we prayed and we went to bed early. All this was done to prepare our hearts and minds to be centered on the Lord Jesus Christ the next day.

What could you do on Saturday night to prepare for Sunday morning? Might you prepare food for Sunday in advance? Study the Bible? Go to bed early? What might you do to make that worship experience truly an offering to God?

Leslie Flynn, in his book entitled Worship: Together We Celebrate, put it well when he said, “Perhaps the answer to reanimated worship is not some catchy innovation, or drastic change of order, but in hearts renewed through preparatory heart work.”

Another aspect of preparation is punctuality. Can you imagine going to a play where the actors walk in five minutes late, after the play has begun? Wouldn’t you, as a member of the audience, be offended? Dare we be late to worship God? It is important that we control our schedules, limit our conversations with others and hurry things up in order to be on time for our appointment with God.

Obviously, everybody is tardy sometimes. I am. You are. But ought we not give to God the same courtesy we would give to our boss, to the king of a country or to the president? Would we not be on time to meet with them? Ought we not give that same type of preparation and punctuality to God?

In fact, to be really practical about it, let me suggest that proper preparation for worship should get us to church early! We should not rush into God’s presence at the last minute, grab a hymnal and start worshiping. Rather, it would be far better to come a few minutes early and quietly prepare our hearts to worship our King!

Arriving late or talking to those around us during the organ prelude can hinder the preparation-for-worship of others. Habukkuk 2:20 says, “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” To be sure, there are times to shout before God in worship but there are also times to be quiet before God. Let me urge you to use the moments before the worship service for silent preparation to step into the presence of God himself. Save the conversation for later. Don’t let those precious moments of preparation be lost. And certainly don’t spoil the worship preparation of another.

What do you pray as you prepare for worship? Maybe you don’t pray in preparation at all! Let me give you some suggestions. Pray in anticipation of the worshipservice every day of the week. I do! Ask God to prepare your heart to worship him. Ask him to prepare the choir, the musicians, the leaders and the preacher. Come early, sit quietly and prayerfully center your life on the Lord. Pray expectantly!

Here’s what will happen. The worship service will come alive. The music will stir your soul. The sermon will bring you closer to God. The prayers will lift you to heaven. But most of all, you will acknowledge God’s worth, you will center on him and you will give rather than get. You will worship in spirit and in truth!

Music has been a primary means of worshiping God since ancient times. The longest book in the Bible is a hymnbook, the Book of Psalms. From ancient Israel to the New Testament Church to around the world today music is a primary means to praise and adore our great God. But there are many different kinds of music. There are experience-centered hymns such as “I have a song I love to sing, since I have been redeemed.” This is a testimonial. It’s okay, but it’s not really worship. Contrast that to the words that are God-centered and addressed to him as in the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, Merciful and Mighty! God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity.”

Worship music is addressed to God. It adores and praises him far more than it is a testimony of our experiences. Other music, like choirs and soloists, represent and assist us in worshiping God. Their careful advance preparation is also a special offering of worship for the Lord.

We need to understand something important here. Music performed in a worship service is primarily performed to praise God, not to entertain an audience! That is why we want it to be the very best. That is also why, at Wooddale Church, we don’t thank performers after they sing in a service. It’s not because we are not appreciative of their music; it’s because they haven’t done it for us. We are not the audience. God is the audience! That also relates to the issue of applause. Clapping is wonderful and appropriate to do in a worship service. I am all for it- - - as long as our applause is for God and not for a singer or speaker! So, when we sing and when we listen, let’s do it with God in our minds. Let’s sing to him and for him. Let the music of others assist your worship, not entertain you.

Prayer is an integral part of any worship service. This often takes place several times as we meet together to worship God. Invocation is addressed to God to invite him to be the audience as we worship him together. Pastoral prayer is one person praying on behalf of the entire church to adore, love and appreciate God. Prayer before the offering is to tell God that we are giving to him and not to some human organization. In the benediction we thank God for his goodness and commit to continue our worship after the church service and throughout the week ahead. Personal prayers punctuate the service as we tell God we love him and as we dwell on his goodness and his greatness. There is a place for petitions, but the primary purpose of worship prayer is not to ask God for anything but rather to give God the praise he deserves.

Publicly reading the Bible together has marked proper worship of God since Old Testament times. When we read the Bible together we are acknowledging God by listening to him and considering his words to us as all-important.

Some people suggest that the collection of money in a worship service is demeaning and inappropriate. They suggest a box in the back or bills through the mail. I could not disagree more! Our money represents our time, our work, our priorities, our present security and our future. Our money represents us. There is a direct correlation between the way we give and the quality of our worship and relationship to the Lord. The offering is one of the most tangible expressions of our love and loyalty to God. It is easy to say I love you and sing the hymns but tough to give sacrificially.

How do you give? First, give to God, not to the church! If you give to the church you will be disappointed, you will raise or lower your giving on the basis of carnal motives. In addition, give prayerfully. As you put the offering in the plate quietly tell God that this is to show how much you love him. And, give proportionately. The more you have the more you give. But, give! Do not fail to worship God in this biblical way. If you are short on money because of unemployment and debt, give anyway. Put in $1 every week. If that is too much, put in one cent every week until God gives you more to give. But do not allow any rationalization to cause you to not give. Never allow a week to go by when you do not worship God with your offering.

The sermon is also an integral part of worship and has been since the Jewish synagogues set the pattern for the first century church. The purpose of the sermon is to teach and exhort God’s people from God’s word. It is God’s Word explained to us so that we can continue our worship with our lives. The very fact that we sit through a sermon and listen to an explanation of God’s word and a challenge to live God’s way is itself a further act of worship.

Some sermons are good; some are bad. Some preachers are interesting; some are boring. It’s obviously easier to listen to those who are good and interesting. But, the focus dare not be on the sermon or the preacher; it must be on God. Don’t ever come to hear me or anyone else. Come to meet and hear God. You will be amazed. When you come to hear God, bad sermons often turn good and boring preachers become interesting.

Worship cannot be limited to an hour or two on a Sunday morning. If worship is acknowledging God’s worth, centering on God and giving to him then it must go on all week long! When the worship service concludes our worship through service begins. The corporate worship service is where we begin together. It is where our batteries are recharged and our commitments renewed. From there we go out to worship God all the rest of the day and the week to come. Think of your marriage as a means to worship God. Worship God with the way you work, the way you drive your car, the words you speak . . . worship God with everything!

When Christian friends were praying for Peter and John after their release from prison, they began their prayer by acknowledging the greatness and power of God. Then they asked, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

We can learn a lot from the way they prayed. Amazingly, they didn’t pray for the problem to go away. I think I would have been inclined to ask God to exempt them from further persecution. Instead, they prayed for boldness in talking about Jesus, even though that would actually defy the law and get them in more trouble. They weren’t praying for deliverance from their problem, but for boldness to represent Jesus well in the midst of the problem. They ended their prayer asking God to perform healing and other miracles. Their prayer wasn’t to defeat their enemies, but to do acts of compassion and kindness.

The lesson for us is to ask God for strength more than for a solution. More important than having God eliminate our problems is asking God to make us bold and strong through the problems we face.

Most of us aren’t arrested for our faith. But we all have problems. Job. Money. Friends. Family. Health. Relationships. I’ve never met anyone with a problem-free life. Some problems we can handle. Some are totally beyond our control and resources. That’s when we really need the help and prayer of others.

The Bible says, “On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.” They knew exactly where to go when they faced their problem. They went back to “their own people” – straight to the community of Christians they knew would understand and pray for them.

I’m especially impressed with the words “went back” because it means that the relationships were established before the crisis. I’ve spent a lifetime ministering to people whose lives are in crisis. Those who are connected to the church, and have Christian friends who will pray for them, do far better than those who don’t. When you lose your job, are diagnosed with cancer or face a disaster, it’s a little late to start shopping around for those who will pray for you.

Peter and John had their “own people” to whom they could return when the crisis came. Do you?

Most of us aren’t arrested for our faith. But we all have problems. Job. Money. Friends. Family. Health. Relationships. I’ve never met anyone with a problem-free life. Some problems we can handle. Some are totally beyond our control and resources. That’s when we really need the help and prayer of others.

The Bible says, “On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.” They knew exactly where to go when they faced their problem. They went back to “their own people” – straight to the community of Christians they knew would understand and pray for them.

I’m especially impressed with the words “went back” because it means that the relationships were established before the crisis. I’ve spent a lifetime ministering to people whose lives are in crisis. Those who are connected to the church, and have Christian friends who will pray for them, do far better than those who don’t. When you lose your job, are diagnosed with cancer or face a disaster, it’s a little late to start shopping around for those who will pray for you.

Peter and John had their “own people” to whom they could return when the crisis came. Do you?

You may have never heard of this mother named Mary, but probably you’ve heard of her son. His name was John Mark, although he is usually known simply as Mark. He was the author of the second book of the New Testament called “The Gospel According to Mark.” He was a man whose mother raised him in a house that was famous for prayer. This mother named Mary had the go-to house in Jerusalem for Christians who had problems and needed prayer. I’m sure she was a marvelous Christian mother as well as a trusted Christian friend to many.

So my question to you is, where would you go first if you were just released from jail? Who would you go to and who would you ask for prayer if you faced the biggest problem of your life? Can you think of someone? We all need to cultivate godly friends who will understand and who will pray to God on our behalf. It’s a wonderful thing to have a relationship with praying Christians we can turn to in times of crisis.

If it’s an honor to suffer for your country, consider the honor to suffer for Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Throughout history, a reoccurring issue for Christians has been how to handle suffering. In the first century, members of the Sanhedrin, the religious supreme court, arrested some of the apostles and had them flogged before their release. Flogging was typically such a severe beating that many died from it. If you saw the movie, The Passion of the Christ, flogging is the form of beating that they did to Jesus before he was crucified.

Let’s see how the apostles handled this agonizing form of punishment. The New Testament says that after their flogging, “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name [of Jesus].”

Did they suffer? Yes, they suffered terrible pain. Their response? They rejoiced to be counted worthy to suffer for Jesus!

A common thread through the biographies of great men and women of God is time spent alone with God. Moses spent forty years in the wilderness outside Egypt. There he met God in a special way that prepared him for the next forty years of service to God. Jesus spent forty days and forty nights in the wilderness being tempted by Satan, but he also often took time to be alone with God. Paul was in the desert for three formative years between his conversion and ministry.

We often think of worship as corporate but it can and should be a part of our times alone with God. Many committed Christians have a daily devotional time, usually consisting of Bible reading and prayer, but worship is often a missing ingredient, more out of ignorance than choice. We don’t spend much private time worshiping God because we don’t know what to do. Nobody ever told us. So let’s take a practical look at private worship and what it includes.

The Bible is a good place to start. Bible reading is more than a routine and a source of direction. It is a means of worship. Let’s take a minute and look at Psalm 23 in two different ways. The first is us-centered; the second is God-centered. Note the difference:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters; he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

That is a correct and right reading of God’s word. If we’re hurting and need comfort, if we need direction and correction, we can find it all in the inspired word of God. But those same words, with a different emphasis, can focus on God rather than on me. Watch:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Make a special effort to find and know God in the Bible. Pause in your reading to acknowledge his greatness, his goodness and his worth. It may be necessary to read the same passage two or three times just to switch from being self-centered to being God-centered.

We may be less familiar with worship by meditation. Meditation is a combination of considering, thinking, dwelling, reflecting and concentrating on someone or something.

Every day before I went to school I had to recite for my mother Psalm 19:14: “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” David wrote these great words with the assumption that we all meditate. To him the issue wasn’t whether or not we meditate but whether or not our meditations are acceptable to God.

There are many different kinds of meditation. Lust is a form of meditation where one person dwells on improper sexual thoughts about another person. So there is visualization, there is imagination, there is consideration, there is repetition and there is planning. Call it meditation, call it lust, but it is a form of meditation. Worry is another form of meditation where we dwell persistently on some problem or concern. It monopolizes our thinking as we examine the issue over and over again from every point-of-view.

I remember once reading a magazine story about a TV movie entitled The Day After. That night before going to sleep I meditated on it. I rehearsed what I had read, wondered at the how and why of nuclear war and imagined what it would be like if a nuclear bomb exploded in the Twin Cities. I fell asleep with these thoughts and awakened the next morning to realize I had dreamed at night about the same things I had meditated on while I was falling asleep,

How much better to use our meditations to worship God! Think about God. Wonder at how he does things. Dwell on his greatness. Go to sleep at night mulling over the names of God found in the Bible. Imagine what it will be like to meet God in heaven.

Now I don’t think that’s easy. It’s work. It takes a deliberate effort. But it’s worth it . . . because God is worth it!

A third way to worship privately is by using hymns. It used to be that Christians kept and used hymnals in their homes. People carried their hymnals to church much as we carry our Bibles to church. Hymnals were regularly used for singing and for devotions in Christian homes. When our Elder Board decided to include new hymnals in our church budget I suggested that we order enough extras to encourage every church family to buy a copy for home use.

One of my favorite hymns deals with the Christian home. It is sung to the majestic tune of Finlandia. I am particularly impressed with the third verse. It goes like this:

O give us homes where Christ is Lord and Master,
The Bible read, the precious hymns still sung;
Where prayer comes first in peace or in disaster,
And praise is natural speech to every tongue;
Where mountains move before a faith that’s vaster,
And Christ sufficient is for old and young.

Let’s look at some hymns that we can sing or study privately in worship. Imagine being alone in your place of private devotion and singing or reciting the words to the hymn Blessed Be The Name. Reflect and meditate on them; they are tremendous tools for worship:

All praise to him who reigns above in majesty supreme.
Who gave his Son for man to die that he might man redeem.
His name above all names shall stand, exalted more and more
At God the Father’s own right hand where angel hosts adore.
Redeemer, Savior, Friend of man, once ruined by the fall,
Thou hast devised salvation’s plan, for Thou hast died for all.
His name shall be the Counselor, The Mighty Prince of Peace,
Of all earth’s kingdoms Conqueror, Whose reign shall never cease.

Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord!

Imagine putting that together in your own private worship time with a study of the names of God that are in the Bible! What a marvelous time of adoration for God that would be.

A less familiar hymn but one that has marvelous words that focus very much on God’s greatness and his attributes is the hymn Immortal, Invisible. You could take a verse a day, a verse a week, a verse a month of this hymn and meditate on it and use it as a means of worship.

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes.
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious—Thy great name we praise.
Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light;
Nor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might;
Thy justice, like mountains, high soaring above
Thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.
To all, life Thou givest, to both great and small,
In all life Thou livest—the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish, as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish—but naught changeth Thee.
Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;
All praise we would render—O help us to see
’Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee!

I am certainly no musician, but I’ll tell you a secret. When I am absolutely sure no one can hear me I sing hymns, alone, in private devotional worship. It doesn’t sound very good, and I don’t sing very loudly. If you heard me you would probably laugh. But I think God loves it. And, some of my most soul-searching, most memorable and most significant private worship experiences have come as I quietly, inadequately and off-key have sung worship and praise to my Lord.

Add to that worship through prayers. Evangelical Christians have not done much with written prayers of other Christians. Yet all the prayers we have in the Bible—from the Lord’s Prayer to Paul’s prayers to the prayers of others—are all written prayers. Great inspiration and worship can grow from reading and meditating on and even praying the prayers of others—whether they are prayers found in the Bible or the prayers of others from devotional books.

But that’s not sufficient by itself. To the prayers of others we must add our own personal prayers. I have always tended to pray silently in private worship and devotions. But lately that has been changing and I find myself praying aloud more and more. When I do that my worship and praise to God is clearer, more powerful and more significant. There is a greater sense of God’s presence when the words are spoken audibly.

Likewise, I have never given much thought to any particular position for prayer. But lately I have discovered that my worship is enhanced when I get down on my knees to pray and worship God. That is because I don’t kneel for anyone else. Kneeling is powerfully symbolic of my relationship to God, of how great he is and how small I am.

Set aside a significant part of your daily prayer time to tell God you love him, to tell him how great he is and to thank him for all he has done.

Writing out your prayers of praise and worship can add significantly to private worship. It gives opportunity to be precise, to be meaningful and to include Bible verses.

If we were assigned to make a statement to the President or to some royalty we would probably write out our speech in advance and either memorize or read it. Why do less for God? Not that all prayers should be written. By no means! But it can be a very helpful aid to serious worship of God.

Another way to worship God is with our offerings. This doesn’t mean money offerings at church. This means giving things to God that are personal expressions of love, worship and thanksgiving. For example, give him your day. At the beginning of the day offer it to him as a present. Give him your obedience. Pick something he would like for you to do and do it as a gift to God. Give him something really important to you. Not because you have to but because you want to, because you choose to give it out of love and admiration.

Worship services are different for me than they are for you. For me it is not so much an opportunity to take in but to give out. Too often I have been concerned about what people in the audience are thinking. I leave quite exhausted and sometimes without much real worship having taken place. Then I tried something different. Instead of asking God to bless the sermon and make it good, I got down on my knees before the service with sermon notes in hand and offered them to God as a gift - - - hardly perfect, far from scintillating, surely not the best he gets - - - but what I have got I give to him as an offering. That has revolutionized public worship for me. Now it is far more centered on God and far less centered on people.

For you it may not be a sermon. Perhaps for you it’s a solo or singing in the choir or teaching Sunday school. Maybe it’s bidding a construction job or writing a computer program or running a sales meeting. Whatever it is, worship God by deliberately and consciously giving him what you have as an offering of worship.

There is a poem by Ruth Harms Calkin in the book Lord, Could You Hurry a Little that is entitled Be Thou Exalted. It quotes, first of all, from the psalmist David, “Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength; so we will sing and praise thy power.” And then Calkin continues:

Yes, Lord, yes!
David’s prayer is my prayer.
Be exalted in my day-by-day agenda
In my motives and dreams
My priorities and goals.
Even in my failures, Lord
As you turn them into stepping stones
Toward spiritual growth.
Be exalted in my worship and praise
In my sobbing and singing.
Be exalted in my secret thoughts
My emotional responses.
Be exalted in my daily routine
The delays, the unexpected emergencies
The disappointments that often come.
Lord God, as you are exalted
In heaven and on earth
Be exalted in Your home—my heart.

There are so many ways to worship our fabulous God! Worship him - - - tonight, tomorrow morning, soon. Worship him with Bible verses; worship him by meditation; worship him with hymns; worship him through prayers, worship him with offerings. Worship God - - - because he’s worth it!

That was the situation for the apostles. They were being interrogated by the religious supreme court of the day, the Sanhedrin. The members of the Sanhedrin became increasingly angry with the apostles’ answers and were ready to order their execution. Then the apostles were abruptly excused and told to wait outside. It was out of their hands. They were powerless over the outcome.

As the Sanhedrin went into executive session to discuss their fate, a highly respected rabbi named Gamaliel stood up and gave a speech which turned the tide. He urged the Sanhedrin to back off and do nothing. He compared Jesus to past rebels whose causes were soon forgotten. He argued that evil cannot triumph, so don't worry about it – just do nothing. Gamaliel’s logic was flawed – Jesus had nothing in common with rebels and action needs to be taken against evil – but God used his speech to save the leaders of the church.

I find great hope and encouragement in this story. When we are in a situation in which we are powerless over the outcome, God can be trusted. God can and will do the unexpected for those who are trusting in him. He can even use the mistakes of others to accomplish his purposes.

In a way, that’s what the apostles did during an interrogation by the religious leaders. When they were accused of continuing to talk about Jesus after they had been commanded to stop, the apostles said, “We must obey God rather than men.” But then they changed the subject and said, “The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead – whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

Although the authorities intended to entrap them with their hostile interrogation, the apostles used the opportunity to talk about Jesus. Turning the subject to Jesus is a good strategy for us, as well.

So, what about when we are persecuted? What should we expect? God doesn’t always send angels. Sometimes the outcome is not what we expect; but, God is always there and always involved.

Hawa Ahmed was a university student in North Africa. She decided to become a Christian after reading a Christian tract. Her father was an Emir whom she expected to disinherit her, but she never dreamed her brothers would do what they did. They stripped her naked, tied her to a chair, attached a metal plate and plugged it into an electric outlet, intending to torture and kill her. But the electricity malfunctioned – four times.

Finally they untied her and threw her into the street, completely naked. She ran as fast as she could, eventually arriving at the doorstep of a friend, shaking with fear and humiliation. Her friend pulled her inside and clothed her. The next day neighbors asked Ahmad’s friend why the young woman was running through the streets the previous night wearing a beautiful white dress. God had intervened, not only in saving her life, but in covering her nakedness.

Today Ahmed goes by the name Faith and serves as a full time Christian evangelist. She learned, firsthand, that when a Christian is persecuted, God intervenes.

So, what about when we are persecuted? What should we expect? God doesn’t always send angels. Sometimes the outcome is not what we expect; but, God is always there and always involved.

Hawa Ahmed was a university student in North Africa. She decided to become a Christian after reading a Christian tract. Her father was an Emir whom she expected to disinherit her, but she never dreamed her brothers would do what they did. They stripped her naked, tied her to a chair, attached a metal plate and plugged it into an electric outlet, intending to torture and kill her. But the electricity malfunctioned – four times.

Finally they untied her and threw her into the street, completely naked. She ran as fast as she could, eventually arriving at the doorstep of a friend, shaking with fear and humiliation. Her friend pulled her inside and clothed her. The next day neighbors asked Ahmad’s friend why the young woman was running through the streets the previous night wearing a beautiful white dress. God had intervened, not only in saving her life, but in covering her nakedness.

Today Ahmed goes by the name Faith and serves as a full time Christian evangelist. She learned, firsthand, that when a Christian is persecuted, God intervenes.

But it didn’t end with the Roman Empire. To the contrary, persecution has increased. There were more martyrs for Jesus Christ in the 20th century than in all the previous nineteen centuries combined. Persecution should come as no surprise to those who follow Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”

Throughout the centuries, Christians have considered it a privilege to suffer for Jesus. Listen to the story of Helen Roseveare, a British physician who served as a missionary to Africa until 1973. She was a pioneer in medical missionary methods and accomplished great good. But she received great evil in return. After years of pouring her life into her mission of mercy, there was an uprising where she lived. The people she had served so long came and tore down the hospital she had built. They kidnapped her, raped her, beat her and almost killed her. Afterwards she wrote, “God didn't stop the sufferings. He didn't stop the wickedness, the cruelties, the humiliation or anything. It was all there. The pain was just as bad. The fear was just as bad. But it was altogether different. It was in Jesus, for him, with him.”

Before Christmas or a birthday many of us sit down to make a “wish list”. Sometimes we start early and amend it numerous times. We want to make sure we get what we want!

Suppose God made a “wish list”. What would he put on it? If God wanted a gift from us, what might he want? After all, worship is giving rather than getting. So when we worship God we give things to him. What would he want? What would he put on his list? Have you ever asked him what he likes, what makes him happy? Not just for a special occasion but for every time we come to him in worship.

As I thought about that my imagination went reeling and my fingers began exploring the pages of the Bible to find at least part of God’s “wish list”. Here’s what I found.

First on the list has to be love. A lawyer once asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” When Jesus answered (in Matthew 22:37) he revealed what God likes best. Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

We all want to be loved. I like to be loved and I like being told I am loved. We do a lot of that in our home. At least a dozen times every day, I suppose, I tell Charleen that I love her. And she tells me that she loves me. I make a point of telling our children that I love them, and they say, “I love you, Dad!” Sometimes we write notes to each other. We’ve even learned to say it in sign language! And you know what? I never tire of hearing it. It’s never boring. I love to be told that I’m loved and I love to be loved.

Have you told God lately that you love him? Have you actually stopped and prayed out loud, “God I love you! Father, I love you! Jesus, I love you! Spirit, I love you!”? God loves to be loved!

Next on his list I think God would put praise. In Psalm 113 the Psalmist, inspired by the Holy Spirit, penned these words:

Praise the Lord.
Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord.
Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore.
From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.
The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens.
Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?
He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of their people.
He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children.
Praise the Lord.

We all like legitimate praise. I like being told a sermon is good. An artist enjoys being told that his painting is inspiring. An architect enjoys compliments on her building. A wife delights in hearing, “You are the greatest. You are such a marvelous person. It’s not just what you do but who you are!”

Praising God is telling him how great he is. Tell him he’s smart. Tell him he’s a great lover. Tell him he’s the greatest person in the universe. Tell him you think he’s wonderful just for being him, not only for what he does for you and what he gives to you. Tell him he’s doing a good job in you life, in your home, in your church. Tell him he created a fantastic world. Praise the Lord! God likes to be praised!

Third on God’s list has to be thanks. In Psalm 136:1 the Psalmist writes, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.”

Thank you is one of the most important phrases in the English language. How we like to hear that. How easily we can become hurt if we do something for someone and we never hear a word of thanks.

When they were young we had a tradition in our family where each week I would take to breakfast a different one of our four children. In their earlier years they sometimes forgot to say “thank you” and I had to remind them. It takes a little something away when you have to ask to be thanked. But now they seldom forget.

Being thanked lets me know I’m important, I’m appreciated, I matter and what I did is significant. I like to be thanked. God likes to be thanked, too. Often we are reluctant to thank God but all too ready to ask God. We may be dissatisfied with what God has done in our lives. We complain that he doesn’t quite measure up to all of our expectations. But how he delights when our heart attitude causes us to say “thank you”!

Do you regularly thank God as part of your worship? It’s true that many of us thank God for our food and I wouldn’t discourage that at all. However, I think my mother may have had it right when she said that God must often say, “Are you eating again?” Thank God for life, for salvation, for health, for church, for home, for prayer, for the Bible, for friends, for fellowship, for America, for people, for heat, for light, for clothes, for everything.

God rebuked me about something awhile back. One day I was feeling rather sorry for myself. I thought my problems were pretty big and pretty heavy. Then I spent a few minutes reading from the book Tracks of a Fellow Struggler by John Claypool. In that little book he shares his broken heart over the acute leukemia of his 8-year-old daughter Laura Lue who lived 18 months 10 days from diagnosis to death. As I put down the book I switched from self-pity to worship, from complaining to thanksgiving, from my puny problems to God’s great goodness.

Tell him! Thank him! God likes thanks!

Fourth on the list is an item that most of us probably wouldn’t include. It is fear. Psalm 96:9 tells us to “Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.” And Deuteronomy 6:1-2:

These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.

Clearly the Bible calls us to fear God, yet we are also told that we need not fear when God is near! We need not fear in the sense of fright or terror or unjust harm. Yet, we ought to fear God in the sense of awe, of grandeur, of respect, of seriousness. We must be extremely careful that we do not become so “chummy” with God that we fail to treat him as God. He is the mighty Creator and we are sinful creatures. There is no place for a cavalier or light attitude toward God or in his presence. Just as we ought to have a legitimate fear of the police or the president or of our parents, so we ought to fear God.

Some people blasphemously joke about God. We run into his presence in prayer and speak to him with less respect than we speak to our family pet. We fall asleep talking to him. We wear our most casual clothes to worship him. We break appointments we have made with him.

All of this is sin! God does not like getting less respect than we would give to total strangers on the street. We need to shape up our relationship to God. We need to step into his presence in awe, trembling and in fear. He is God! God deserves our fear!

To the list we have to add trust. Proverbs 3:5 tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” A huge compliment accompanies trust. We trust a doctor to do the right thing when we are unconscious. We trust the Trust Department of a bank to care for our assets after we die. We trust a counselor to keep a secret that could devastate us. And when we trust God we are giving him our ultimate compliment. Our trust tells him that we have complete confidence in his ability to plan our lives and protect our futures.

Years ago I heard a speech by a high trapeze artist. He described what it is like the first time you swing from a high trapeze to be caught in the air by your partner on the other trapeze. He said there are two things you need to know. One is that you have to trust your partner. The other is that you have to let go before you catch on.

There are a million different areas to trust God. Some of them are high and scary, but in every case we must have complete trust that God will be there and will catch us and we will be safe in his arms. However, we must first be willing to let go!

God likes it when we trust him. If we want to worship God we must trust him enough to let go so that we can catch on to God.

Sixth on the list is giving, but it has to be cheerful giving. II Corinthians 9:7, “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Our attitude is as important as our giving!

You may have heard about the fourth grade class who sent a get-well card to their teacher that read, “Dear Miss Jones, Your fourth grade students wish you a quick recovery from your operation, by a vote of 13 to 12.”

It takes a little of the joy out of a gift when a child says, “Dad told me if I didn’t buy you a gift he would ground me for six months.”

By contrast, imagine the gift giver just bubbling with excitement over the gift and the receiver. See her yearning for the moment to give, anxiously looking for the expression on the recipient’s face. That’s the kind of giving God loves.

One of the most tangible worship moments we have is when we put money into the offering plate. This is something we should look forward to. It should to be one of the happiest moments of every week. As we put our money in the offering we ought to quietly whisper a prayer to God saying, “Thank you. I love you! And I am really glad I can give this to you.”

God looks with great care on our attitude when we give. And be assured that one of the things God really loves is a cheerful giver.

Seventh and final on our list, for now, is obedience. In Old Testament days there was the temptation to placate or bribe God with some kind of a burnt offering. But Samuel instructed the people of Israel with one of the greatest principles of the Bible saying in I Samuel 15:22, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

Do you want to make God happy? You don’t have to give him some big gift or make some huge sacrifice. Just obey him!

Let’s try it. Think of something you ought to do that God has asked of you. It may be forgiving someone or being baptized or stopping a habit or making more time for prayer.

How about deciding right now that you will worship God with a special gift this week. You will do just what he has been asking of you. Not out of duty. Not because he told you to but because you want to do it as a gift to God.

God will love it! Because one of the things God likes is obedience!

Worship is giving, not getting. Give to God something he will really like:

Love
Praise
Thanks
Fear
Trust
Cheerful giving
Obedience

In times of physical suffering we pray for healing only to discover that God doesn’t always answer in the way we expect. Listen to the experience of Jeffrey H. Boyd, a medical doctor from Waterbury, Connecticut, and his wife, Pat.

“Pat had diabetes, two heart attacks, bypass surgery, two strokes, went on dialysis, went blind, and had both legs amputated above the knee. She and I went every week to a healing service at our church. The clergy would lay hands on us and pray, while Pat and I cried uncontrollably. She was never healed. There was no evidence that healing prayer had any positive effect in terms of miraculous cures. But every week this intimate prayer gave us enough spiritual strength to endure another week. Thus my own experience was that healing prayer was like manna for Pat and me. Every Sunday we were given enough to get us through. We were not given more nor less manna than we needed to survive.… In other words, Pat and I experienced healing prayer to have a curative power not in terms of a change in medical outcome, but in terms of keeping us in touch with our Lord, who spiritually sustained us.”

Through their suffering, the Boyd’s’ faith was tested and confirmed.

In times of physical suffering we pray for healing only to discover that God doesn’t always answer in the way we expect. Listen to the experience of Jeffrey H. Boyd, a medical doctor from Waterbury, Connecticut, and his wife, Pat.

“Pat had diabetes, two heart attacks, bypass surgery, two strokes, went on dialysis, went blind, and had both legs amputated above the knee. She and I went every week to a healing service at our church. The clergy would lay hands on us and pray, while Pat and I cried uncontrollably. She was never healed. There was no evidence that healing prayer had any positive effect in terms of miraculous cures. But every week this intimate prayer gave us enough spiritual strength to endure another week. Thus my own experience was that healing prayer was like manna for Pat and me. Every Sunday we were given enough to get us through. We were not given more nor less manna than we needed to survive.… In other words, Pat and I experienced healing prayer to have a curative power not in terms of a change in medical outcome, but in terms of keeping us in touch with our Lord, who spiritually sustained us.”

Through their suffering, the Boyd’s’ faith was tested and confirmed.

Anyone suffering from a serious illness eventually comes face to face with the sobering question, “Am I going to live or die?” We prefer our lives to be pain free. No one likes suffering. For the Christian, the pain is the same but the perspective is different. We know that every day we have is a gift from God. When our days are good we should live them for God and when our days are painful we should live them for God.

St. Paul wrote these challenging words: “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.… For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.” In other words, our purpose in life is to make God look good regardless of what happens to us. We are to live out our Christian faith in the best of days and the worst of days, in pleasure and pain, in safety and danger, in grief and joy.

Just saying these words scares me! To this point, I have not experienced cancer, clinical depression or a devastating car crash. Would I be able to “conduct myself worthy of the gospel” or to “suffer for him” if these things were to happen? But that line of reasoning leads me back to the core of Christianity. We live by faith. We’re convinced that our God is a God of grace. He will give strength, courage and hope when the suffering comes. He will not leave us to deal with it alone. He will always be there for us.

When we plead with God for healing, whether it’s for ourselves or for others, our expectation is for a “yes” or “no” answer. We assume that God will either give instant healing, or he won’t heal. Today’s story shows how God’s answer to that prayer for healing may surprise us.

Hezekiah was the 39 year old king of ancient Israel. When Hezekiah fell desperately ill, the prophet Isaiah told him that he was going to die. Hezekiah wept and pleaded with God for healing. God saw his tears and heard his prayer and told Isaiah to let Hezekiah know that he would be sick for three more days and then he would be granted a fifteen year reprieve. In other words, he wouldn’t die until he was 54 years old. It wouldn’t be a total healing, but fifteen years is fifteen years!

Then Isaiah ordered the best medical treatment of the day, a fig poultice, to use to treat Hezekiah’s infected boil. Three days later, Hezekiah recovered. Note that he didn’t receive an instantaneous or direct healing. God intervened to extend Hezekiah’s life – using the current remedy of the day.

The point here is that even when God supernaturally intervenes, he often utilizes the best human resources as well. As Christians, when we face serious illness, we are to turn to God – and take our medicine. It’s not either/or, it’s prayer and the poultice, or prayer and penicillin. First we pour our hearts out to God, and then we get the medical help that God makes available.

How do you think you would hold up if your spouse or child were to die, or if you were permanently disabled in an accident? What if you were to lose everything in a catastrophe or be diagnosed with a terminal disease? These are anxiety-raising questions for anyone. But let me raise the stakes a little higher. How can you act like a Christian when these things happen?

I find it very comforting to know that Jesus wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. His example shows me that it’s okay to cry when we’re overwhelmed with loss. We don’t need to hide our sadness. We don’t need to hide our anger at the loss of loved ones. As Christians we don’t need to cover up our hurt and pretend to have Christian happiness. It’s okay to grieve.

Remember that faith is for the best of times and the worst of times. Even if it is difficult to do in the middle of your grief, tell God that you believe in him and that you trust Jesus for eternal life. Don’t let your grief distance you from Jesus at the time when you need him the most. At the heart of Christianity is hope. Hope is the expectation of a better tomorrow. When we go through the difficulties, tragedies and disappointments of life, we can trust God to get us through to a better future. As Christians, even when we are looking death in the eye, we know that we will someday rise again from the dead – just like Jesus. And that’s hope!

Join me in a spiritual experiment. Imagine that you are being transported to heaven as you read John’s heavenly vision from Revelation 4:

After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightening, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stopped saying:

“Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come.”

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things, and by your will they were created
and have their being.”

Let’s come back to earth and talk about what we’ve experienced. It is called worship. Worship is the primary occupation of heaven. It is the highest privilege of Christians and one of the most neglected activities in Christian lives.

What is worship? Worship is acknowledging God’s worth. The word “worship” comes from an Anglo-Saxon term “weorthscipe.” Because that was so unpronounceable the Anglo-Saxons changed it to become “worth-ship” and eventually it evolved into “worship”.

To worship anyone or anything is to recognize and affirm worth. Worship is extremely important to God. In Psalm 29:2 we read, “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.” And Jesus says in Luke 4:8, “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”

If worship is acknowledging worth then to worship God is to say that he is worthy of our worship. In Psalm 96:1-6 we read:

Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary.

The psalmist is here listing the worth of God. It includes salvation, his marvelous deeds, the creation of the heavens, splendor, majesty, strength and glory. God’s worth is expressed in terms of his attributes (that’s who God is) and his actions (that’s what God does.)

Have you seen on TV the L’Oreal ad where the actress says, “I buy L’Oreal because I’m worth it!” Well, I really don’t know if she’s worth it or not, but I do know that God is worth it! God is worth our worship!

If God is really worth it what are his attributes and what are his actions that show us why we should worship him? God is sovereign. He is holy. He is omnipotent, all-powerful. He is unchanging. He is all-knowing. He’s wise. He’s loving. He’s omnipresent; he is everywhere at once. He is merciful, forgiving, faithful, powerful, pure and righteous. God is consistent; he never changes; God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is kind, just, patient. He gave his one and only Son—that is the greatest act of all! He’s forgiving. God created the world and keeps it going. He reigns. He heals us. He loves us. He listens. He guides. He teaches. He helps. He answers prayer.

Worship is centering on God rather than self. Now we have a problem here because we are all sinners and sinners are by nature self-centered. Our society accentuates self-centeredness. Most advertising emphasizes self—feelings, appearance, happiness, success. Ninety-five percent of ads are based on selfishness.

We are consumer-oriented, even in religion. We think of God in terms of what he can do for us. We expect from God salvation, healing, happiness and problem solving. And, if God doesn’t produce to our satisfaction we may become angry and quit on him!

This isn’t just the other guy. We all are guilty of this. If we listen to our own prayers and monitor our own thoughts we will see that we are far more centered on ourselves than on God! Read Romans 1:18-25:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.

The very essence of sin is worship of creatures rather than the Creator. We are creatures. It is sin to center our worship on ourselves rather than on God.

In Psalm 103:1-5 and 14-22 we read:

Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins, and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

. . . for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children—with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.

The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the Lord, O my soul.

The psalmist knew how to worship. He knew that all of life must be interpreted by and centered on God.

We worship in prayer by meditating on God. In your imagination place all the things in your life in a circle—then write “GOD” at the center of the circle. Tell him that he is more important than anyone or anything else in your life.

Worship God through the Bible by looking or him. Instead of primarily looking for instruction or direction or comfort in reading the Bible, look for God. Keep a journal or write in the margin of your Bible what you discovered about God in his Word.

Worship God in church by expecting him. Go to church expecting to meet God, to see God, to hear God. Don’t go primarily for the music or your friends or the sermon. When you go to church expecting God you will find the music more inspiring, your friends more enjoyable and the sermon more interesting.

Worship is shifting the center of our lives away from self to God. We must worship often because we are in constant need of re-centering our lives!

Worship is giving rather than getting. There really isn’t much that we can give God. He doesn’t need any books or cars or after-shave or flowers. What can we give to the God who owns the universe? We can give him worship!

Worship is hard to do. Most of our praying is to get, not to give. And most often we go to church to get—to receive a blessing or hear good music and a scintillating sermon or make contact with other people socially. We want a good program for our children. All those things are good, but too often we are disappointed with church because we come to get and not to give.

Worship is giving to God. When we worship God in prayer we affirm his greatness, tell him about how good he is and praise him for what he has done.

Worship of God in church is based on giving as well. We pray to give him our adoration and to acknowledge God’s greatness. We sing to tell him how good he is, to praise his name and to honor him, not for entertainment. When we give money it’s not to support an organization; it’s to acknowledge the worth of God. It ought to be our preoccupation on Saturday. We should talk about him on Sunday morning. All week long we should reflect on the worship we have given him. We gather to worship God by giving, not getting!

Matthew, Chapter 2:1-11 is the fascinating tale of the journey of wealthy and wise men:

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews, for we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him? When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet. And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who shall govern my people Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go, search diligently for the child and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. When they heard the king, they went their way and lo, the star which they had seen in the east went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. And then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh.

These were great, important men who traveled long distances over an extended period of time all the way to Jesus. They asked for nothing. They gave their gifts. They came to worship, and they knew that worship means giving, not getting.

But worship is far more than something we just talk about. It’s something we do. So worship God. Center on him and praise his name!

How do you think you would hold up if your spouse or child were to die, or if you were permanently disabled in an accident? What if you were to lose everything in a catastrophe or be diagnosed with a terminal disease? These are anxiety-raising questions for anyone. But let me raise the stakes a little higher. How can you act like a Christian when these things happen?

I find it very comforting to know that Jesus wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. His example shows me that it’s okay to cry when we’re overwhelmed with loss. We don’t need to hide our sadness. We don’t need to hide our anger at the loss of loved ones. As Christians we don’t need to cover up our hurt and pretend to have Christian happiness. It’s okay to grieve.

Remember that faith is for the best of times and the worst of times. Even if it is difficult to do in the middle of your grief, tell God that you believe in him and that you trust Jesus for eternal life. Don’t let your grief distance you from Jesus at the time when you need him the most. At the heart of Christianity is hope. Hope is the expectation of a better tomorrow. When we go through the difficulties, tragedies and disappointments of life, we can trust God to get us through to a better future. As Christians, even when we are looking death in the eye, we know that we will someday rise again from the dead – just like Jesus. And that’s hope!

We’ve all experienced the shattering of hopes and dreams. Sometimes it happens slowly and sometimes it’s sudden. Almost always it’s beyond our control. The great losses of life are body slams that leave us bruised and broken – unable to imagine how life could ever be good and normal again.

To my amazement, God often comes through with stunning blessings. I have had people tell me that God took the worst thing that ever happened to them and made it into the best thing in their lives. One man told me that the best thing that ever happened to him was losing a job he loved because that job loss was a tool of God to start a business he never would have attempted.

But grief doesn't always turn to happiness. When someone you love dies, there are no replacements. When a dream is shattered there isn’t always a better dream around the corner.

As Christians we have an eternal hope for heaven and happiness that will last forever. I don’t pretend that eternal hope takes away the pain of grief, but it makes an indescribable difference. No matter how bad life gets, we have Jesus’ promise for a far better eternity. It may be years off, but heaven is coming where God “will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

In your time of greatest loss; when you’re deeply discouraged or scared to death, remember, God will not give up on you and he will never let you go. Hold on to hope!

I was 24 years old when I graduated from seminary and became the pastor of a church of about 200 in a small city in Colorado. One distinctive of the town was that it had more nursing home beds per capita than any other city in Colorado. As a result, I officiated at a lot of funerals.

But my early pastoral encounters with grief were by no means limited to the elderly. There were car crashes, suicides, farm accidents, disease and a plane crash that took young lives. Frankly, I was in way over my head. Nothing in my life or training had prepared me to walk through so much suffering and grief. It was the first time I saw a man die. It was the first family I had to inform about a death.

I learned a lot of lessons. I learned that grief is different for different people. I saw some grieve out loud and others grieve in silence. I saw some heal quickly and others slowly. But one lesson stood out over all the others. It was the difference between the way Christians and non-Christians grieved. The difference was not in the number of tears or the extremes of emotion, but in the presence of hope.

When Christians grieve we believe that God knows about our loss and that he is himself acquainted with grief. Sometimes Christians are angry with God because of the losses we have experienced, but even anger is an acknowledgement of God’s person, presence and power. When we grieve we still believe. We know that no matter what happens, God is there for us.

Grief is part of the human experience. It comes in many different sizes and shapes. We grieve over the loss of a job for it’s not only the loss of income, but the job itself defined who we were. Divorce causes grief over the loss of what began with such love and such high hopes. Disability can change a person’s entire future – what’s lost can never be regained and nothing is ever the same again. Death is often the cruelest and most final of all losses.

Grief is our response to these losses. We are lonely, afraid, overwhelmed, angry, depressed and sad all at the same time. One moment we want to lash out and get even; the next moment we want to curl up and die. Grief often brings physical pain – our bodies ache; we experience headaches and insomnia.

We all have our losses and sooner or later we all experience grief. Christians are no exception. St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Thessalonica, “Brothers, we do not want you . . . to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.” Paul’s point was that Christians grieve and hurt and cry, but not like those who are not Christians. The difference is that Christians have hope.

Hope is not a denial of loss or an absence of grief, it’s the expectation of a better tomorrow. Hope is the deep-down conviction that God has something better to come for those who trust in him. Hope is about what God will do, no matter what our circumstances.

The ancient land of Israel was torn by civil war and King David was forced to flee Jerusalem with a small army of loyal friends. Worse yet, the rebellion was led by the king’s own son, Absalom. Absalom had already murdered his brother and was now trying to kill his father to gain the throne.

Prospects for victory that day were slim and David’s generals insisted that he stay behind lest he be killed. As David reluctantly saw them off, he said, “Be gentle with the young man Absalom for my sake.” Then the anxious father awaited news.

Later, two runners returned with the news. David’s army was victorious, but twenty thousand lives were lost in the battle and Absalom was one of them. The Bible says, “The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept.” In his grief David wailed, “O my son Absalom!… If only I had died instead of you – O Absalom, my son, my son!”

Absalom was a traitor and a murderer, but he was also David’s son and David loved his son. Armies and thrones and politics were forgotten as the king grieved the death of his son.

Grief is like that. It isn’t rational, it’s emotional and it shakes us to our core. David was devastated by the loss of his son, but he turned to God for solace – just as we can in our grief. Listen to David’s words:

“In my distress I called…out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; … He reached down from on high and took hold of me; … the Lord was my support.”

Psalm 29:11

When I was a boy my mother would often say, “All I want is a little peace and quiet.” I didn’t understand what she was talking about. It made no sense to me. I thought things were already pretty peaceful and a little bit too quiet. But as I grew older I came to understand what she wanted. We all want peace, but we often find peace difficult to get.

Wars have been fought throughout all of history; yet for most of us it is not military actions that steal peace but rather personal circumstances. It is family, co-workers, neighbors, bosses, teachers, coaches, students, children and parents who are the center of our conflicts. And when it is not people, the war is fought over money, illness, schedule or the twists and turns inside of our own heads.

If this is a bleak perspective on our lives and surroundings it is meant to be. Peace is neither normal nor common. The more usual state of human experience is turmoil. Life is frequently conflicted. That is why we want peace so much, why peace is so important. We all want “just a little peace and quiet.” We want calm days at work. We want worry-free days of health. We want days with no worries about money. We want days at home when we all just get along. We all want peace.

And God wants the same thing because is he is a God of peace.

The word “peace” appears 276 times in our English Bibles. The Old Testament Hebrew word for peace is “shalom” and appears in various forms 350 times. The New Testament word is “eirene” and appears 90 times. The basic idea is the same in both words: “completeness”. Peace is when everything comes together and hangs together. Peace is when things are the way God designed and wants them to be. That peace may be personal peace or community peace. For example, Jews and Christians have long prayed for the “peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6). In this case it refers to safety in Jerusalem, that Jerusalem may be a safe and secure place.

Peace is such a frequent theme in the Bible because it reflects the nature of God. In Romans 15:33 we find “the God of peace”. Philippians 4:7 says, “ . . . the peace of God . . . transcends all understanding.” In other words, it is such a wonderful, powerful peace that we are incapable of fully understanding it. We may experience it but we will never understand it.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest example of God and peace. The essence of the gospel is that God was brokenhearted over the alienation between us sinners and himself. In order to bring us to peace he sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross to pay for our sin. When we accept Jesus as Savior from sin we come to peace with God. In other words, God was willing to sacrifice his own Son to get peace with us.

Whenever we want peace let us always remember that God is on our side. God loves peace. God wants peace. God is at work in our lives to give us peace. God and peace go together.

However, God never agrees to peace at any price. He is never a God of cheap peace, temporary peace or sinful peace. But he will fight for right to get a good and lasting peace.

How does all this work? We live in a world where circumstances constantly surround us with the sights and sounds of war. God calls us to peace. But what kind of peace are we after?

There is a wonderful old story about an art contest to find a canvas that best would depict peace. The judges narrowed it down to two finalists. One painted a serene lake scene as tranquil and idyllic as any you have ever seen. That painting came in second.

The winner was a painting of a raging storm. Looking at it you could almost hear the wind howling. You could see the driving rain and the effects of the storm. Everything was bleak and tumultuous. But if you looked carefully, you would see a bird sitting on a nest tucked in a crevice in a cliff in the midst of the storm. The bird was at peace.

The point of the story is simple: peace is not the absence of problems or conflict; peace is calm in the midst of the storm. If we get this point we have a shot at peace in our lives. If we miss this point we are doomed to a lifetime of turmoil. In this life we will never escape the storm. But, peace can be ours in our storm.

There are different types of peace. Factual peace is the hard solid truth of God. God takes care of us. God is on our side. He provides for us. He protects us. God keeps us safe. We can have complete confidence is God’s peace in our lives. We are the birds in a safe nest while the storm rages.

Here is what Jesus says to Christians. In John 14:27 he says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” He adds in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

What Jesus asserted is expanded in the rest of the New Testament. Romans 5:1 tells us, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And in Philippians 4:7, “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

The fact is that our peace comes from God. We are safe. We are secure. We have certainty and predictability in our lives and in our future. God himself is watching out for us. We are absolutely safe in the hands and protection of God.

One day it was my privilege to attend a meeting in the White House. I carried an attaché case in with me and left it at the White House coat check, well inside the secured area of the East Wing. Apparently I showed some concern about leaving it there because the attendant behind the counter said to me, “Sir, if there is any place in the world where your case is safe, it is right here right now.”

The fact is that if there is any place in the world you and I are safe and secure it is in the hands of God right here right now. We may be surrounded by threats, frightening circumstances and bad people, but we are immediately and ultimately safe with God. God is the total basis of our peace. But just because we have peace doesn’t mean that we experience what we have.

As we continue in our Christian lives we experience the peace of God. God gives us peace at times and places where we would never otherwise have it. Not because we have great faith or have people all figured out. God just gives us peace.

It has happened to me. Charleen and I have been caught in overseas wars where people were being shot and killed around us and the threats we faced were very real. We experienced supernatural peace on the inside while war raged on the outside.

It happens all the time to Christians as they face the threat of death, loss of job, serious illness, national crises or tragedy at school. God is there for you. It’s supernatural. He sees you through. Over and over I’ve heard amazing accounts of God taking care of Christians and giving peace when you would expect fear.

Let me tell you what is supposed to happen. Once we have experienced God’s care and peace in the past we are supposed to have stronger faith and trust God for his care and peace in the present. The more we see God’s faithfulness the more we expect God’s faithfulness; the more we expect God’s faithfulness the more we have peace.

This was the repeated point in the Old Testament for the Hebrew people. God rescued them from slavery in Egypt, preserved them through a wilderness journey and brought them to the Promised Land. After that the Bible is loaded with reminders of the good God did. The whole idea was that experience should be their teacher and peace of heart and mind would come from the memory of God’s past care.

All of this is to say that multiple experiences in the Christian life grow our basis for peace. Every one of us has one or more personal examples of the good God has done in our lives. Get peace now from our own personal proven experience with God in the past.

The problem is that our emotions don’t keep up. We have the facts from the Bible and experiences from our history. Those are a solid foundation for present peace, but emotions jerk us around.

I’ll make this into a personal confession. This past week I have been preparing for this teaching about peace. I’ve read articles and books and lots of the Bible.

And I’ve had a bunch of upsets this past week. They have included family, finances, job issues, health, decisions, schedule and a few other issues that were big at the time but that I can’t remember right now. I became upset and worried. I prayed for peace. I wanted peace. I even decided that I had peace. But I still didn’t feel peace.

One day I was praying as I was driving. (I know you’re not supposed to talk on the cell phone while driving, but I think it’s still legal to pray and drive.) I pulled over to the side of the road and told God that I just wanted to feel the peace I’m supposed to be talking about this weekend. It’s embarrassing to tell people to have peace when you’re upset.

The problem is that our emotions are slow. They often don’t keep up with facts or faith. Even if it’s true that God is there for us and has given us peace we don’t always feel the truth of it as we would like. Our emotions are like those Japanese soldiers who hid out on Asian islands for 25 years after World War II ended convinced that the war was still going on.

It isn’t easy. But there are some things we can do to travel the path to personal peace. First comes truth. The truth is that God is there for us and that God takes care of us whether we feel peaceful or not. Peace comes when we are settled on the inside regardless of what the circumstances are on the outside. It is a combination of internal contentment, tranquility and certainty whether our external situation is good or bad.

The truth is that God gives us peace because God gives us certainty. God promises to take care of us. We may not feel it, but it’s true. Let’s see what it says in the Bible:

God has said, ‘‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6)

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. (II Corinthians 12:9)

God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (I Corinthians 10:13)

These are the truths of God. These are the facts. This is reality. God is there for us and he will provide.

Second on the path to peace is righteousness. Righteousness is doing what is right. We should not expect to do what is wrong on the outside and experience peace on the inside. Psalm 85:10 tells us that “righteousness and peace kiss each other.” And Isaiah 32:17 says, “The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.” When we do what is right we may not get the results we want but we have taken a major stride down the path to peace.

A third step is to pray for peace. Ask God for peace in your own life and in the lives of others. There is a direct connection between prayer and peace. According to Philippians 4:6-7:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

An essential step on the path to peace is trusting God. Trust is the deep conviction that God cares for us and that we can relax and depend on him.

Jesus taught that God watches over the birds of the air but that we are far more valuable to God than any birds. Jesus said in Luke 12:24, “And how much more valuable you are than birds!” If God takes care of the birds, he certainly will take care of us!

The most common time for Christians to trust God and experience the peace of God is in the most extreme circumstances of life. It is when we are broke, sick, desperate, totally frightened or completely helpless. When we have no resources of our own we fully trust God.

Strange as it may sound, we need to learn to trust God for the small stuff in life if we want to have peace because most of life is made up of the small stuff.

One more valuable step along the path to peace is peacemaking. Some people are peacemakers and some people are troublemakers. Troublemakers not only cause misery for others, they almost always lack peace in their own lives. They may never personally experience peace until they decide to make peace. According to Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Be the kind of person who always goes first and farthest in making peace with others. It will grow peace in your own heart and life.

While preparing to talk about peace I received e-mail from Karen Lindholm, a pastor’s wife from Fargo, ND. Her husband, Ray, had been diagnosed with ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. It is a frightening disease that takes away all body movement but leaves the mind bright and unimpaired. It is a difficult journey making most of our troubles seem small.

In the e-mail Karen described what life is like. Ordinary tasks take hours. It takes an hour to get ready for bed at night. Constantly plugged into machines. Four hours to get ready to go to church services. Imagine yourself in the same situation and what it would be like.

Here’s what Karen wrote:

Ray is weakening so quickly we can hardly keep up with all the changes. And yet our lives are grinding along in really slow motion at the same time. He is virtually unable to do anything for himself any longer, and a simple thing like going to bed can take up to an hour before we have every limb in place and no leaks in his breathing system. We spend four hours getting ready for church on Sunday.

He is still able to speak and swallow relatively well, for which we are thankful. We just got a motorized wheelchair and are having Ray’s breathing machine wired into the chair battery so he can venture away from electrical outlets more often. We still have the little problem of getting clothes on him, but hopefully, some kind of lift is in our future to help with that.

Through all of this, God has been our constant strength, meeting our needs in unimaginable ways. God is so good and gives us great peace in the midst of overwhelming loss.

And then she quotes from II Corinthians 4:16-18:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

How did she put it? “God is so good and gives us great peace in the midst of overwhelming loss.” That is what the Bible is talking about when it says, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Psalm 29:11

When I was a boy my mother would often say, “All I want is a little peace and quiet.” I didn’t understand what she was talking about. It made no sense to me. I thought things were already pretty peaceful and a little bit too quiet. But as I grew older I came to understand what she wanted. We all want peace, but we often find peace difficult to get.

Wars have been fought throughout all of history; yet for most of us it is not military actions that steal peace but rather personal circumstances. It is family, co-workers, neighbors, bosses, teachers, coaches, students, children and parents who are the center of our conflicts. And when it is not people, the war is fought over money, illness, schedule or the twists and turns inside of our own heads.

If this is a bleak perspective on our lives and surroundings it is meant to be. Peace is neither normal nor common. The more usual state of human experience is turmoil. Life is frequently conflicted. That is why we want peace so much, why peace is so important. We all want “just a little peace and quiet.” We want calm days at work. We want worry-free days of health. We want days with no worries about money. We want days at home when we all just get along. We all want peace.

And God wants the same thing because is he is a God of peace.

The word “peace” appears 276 times in our English Bibles. The Old Testament Hebrew word for peace is “shalom” and appears in various forms 350 times. The New Testament word is “eirene” and appears 90 times. The basic idea is the same in both words: “completeness”. Peace is when everything comes together and hangs together. Peace is when things are the way God designed and wants them to be. That peace may be personal peace or community peace. For example, Jews and Christians have long prayed for the “peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6). In this case it refers to safety in Jerusalem, that Jerusalem may be a safe and secure place.

Peace is such a frequent theme in the Bible because it reflects the nature of God. In Romans 15:33 we find “the God of peace”. Philippians 4:7 says, “ . . . the peace of God . . . transcends all understanding.” In other words, it is such a wonderful, powerful peace that we are incapable of fully understanding it. We may experience it but we will never understand it.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest example of God and peace. The essence of the gospel is that God was brokenhearted over the alienation between us sinners and himself. In order to bring us to peace he sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross to pay for our sin. When we accept Jesus as Savior from sin we come to peace with God. In other words, God was willing to sacrifice his own Son to get peace with us.

Whenever we want peace let us always remember that God is on our side. God loves peace. God wants peace. God is at work in our lives to give us peace. God and peace go together.

However, God never agrees to peace at any price. He is never a God of cheap peace, temporary peace or sinful peace. But he will fight for right to get a good and lasting peace.

How does all this work? We live in a world where circumstances constantly surround us with the sights and sounds of war. God calls us to peace. But what kind of peace are we after?

There is a wonderful old story about an art contest to find a canvas that best would depict peace. The judges narrowed it down to two finalists. One painted a serene lake scene as tranquil and idyllic as any you have ever seen. That painting came in second.

The winner was a painting of a raging storm. Looking at it you could almost hear the wind howling. You could see the driving rain and the effects of the storm. Everything was bleak and tumultuous. But if you looked carefully, you would see a bird sitting on a nest tucked in a crevice in a cliff in the midst of the storm. The bird was at peace.

The point of the story is simple: peace is not the absence of problems or conflict; peace is calm in the midst of the storm. If we get this point we have a shot at peace in our lives. If we miss this point we are doomed to a lifetime of turmoil. In this life we will never escape the storm. But, peace can be ours in our storm.

There are different types of peace. Factual peace is the hard solid truth of God. God takes care of us. God is on our side. He provides for us. He protects us. God keeps us safe. We can have complete confidence is God’s peace in our lives. We are the birds in a safe nest while the storm rages.

Here is what Jesus says to Christians. In John 14:27 he says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” He adds in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

What Jesus asserted is expanded in the rest of the New Testament. Romans 5:1 tells us, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And in Philippians 4:7, “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

The fact is that our peace comes from God. We are safe. We are secure. We have certainty and predictability in our lives and in our future. God himself is watching out for us. We are absolutely safe in the hands and protection of God.

One day it was my privilege to attend a meeting in the White House. I carried an attaché case in with me and left it at the White House coat check, well inside the secured area of the East Wing. Apparently I showed some concern about leaving it there because the attendant behind the counter said to me, “Sir, if there is any place in the world where your case is safe, it is right here right now.”

The fact is that if there is any place in the world you and I are safe and secure it is in the hands of God right here right now. We may be surrounded by threats, frightening circumstances and bad people, but we are immediately and ultimately safe with God. God is the total basis of our peace. But just because we have peace doesn’t mean that we experience what we have.

As we continue in our Christian lives we experience the peace of God. God gives us peace at times and places where we would never otherwise have it. Not because we have great faith or have people all figured out. God just gives us peace.

It has happened to me. Charleen and I have been caught in overseas wars where people were being shot and killed around us and the threats we faced were very real. We experienced supernatural peace on the inside while war raged on the outside.

It happens all the time to Christians as they face the threat of death, loss of job, serious illness, national crises or tragedy at school. God is there for you. It’s supernatural. He sees you through. Over and over I’ve heard amazing accounts of God taking care of Christians and giving peace when you would expect fear.

Let me tell you what is supposed to happen. Once we have experienced God’s care and peace in the past we are supposed to have stronger faith and trust God for his care and peace in the present. The more we see God’s faithfulness the more we expect God’s faithfulness; the more we expect God’s faithfulness the more we have peace.

This was the repeated point in the Old Testament for the Hebrew people. God rescued them from slavery in Egypt, preserved them through a wilderness journey and brought them to the Promised Land. After that the Bible is loaded with reminders of the good God did. The whole idea was that experience should be their teacher and peace of heart and mind would come from the memory of God’s past care.

All of this is to say that multiple experiences in the Christian life grow our basis for peace. Every one of us has one or more personal examples of the good God has done in our lives. Get peace now from our own personal proven experience with God in the past.

The problem is that our emotions don’t keep up. We have the facts from the Bible and experiences from our history. Those are a solid foundation for present peace, but emotions jerk us around.

I’ll make this into a personal confession. This past week I have been preparing for this teaching about peace. I’ve read articles and books and lots of the Bible.

And I’ve had a bunch of upsets this past week. They have included family, finances, job issues, health, decisions, schedule and a few other issues that were big at the time but that I can’t remember right now. I became upset and worried. I prayed for peace. I wanted peace. I even decided that I had peace. But I still didn’t feel peace.

One day I was praying as I was driving. (I know you’re not supposed to talk on the cell phone while driving, but I think it’s still legal to pray and drive.) I pulled over to the side of the road and told God that I just wanted to feel the peace I’m supposed to be talking about this weekend. It’s embarrassing to tell people to have peace when you’re upset.

The problem is that our emotions are slow. They often don’t keep up with facts or faith. Even if it’s true that God is there for us and has given us peace we don’t always feel the truth of it as we would like. Our emotions are like those Japanese soldiers who hid out on Asian islands for 25 years after World War II ended convinced that the war was still going on.

It isn’t easy. But there are some things we can do to travel the path to personal peace. First comes truth. The truth is that God is there for us and that God takes care of us whether we feel peaceful or not. Peace comes when we are settled on the inside regardless of what the circumstances are on the outside. It is a combination of internal contentment, tranquility and certainty whether our external situation is good or bad.

The truth is that God gives us peace because God gives us certainty. God promises to take care of us. We may not feel it, but it’s true. Let’s see what it says in the Bible:

God has said, ‘‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6)

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. (II Corinthians 12:9)

God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (I Corinthians 10:13)

These are the truths of God. These are the facts. This is reality. God is there for us and he will provide.

Second on the path to peace is righteousness. Righteousness is doing what is right. We should not expect to do what is wrong on the outside and experience peace on the inside. Psalm 85:10 tells us that “righteousness and peace kiss each other.” And Isaiah 32:17 says, “The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.” When we do what is right we may not get the results we want but we have taken a major stride down the path to peace.

A third step is to pray for peace. Ask God for peace in your own life and in the lives of others. There is a direct connection between prayer and peace. According to Philippians 4:6-7:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

An essential step on the path to peace is trusting God. Trust is the deep conviction that God cares for us and that we can relax and depend on him.

Jesus taught that God watches over the birds of the air but that we are far more valuable to God than any birds. Jesus said in Luke 12:24, “And how much more valuable you are than birds!” If God takes care of the birds, he certainly will take care of us!

The most common time for Christians to trust God and experience the peace of God is in the most extreme circumstances of life. It is when we are broke, sick, desperate, totally frightened or completely helpless. When we have no resources of our own we fully trust God.

Strange as it may sound, we need to learn to trust God for the small stuff in life if we want to have peace because most of life is made up of the small stuff.

One more valuable step along the path to peace is peacemaking. Some people are peacemakers and some people are troublemakers. Troublemakers not only cause misery for others, they almost always lack peace in their own lives. They may never personally experience peace until they decide to make peace. According to Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Be the kind of person who always goes first and farthest in making peace with others. It will grow peace in your own heart and life.

While preparing to talk about peace I received e-mail from Karen Lindholm, a pastor’s wife from Fargo, ND. Her husband, Ray, had been diagnosed with ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. It is a frightening disease that takes away all body movement but leaves the mind bright and unimpaired. It is a difficult journey making most of our troubles seem small.

In the e-mail Karen described what life is like. Ordinary tasks take hours. It takes an hour to get ready for bed at night. Constantly plugged into machines. Four hours to get ready to go to church services. Imagine yourself in the same situation and what it would be like.

Here’s what Karen wrote:

Ray is weakening so quickly we can hardly keep up with all the changes. And yet our lives are grinding along in really slow motion at the same time. He is virtually unable to do anything for himself any longer, and a simple thing like going to bed can take up to an hour before we have every limb in place and no leaks in his breathing system. We spend four hours getting ready for church on Sunday.

He is still able to speak and swallow relatively well, for which we are thankful. We just got a motorized wheelchair and are having Ray’s breathing machine wired into the chair battery so he can venture away from electrical outlets more often. We still have the little problem of getting clothes on him, but hopefully, some kind of lift is in our future to help with that.

Through all of this, God has been our constant strength, meeting our needs in unimaginable ways. God is so good and gives us great peace in the midst of overwhelming loss.

And then she quotes from II Corinthians 4:16-18:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

How did she put it? “God is so good and gives us great peace in the midst of overwhelming loss.” That is what the Bible is talking about when it says, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

The word “hope” appears 161 times in our English Bible. I once took the time to read through every reference to hope and found it a tremendous encouragement.

Listen to some of them:

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

“Continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.”

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

If you visit the city of Rome you can tour some of the ancient burial caves called catacombs that extended for miles under the city of Rome. Early Christians buried their dead in the catacombs and wrote words and symbols on the walls of the caves. The most common symbols were the cross, the fish and the anchor. These inscriptions endure as evidence that in the midst of poverty, persecution and death, the Christians held onto their hope in God's grace. Hope was then – and still is now – the anchor of our faith.

Some say, “If you have your health you have everything.” Others say that happiness is most important. But, it's really hope that should top every list. We cannot always be healthy and none of us is constantly happy, but as Christians we can always have hope. Hope is the expectation of something better to come – a path from the difficulties of today into the delights of tomorrow.

The autobiography of C. S. Lewis, the Christian writer and scholar, is called Surprised by Joy and that's exactly what hope is all about – surprises from God. Just when we think all is lost, God sneaks up and surprises us with victory. Just when we think we have life all figured out, God takes us in exciting and unexpected new directions.

But remember, our hope is not in what will happen. Our hope is in God.
And, frankly, I would rather trust God than me! Some of my dreams are better unfulfilled. Some of my prayers deserve a “no.”

When we find ourselves in a tough situation, we can take comfort in these words of hope in the New Testament: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

God promises to give us the strength we need and to provide “a way out” of whatever difficulties we’re going through. He provides a path to a better tomorrow.

One of the amazing revelations of the Bible is that God can and does use the bad things that happen to us to accomplish good! Take, for example, the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him so they captured him and sold him into slavery. They spread the blood of a dead animal on Joseph’s coat and showed it to their father as proof that Joseph, his beloved son, had been killed by animals.

The consequences for Joseph were terrible. He became a slave in a foreign land. He ended up in prison in the worst of circumstances, and yet God took the intentional sin of his brothers and transformed it into good. Joseph eventually became the prime minister of Egypt and in that position was able to preserve the fledgling nation of Israel from destruction by famine. Joseph summed it up when he told his brothers, “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.”

In a sense, the whole Bible is the story of sin turned into salvation. Satan’s treachery, compounded by Adam and Eve’s fall into sin, was the worst thing that ever happened – yet God used it to accomplish salvation through the gift of his son. God used bad to make good.

My point is not to condone or encourage sin, but to encourage us that God can use all our mistakes, sins and wrong choices and turn them into stepping stones to supernatural success. Remember, there’s no going back, but there’s always going forward and always good reason for trust and hope in God.

Imagine that you are choosing between two job possibilities. You write out the pros and cons and ask God for direction. Much of your life hinges on the decision of where you work – where you live, your income and the people you’ll know. But I would like to suggest that even more important than where you work is how you work.

By way of example, let’s imagine two men at the end of their careers, standing before God. Paul, a successful CEO, says to God, “I want you to know that I made great choices. I went to the best schools. I worked my way up in a Fortune 500 company and successfully ran for political office. Life was good and now I’m ready for heaven.”

God replies, “Paul, your life was bad. You walked on the helpless and hurt people every step of the way. You ignored every principle of justice and righteousness I gave you in the Bible. You were a sinful and unfaithful servant.”

Then it’s Fred’s turn. Fred, a factory worker, says to God, “I’m afraid I made the wrong choice. I should have stayed in school and become a doctor. Then I would have had a more successful life.”

God answers, “Fred, you’ve got it all wrong. I don’t measure your life by your title or income, but by the way you lived for me in the factory. I saw your love and kindness. I heard you tell my gospel to others. I watched you respond righteously to temptation. Well done, good and faithful factory worker.”

You see, the true measure of our lives is not our choice of occupation, it’s whether we chose to live God’s way or sin’s way.

There are many different kinds of maps of the United States. One will chart the topography of the land with the most lines along a north/south line from Montana to Arizona – that’s because the Rocky Mountains are there. Another map will show the demography. Most of the activity is along the coasts and in the northeast – that’s because those areas are where most of the people live. A meteorology map will have airflow lines waving across the top of the nation because that’s where the jet stream is. All of these maps are helpful – if you are making decisions about altitude, population density or weather movements. But, if you’re looking for an interstate highway to get you from St. Louis to St. Paul, none of them will help. You have to read the right map!

It’s the same way when we are looking for direction in life. We need to read the right map. None of the maps I have mentioned will help us chose the best route to take for our life choices.

The Bible is God’s map and it’s different from typical maps. It gives lots of advice on how to drive through life, but very little is said about the actual highways to take. A prayer in the Psalms says, “Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.… I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.”

You can count on God to provide leadership along the way, but remember that his map is more about the way you travel than the actual route you take.

Hope and hopelessness, they are the best and the worst of life. Lewis Smedes is an ethicist, a Ph.D. professor, a Christian, a popular author, but when it comes to hope I think he is most qualified out of his own personal experience. Smedes says that during the first decade of his marriage to his wife, Doris, more than anything else in the world they wanted to have a baby. It was something of an obsession to them and finally after ten years of marriage she became pregnant. They were totally thrilled. In his words they thanked God and drank a toast to hope. Six months later something went wrong. He called the doctor and the doctor said she apparently is in premature labor. “Take her immediately to the hospital and I will meet you there at the emergency room”, and then on the phone the doctor said, “Oh yes; I have one more thing to tell you; I should have told you before. Your baby is going to be seriously malformed.” The doctor told Lewis Smedes that he needed to tell Doris en route to the hospital so that she knew what to expect. Smedes says, “Well I told her. But we decided that we were not going to give up hope. No matter what the doctor said we were not going to give up hope. So we kept on hoping all through the night.”

At 6 a.m. the doctor came to the new father with an embarrassed grin on his face and he said, “Congratulations! You have a perfect baby boy. Come on and see.” Smedes says he walked into the room and there was this baby that was a perfect specimen of manhood. He said it was a lot like him. Smedes says, “It’s true. Never give up hope. Never, ever give up hope.” And then he adds, “But two days later our baby was dead. Hope can break your heart.”

In his popular and well selling book, Standing on the Promises, Lewis Smedes quotes an old cavalry motto: “When your horse dies, dismount and saddle another.” Smedes writes, “to that good horse sense I would add a piece of hope sense: When a hope dies, let it go and saddle another. Hope does not have to die when hope dies.”

Hope is our fuel to keep going. Just as in a car if you run out of gas, you stop. If there is no gas in the tank you can’t get started in the morning, and so it is with hope. You have to have hope to get started. You have to have hope to keep going. Hope is our desire for a better tomorrow. It is the imagination that the way things are is not the way things always will be. Hope is looking beyond where we are and into what might happen and what could happen and it is having the faith that it will happen. That imagination will turn into reality.

Hope is not something that is gender specific. It is not more for men or women. It is not about age. Hope is something that we need when we are very young and when we are very old. It has nothing to do with nationality, whether an American or not an American. Whether a Christian or not a Christian, we all need hope. We can’t go on, we can’t live. It is the universal human need. As long as you’ve got it, as long as we have hope it is amazing what we are able to endure.

People who have hope can make it through severe sicknesses, deep losses, broken marriages, bankruptcies, career set backs, shattered dreams. If there is hope we can sustain through troubles and survive and even successfully move on into tomorrow. As long as we have hope. But without hope our lives become sad and painful, frightening and desperate and we may not be able to go on. God wired us all for hope. Hope can even take us to the brink of death and beyond. We were designed to hope into eternity. So we all need hope.

Hope is not the same as fantasy. Fantasy is so far fetched that we can actually imagine anything. You can imagine instantly that you learn a dozen languages and speak them fluently. With fantasy you can even change your parents and your birth date. You can move yourself from one generation to another. Hope is not like that; it is connected to reality. Hope is the expectation of something better.

In the Old Testament Moses was a man of hope. He and his ancestors had endured slavery for 400 years. A million people were enslaved by Pharaoh who said he would not let go and yet Moses had a hope. His hope was that they would not only be set free, but that they would go to a promised land, flowing with milk and honey, that had cities for them to live in that they had not built, fields to harvest that they had not planted, grapes that they could pick off of vineyards and arbors that they had not started. It was a dream of a better tomorrow.

Later on in the Old Testament is the story of David, who as a young man suddenly became the champion for his nation Israel against the Philistines and especially against the giant Goliath. What were his chances? All he had was a handful of stones, a slingshot and hope. He hoped for something that seemed ridiculous to hope for but hope turned into reality and the people of Israel were victorious because of David’s hope.

On the 28th of August in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke before 250,000 people gathered by the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. It was at the peak of the American Civil Rights Movement and advisers to the president of the United States asked Dr. King to cool the rhetoric so people would not get riled up. He wasn’t to get too emotional. He carefully prepared and presented a speech that did not express much expectation of something better. When finished, he turned away from the microphone and went to sit down when Mahalia Jackson, the great singer, seated behind King, shouted at him, “The dream, Martin, the dream. Tell them about the dream!”

King turned back to the microphone and spoke hope when he said, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” And he gave hope. Hope, not just to a quarter of a million people but to millions of people across the nation.

So what do you hope for? You hope for a better job or maybe you hope for a job. You hope for marriage or you hope for the birth of a child. You hope for a lift out of discouragement and depression. You hope that the illness will not be what the doctors say that the illness probably is. You hope to get out of debt. You hope that the next school year will be better for you and for your children. You hope that your prodigal child or grandchild will turn away from a life of sin and to a loyalty to Jesus Christ. You hope that you will have a better relationship with God, and that you will connect to him and it will be different spiritually than anything you have ever encountered before. Or maybe you just hope that you will die well and go to heaven.

In every case hope is the expectation of something better and we all need hope. But when it comes through it’s not hope anymore. Hope fulfilled is not hope. Romans 8:24 says, “Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? ” You see, hope is always future looking. When your hopes come true you know what you do? We all do it. We’ve got to come up with a new hope. If our wildest dreams turn into reality we need another wild dream because in order to get beyond today and into tomorrow there must be hope. Now ironically the soil in which hope grows is dissatisfaction. It is only when we are dissatisfied with the pain, the problems, the frustrations, the disappointments and worries of life that we have hope. If there is no dissatisfaction there is no hope to be had. Hope is always for a better tomorrow and saddest of all people are those who have none. There is a heartbreaking line in I Thessalonians 4:13 that describes non-Christians facing death and saying that they have no hope. I’ve been there at open graves with sealed caskets by those bodies of those who were not Christians and their families standing around and they have no hope that they will ever see that person again, no hope for heaven, no hope for eternity. It has got to be one of the saddest circumstances that you can ever be in but it is always sad when there is no hope, whether it is facing death or any other situation of life, we need hope.

The question is how do we get it? Surprisingly hope is a choice that we make. Some people choose hope and some people choose despair. It is not the circumstances that determine hope because some people have great hope in awful circumstances and other people are hopeless in pretty good circumstances. There are some people who are in constant pain and have little prospects for a physical recovery from their illness and yet you talk to them and they are loaded with an exuding hope. There are other people who are in great physical shape and don’t seem to have any illness at all and they are the most hopeless people with whom you can have a conversation.

Several medical studies have rated the hopefulness of surgery patients and then tracked recovery and survival rate over 5 and 10 years. Those who choose to hope increased their likelihood of survival by up to 300%.

Perhaps Lisa Beamer said it best. Her husband was aboard United Airlines flight 93 on September 11, 2001 and spoke the famous words, “Let’s roll!” Todd Beamer died a tragic death from terrorism. Lisa was five months pregnant and had two young children at home. Her circumstances were grim. Lisa Beamer said, “I knew I had a choice. I could choose fear or I could choose hope” and then she said, “I choose hope.”

St. Paul wrote in Romans 5:1-5,

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

It starts with suffering which is the universal human experience. Every one of us has a story of suffering to tell. The question is what do we do with that suffering? And we choose to persevere, that is to hang in there and that choice of perseverance builds character and character builds hope and the Holy Spirit in the Christian helps us through that process.

We don’t choose to suffer. I don’t know anybody that chooses pain but we do choose hope. Understanding that choice is not so much a matter of sitting down in a chair and going between option A and option B. Option A is desperation and option B is hopefulness. No, it’s not like that. It’s in a whole series of individual choices. But we choose hope wisely, not a foolish fantasy but rooted in reality and trust in God. We choose to hang out with people who are themselves hopeful because it can crush hope when those around us are saddened themselves and hopeless.

Or it is the choice to pray for encouragement. I do that everyday. On my daily prayer list is that God will directly and indirectly, through others, encourage me to make it through today and tomorrow. I know that I need that.
It is the choice to get enough sleep because lack of sleep steals hope. When we are tired and when we are down hope slips too easily away.

It is the choice to be patient. The recognition that while hope is for a better tomorrow, it may not be in the next 24 hours. Romans 8:25 says, “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Sometimes what we hope for takes months and even years. It’s the choices that we make. We choose to hope.

Michelangelo spent another long day on his back painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome. It was a lonely day for him. His body just ached. The sunlight had disappeared and the candlelight was flickering and he was discouraged and decided to call it a day. So he crawled over the scaffolding and down the ladder and ate his dinner by himself, a lonely man. Before going to sleep that night he wrote a sonnet to his aching body, a sonnet that is still available to be read today and the last line of Michelangelo’s sonnet says, “I am no painter.” He was so discouraged that he concluded that when it came to art he was incompetent. He went to bed and slept through the night and when the sun rose the next morning he got himself up, he went back to the Sistine Chapel, climbed up the ladder, rolled on his back, took out his pallet of paint and he began to paint again his portrayal of God’s creation of the universe, specifically of earth and humankind. Now how did he do that? He chose to go on. He chose to hope.

Now listen, almost everything here so far said applies equally to Christians and non-Christians, so is there no difference between those who are believers and unbelievers, those who follow Jesus Christ and those who do not? Oh there is a huge difference and that is because Christians have an enormous advantage when it comes to hope because we know that God is on our side. God spoke in Jeremiah 29 through the Old Testament prophet, “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future, then you will call upon me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Hope is kind of like an inflatable raft with multiple chambers to blow up. As a father of four one of the frequent duties of my life has been to inflate such things. Flotation rafts are designed with multiple chambers that have to be inflated separately. It’s actually not a conspiracy against Dad to keep him winded, it’s a safety measure. If one chamber springs a leak and deflates, you’re still okay because the other remaining chambers will keep you afloat.

You see that’s what God does. He does not promise to us that every chamber of our lives will always be full of hope. When there is a chamber that springs a slow leak or when one part of our lives is ripped open until all hope is gone out of it, God will see to it that there are other parts of our lives that have enough hope to keep us afloat and to get us into tomorrow. God is on our side. God wants the best for us. He has planned to make that happen. He gives us all that we need to grow hope. He is committed to our future. He will never abandon us and so when hope dies, when plans fail, when things go terribly wrong God comes in and gives new hope, new plans, turns failure into success so never give up hope. With God on our side we can always expect a better tomorrow.

Seek God. You will find him. Choose hope. You will not be disappointed and never, ever, give up hope! With God on our side we can always expect a better tomorrow.

When Wyoming highway patrolman Steven Watt signaled Mark Farnham to pull his car over he did not realize that Farnham had just robbed a Wyoming bank. Farnham pulled out a gun and shot at the police officer. The bullet went through the officer’s windshield and sunglasses and into his left eye blinding him for life. Then Farnham walked to the police cruiser, opened the door and shot four more bullets into the police officer. Watt still has pain from one of the bullets that lodged next to his spine.

Mark Farnham was stopped at a police roadblock, was captured, arrested, tried, convicted and was sentenced to 55 to 75 years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary.

Although Officer Watt survived, he was injured emotionally and psychologically as well as physically. He went to counseling—it didn’t help. He quit his job as a state patrolman and drifted from one security job to another. Through the years that followed his anger grew until his wife, Marian, also a police officer, finally said to her husband, “You can’t go on like this any longer. The only thing that will make any difference and will demonstrate that you are a true Christian is to forgive the man who did this to you.”

So four years after the attack Steven Watt went to the Wyoming State Penitentiary, met Mark Farnham and forgave him. Amazingly they actually became friends. And Steven Watt went on to become a deputy sheriff and state legislator.

Mark Farnham had 35 years to go before he was eligible for parole. His only hope of release was a pardon from the governor, and the last two governors had refused his requests. In 2002 Steven Watt announced he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of Wyoming, and one of the planks in his personal platform, if elected, was to pardon Mark Farnham, the man who shot and blinded him and left him in pain for the rest of his life.

Forgiveness is powerful stuff. And we all need it. Not because we’re in prison for attempted murder but simply because we all have past sins that need to be pardoned. Every one of us has a tainted past. In theological terms, we were born in sin and we have chosen to sin since we were born. In practical terms, we have all thought, said and done things we regret.

When I was growing up my schoolteachers had an ominous threat that at the time I didn’t understand but which frightened me every time. They said that what I did would go on my “permanent record”. If I was late it went on my permanent record. If I misbehaved on the playground it went on my permanent record. I’ve actually thought about returning to the town where I grew up, going to the old school and asking to see my permanent record. It must still be there. They must still have it. After all, it is a permanent record!

We cannot change the past. All of our lives are on the permanent record of our personal memory. Not even God can change the past. What has happened has happened. What we have done we have done. There is no such thing as time travel. There is no way that we can go back and change anything about the past.

All of this creates an enormous dilemma in our lives. We all have memories we wish we could change because our past sins impact our present and our future.

That raises a question: Is there anything we can do to get beyond the mistakes of yesterday and into a better today and tomorrow? The answer is forgiveness. The only way we can deal with the past is through forgiveness. Our choice is to either live in misery over our past mistakes and failures and sins or to forgive and be forgiven.

Forgiveness doesn’t change what has happened but it fixes what happened. Forgiveness releases us from the consequences of our permanent record. Forgiveness does not mean forgotten, but it is as if it is forgotten.

Before dealing with three different types of forgiveness some important distinctions need to be made. The first is that there is a difference between what we regret about the past and what needs to be forgiven. We may regret that we were born into a dysfunctional family, that we come from a gene pool with less than athletic and beautiful chromosomes, that we were sent to an inferior school, that we were assaulted by a vicious rapist, that we were hit by a drunken driver who left permanent scars or that something else we could not control has had such huge impact on our lives. In some of those cases we need to forgive. In other cases we need to ask God for help to rise above difficult circumstances. However, we do not need to be forgiven for matters where we were not responsible. Forgiveness is connected to responsibility. And we all need a ton of forgiveness.

We also need to understand that to forgive is not to forget. It is quite the contrary. We really don’t need to forgive what we have forgotten. The whole point of forgiveness is that we remember the wrongs we have committed and the wrongs that have been committed against us. Forgiveness does not deny the reality of pain and suffering. Forgiveness lets go of getting even. It is to choose attitudes and actions toward someone else as if the offense were forgotten.

First and most important of all, we all need to be forgiven by God. The most important relationship of our lives is our relationship to God. If we are alienated from God life is defective to the core; if we are right with God everything else will ultimately come together for good.

King David had everything going for him and blew it. He was popular, wealthy, athletic, powerful and loved. He was so loved by his military leaders that they insisted he stay in his palace rather that go to battle. They were willing to risk their lives and die for him but did not want to put him in danger. While they were fighting David lusted for the wife of one of his top officers. He seduced her and she became pregnant. To cover his adultery he ordered that her husband be sent to the front lines and abandoned to fight alone. He was killed in battle. David sinned, committed adultery, murdered his lover’s husband and betrayed the people of Israel.

Here’s what David wrote in his journal when he faced his guilt:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight . . . . (Psalm 51:1-4)

What’s he thinking - - - “Against you and you only”? As if this only has to do with God! What about the woman he seduced? What about the husband he murdered? What about the officers and army he betrayed? What about the nation that believed in him and trusted him? David had sinned against a million people and he says, “Against you, you only, have I sinned”!

While David’s behavior was reprehensible, his theology was pretty good. He realized that when we sin we mostly sin against God. Our lies and lusts, our anger and arrogance, our vices and violence offend God even more than they hurt our families and friends.

More than anyone or anything else, we need the forgiveness of God. God has been good to us, and we have been bad to him. That is at the center of our human need. Even if we do not realize it or recognize it, we need the forgiveness of God.

David picked up a pen for his journal another day and wrote in Psalm 32:1-5:

Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”—and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

When David ignored the need for God’s forgiveness and kept silent he was miserable. But when he confessed his sin to God and received forgiveness his whole life changed. The same goes for us. Life at its core is miserable; our souls ache even though we don’t quite know why. The problem is that we need for God to forgive our sins.

The question is—how do we get the forgiveness we need from God? On God’s side, he gave his Son to die on the cross for our sins. God couldn’t just say, “Skip it; you’re forgiven!” because that wouldn’t be fair (and God is always fair!). So God sent Jesus to take the consequences of all our sins. That’s why and what happened when Jesus died on the cross. It is the basis for God’s offer to forgive all our sins.

On our side, we confess our sin and trust God to forgive us. I John 1:8-9 says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” To confess sin is to agree with God about what we have done wrong.

Let’s try it. Think of two specific sins you have committed that you would like to get rid of. Tell God that you agree with him that these two sins are really sins. Tell him you are sorry. Ask him to forgive you.

Are your sins now forgiven? Probably. You see, we have done what God says needs to be done. God promises he will forgive us. And God keeps his promises. However, I say “probably” because I fully recognize that some sins take more than a minute to confess. Some sins require longer conversations with God. Some require tears of regret. All require repentance and the genuine desire not to commit the same sins again. It’s not that God is trying to make it hard but that we need to be sure we really do confess, believe and accept forgiveness—not just go through a quick religious ritual and perhaps casually repeat that sin again later. When we confess our sins we should have a resolve that we are finished with whatever we have done that is unacceptable to God.

A second need to be forgiven is by others. That may be a whole lot harder to get than the forgiveness of God. Others are not as anxious as God to forgive and often have strings attached. We must do what is right and then leave the final decision of giving forgiveness up to them.

Jesus describes a situation where we go to worship God and realize that we have sinned against someone else. Jesus says we should stop our worship and go to that person and ask for forgiveness. The illustration appears in Matthew 5:23 in the Sermon on the Mount:

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

The principle is a simple one: if we have sinned against someone else, we should go to that person and ask that person for forgiveness. The actual asking may get complicated because relationships are often complicated. It may require repayment of money that was borrowed. It may require making some promises. It may mean that we have to humble ourselves. It could be hard. It may even be embarrassing.

And it may take some forgiving by us. Jesus taught us to pray that God “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us.” In other words, relationships get very mixed up. In business, marriage, family and most relationships there are offenses flying in both directions. Don’t wait for the other person. Forgive whether you have been asked to or not.

David Augsburger is a counselor and author. He tells the story of a client who yearned for relief from guilt over an extra-marital affair with his wife’s best friend. He said he couldn’t tell his wife because she would never forgive him or trust him again; she would slap him and he would lose his temper and it would lead to the end of their marriage.

Augsburger said that maybe he could accept God’s forgiveness and promise to never be unfaithful again and somehow he could get relief from his guilt. He accepted God’s forgiveness and went home thinking that it was best not to put his wife through unnecessary pain.

The next day his client was back and Augsburger knew immediately that he had told his wife and that somehow everything was all right.

“It was after dinner,” he said, “when she asked me point blank, ‘What is it about you tonight? You’re like you haven’t been for years.’ What was I to say? I was, well, speechless. And before I knew what I was doing, I blurted it out. I told what I’d done to her and to the kids. Told her it’s all over between me and her best friend.”

“She sat, head in hands, until it was all out. Then she asked, ‘Is it really true?’ ‘Yes’, I said. ‘And is that all?’ ‘Yes.’ The silence flowed by.”

“Then she stood, stepped over behind me, and touched my hair. I looked up to see her eyes all tear-shiny.”

“ ‘I forgive you,’ she said. ‘Let’s start over from here; let’s go on with life together.’ ”

“It was too much for me to take. Then—then I saw that I was trembling; my teeth clicked for a moment before I caught them; everything blurred.”

“ ‘Why,’ she said in surprise, ‘why, you’re angry.’ I nodded my admission. ‘You wanted me to hit you, didn’t you?’ Slowly I admitted the truth.”

“ ‘No,’ she said, ‘I wouldn’t hit you; that would only have justified everything you did. And it might have touched off both our tempers for the last time. No, no, I forgive you. That’s our only hope if we’re ever going to live together again.’ ”

“That’s when the healing happened,” the man told (Dr. Augsburger). “Her forgiving me like that, well, it broke my heart, or it broke down my last resistance, my last self-justification. You see, I was still blaming her and her work and busy schedule for my unfaithfulness. And her forgiveness was so unexpected, it was like she reached into resources I didn’t know she had and forgave me. She gave me back my life.”

Let me add a warning to that story. Not everyone against whom we have sinned will forgive us. That’s their choice, not ours. Sometimes we may not be able to seek the forgiveness of someone we have harmed because they have died or will not listen to us or because going to that person may cause even greater harm.

The lesson here is that we need forgiveness. We need to do everything within our power to confess our sins and to seek the forgiveness of others regardless of whether or not they choose to forgive. And, if they do not forgive, let us decide in advance that we will forgive their lack of forgiveness toward us.

Our third need is to be forgiven by ourselves. Amazingly, we may seek and receive the forgiveness of God and of our neighbor but refuse to forgive ourselves for what we have done. Eighty-six percent of Americans pray to forgive others. Ninety-two percent of Americans pray for forgiveness for themselves. Let’s be sure to get the order straight. It is self-deception and cheap forgiveness for us to start with ourselves and skip God and others. Forgiveness of ourselves will never be real unless we put God and others first in the forgiveness process.

To forgive ourselves is to admit and regret what we did wrong. It is to acknowledge that we are willing to do whatever needs to be done to make the wrong right again. It is to then let go of the consequences against us just as we would let go of the consequences against someone who had sinned against us. It is an agreement we make with ourselves to move on to a better future rather than continue to dwell in a past failure.

St. Paul was a man who had a lot to regret. He was a troublemaker, a persecutor of Christians and a murderer. Even after he became a believer he didn’t always treat others well. He was a sinner against God and against his neighbors—and he knew it. In his own words he considered himself the chief of all sinners.

Paul had to decide if he was going to beat himself up for his past sins or move ahead in God’s forgiveness and grace. After God and others had forgiven him, would he forgive himself? He wrote what he decided in Philippians 3:12-16:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

Every Christian who asks for the forgiveness of God has attained it. God “is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Now, let us live up to that forgiveness from God by forgiving ourselves. As God has forgiven you, forgive yourself!

We all need forgiveness. It is just too hard, too painful, to live with sinful and unforgiven souls. So seek and receive the forgiveness that we need—from God, from others and from ourselves. And then, having received that forgiveness, may we live joyfully in the freedom of the forgiveness that is ours in Jesus Christ.

If you happen to be married, are you ever tempted to wonder what your life would be like if you had married someone else? When things aren’t going well in your marriage such thoughts may be tempting, but they won’t solve your problems.

When a Christian couple is faced with such questions, they may agonize over the absence of clear counsel in the Bible on the subject, while ignoring the counsel that is there. Maybe the issue isn’t whether or not they married the right person.

This was greatly impressed upon me some years ago by a couple who were considering marriage. There was a significant difference in their ages and family members were concerned that it wasn’t a wise idea. The man and woman were both committed Christians and diligent students of the Bible. They painstakingly researched what the Bible had to say about marriage and reached a significant conclusion. They determined that the Bible said comparatively little about who you marry, but a great deal about the way you treat one another once you are married.

I’m not saying that it doesn’t matter who you marry, obviously it’s a very important decision. But once it’s made, don’t fantasize about what life would be like if you had married someone else. Start demonstrating Christian love to the person you married.

When we ask ourselves, “Did I marry the wrong person?” we are asking the wrong question. We are wondering if we married the wrong person, while God is asking us if we are loving the person we married.

All of life is a journey filled with decisions. The poet Robert Frost reflects on the impact of those decisions in his poem, The Road Not Taken.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

There is hardly a one of us who has not wrestled with “what if?” What if we had chosen a different road? We are prone to mope around in regret over choosing the wrong road or getting off course. But God is more concerned about the way we walk than the route we take. He cares more about what we do when we recognize the need for a correction, than he does with the fact that we got off course.

The Bible provides direction for our lives. It says, “[God’s] word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” You see, it’s not so much which path we take, it’s letting God’s word light our way along that path.

Have you ever gone through the process of figuring out a purpose for your life? The Bible gives examples of different life purposes.

Jesus said that his purpose was to “seek and to save [the] lost.” St. Paul explained his life purpose this way: “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.” As a result, Paul chose which cities to visit in his travels and which to skip according to his stated purpose of preaching the gospel where no one else had done it before.

In the Old Testament Joshua said that the people of Israel had to decide whether their life purpose was to serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or to serve pagan gods. He said, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served, …or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua chose serving the Lord as his life purpose.

Jesus drew a line of choice for us when he said, “No one can serve two masters.… You cannot serve both God and Money.” Many people have chosen making money as their life purpose. Jesus said that when we make that choice, we are choosing against God!

When figuring out the purpose for our lives, we need to ask ourselves whether we are choosing for God or against God.

We tend to admire individuals who have a strong sense of purpose in their lives. They seem more confident, their direction is set and at the end of their lives there is a tangible way to measure their success – did they achieve their purpose?

No one better demonstrated the power of purpose than Jesus. The Bible clearly identifies his purpose: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” It also says, “[Jesus] came to seek and to save what was lost.” All of Jesus’ decisions and actions were determined by his purpose, not chance. He was born in Bethlehem rather than Baltimore, in the first century rather than in the fifth century. He determined who he would heal, where he would preach and which disciples he would pick. Even the circumstances of his death were determined on the basis of this stated purpose. That is why on the cross, with his arms outstretched, he was able to shout out, “It is finished.” His purpose was fulfilled. He had achieved the mission that he had set out to do.

Major corporations and institutions invest considerable time and money in identifying the purpose of their organization. They recognize the power of purpose. A carefully determined and clearly stated purpose becomes the compass by which everything is directed and the standard by which everything is evaluated. They realize that if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.

And so it is with our lives. We must decide on our purpose and then live it!

I have a riddle for you. What can be absolutely empty when it is completely full? The answer is “life.” Life can be so full of busyness that we are booked weeks in advance. It can be filled to the brim with things to do, places to go and promises to keep, yet be painfully empty on the inside.

Centuries ago King Solomon, the wisest, richest and most married man in history, wrote these words: “Meaningless! Meaningless!…Everything is meaningless.” Solomon had an abundance of money, of insight and of relationships, yet he was overwhelmed with the emptiness of his life.

Many suffer from a lack of purpose in life. You see it in the teenager who doesn’t know where to go to college or what to major in. You see it in the individual who finds no fulfillment in spite of a successful career or the homemaker who manages the house and raises the children yet wonders, “What’s the point of it all?” We’re talking about one of the most significant issues facing each one of us. It’s the question, “What am I supposed to do with my life?”

In the English language our questions begin with the interrogatives, “who?” “what?” “where?” “when?” “how?” and “why?” The crucial one is “why.” It’s in answering the “why” question that you discover your purpose in life. Identifying your life purpose focuses your options. Then, instead of making random selections, you choose your college, your career and your mate on the basis of fulfilling your life purpose.

“What do you want in life?” is both a basic and important question. Some of us really don’t know. It isn’t that we are unwilling to try, it’s that we don’t know what we’re after. Some of us spend all our lives chasing after money, career, power, relationships, sex or health in the hope that if we get what we’re chasing it will turn out to be what we really wanted.

One thing is for sure: we always want something. Peter Drucker is probably the best-known name in modern management. He is wealthy, successful, famous and still married to his life-long wife. In an interview awhile back he said that people his age (he is now in his 90’s) no longer pray for a long life; they pray for an easy death. This is the story for all of us— we always want something. It’s the way we are wired.

Our list is long, but one “want” tops all lists. We all want love. St. Paul wrote in I Corinthians 13:13, “ . . . faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

When children were asked what love is they gave some interesting and touching answers:

“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.”

“When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name if safe in their mouth.”

“Love is when someone hurts you, and you get so mad, but you don’t yell at them because you know that it would hurt their feelings.”

“Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is okay.”

“Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and just listen.”

“Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.”

“Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.”

“Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.”

And last of all, “you really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.”

Descriptions of love are endless. Definitions are more difficult. That’s because we all experience love differently. Love includes feeling special, belonging, being safe, respected, appreciated, valued, treated right and much more.

The reason we all have a deep need for love is because we were all created that way by God. The Bible says, “God is love” (I John 4:8). Love is essential to who God is and what God does. God loves and God wants us to love him.

God created humans in his likeness and that included both the capacity for love and the desire for love. As fish were made for water and birds were made for the air, so we were created for love.

Whenever we lack love we somehow instinctively, intuitively, know that something is missing in our lives. We may not be able to pinpoint it or define it, but we know that we’re incomplete. We know that something is missing even if we can’t quite name what it is.

The Bible begins by telling about a loving God creating a loving couple and putting them in a safe and perfect place called the Garden of Eden. It was a place without worries, threats, diseases or death. It was a place where Adam and Eve could be themselves and totally enjoy the love and goodness of God.

But, if you know the story, you realize that Eden was lost to sin and to tragic choices. And ever since then we humans have had this deep yearning to go back—to be safe, to be whole, to be ourselves, to be secure in the love of God and one another. Some of us search for this basic need in all the wrong places and in all the wrong ways. We make life worse rather than better. And it’s all because we just want to love and be loved.

Deep inside we all want to be safe. We want to be respected. We want to be valued. We want to be touched and appreciated. Love validates us as persons. It is powerful, transforming and affirming to be loved by someone and to give our love to someone in return. Just look at someone who’s in love and you can often tell. You can tell in their facial expressions. You can tell in their attitude and a demeanor. It changes all of life. It’s no wonder that we want love.

To satisfy our desire for love we need to understand how love works. First, we need to understand that love is actions more than words. Although words are valuable and important, behavior is more important. In the New Testament in I John 3:18 St. John writes, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

We all know too many stories of people who glibly say, “I love you,” and then turn around and behave badly with lack of love, unkindness and abuse. Whether in your family or among friends, always measure love be actions more than words. I Corinthians 13 provides one of the most eloquent descriptions of love in all human literature although it never mentions saying, “I love you.” All the descriptions of love are actions:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Very early in the morning on Monday, July 29, 2002, nine coal miners were rescued from 240 feet under the earth near Somerset, Pennsylvania. They had been trapped down there for 77 hours. It was the first time in 30 years that there was a successful rescue.

During those three full days underground they were in cramped quarters with cold rising water that sometimes was up to their noses. They shared one sandwich between them. They wrote goodbye notes to their families. They thought they were going to die, so they decided they would tie themselves together so that their bodies would all be found.

At one of the emotional low points in their ordeal, 43-year-old Randy Fogle started to shiver and experience tightness in his chest. The other nine feared he was having a heart attack or suffering from hypothermia. So they decided they would keep him warm with their own body temperature. They took turns hugging him and they hugged each other. According to Blaine Mayhugh, age 31, “When we were cold we would snuggle.”

I don’t know what your picture is of a Pennsylvania coal miner, but I didn’t even think that “snuggle” was part of their vocabulary. As much as I try I cannot picture coal miners deep underground snuggling with one another. And I’ll tell you what else I can’t imagine. I can’t imagine that in the darkness, with the possibility of death so near, that they whispered in each other’s ears, “I love you!” But they DID love each other—with actions more than words.

Love is also value more than beauty. In other words, the love we want is a love that does not depend on our good looks or the money we have or the position we hold or the power that is ours. We do not want to be loved just because of what the other person can get out of us. We all know that beauty fades, bodies age and it is a dangerous thing to be loved for our money. We just want to be loved for ourselves.

St. Paul wrote in Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” The Bible is clear that the greatest evidence of God’s love is the action of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, coming and dying for us—and it was while we were still sinners!

When I was a little boy I was given a stuffed elephant named Dumbo. He was white with ears that were red on the inside and button eyes. I don’t remember him much from my childhood but he is often by my side in old family pictures. He looked amazingly good in his youth. His fur was smooth and clean, he had both eyes and (as stuffed elephants go) he was good-looking.

My mother saved him and gave him to me after Charleen and I were married—she got Dumbo and me! As the years passed he increasingly showed his age; he was blind in one eye, patches of skin were missing and he was a dirty color. It seemed it was time to throw Dumbo away.

Then our daughter Jill claimed him. Jill is now grown, married and has a daughter of her own. And if you were to visit her New Jersey home you would see Dumbo prominently displayed. I can’t imagine her selling him for any price. Dumbo is still loved—not because of his looks but because of his value. And the reason he has value in Jill’s home is because of Dumbo’s relationship to her father.

That’s the way love is—value more than beauty!

Love is also received as much as given. As important as loving others is in our lives, we first need to receive love.

Gloria Chisolm is an author who writes about love, admitting that she was herself a closed person. One day a very good friend said to her, “I’m no longer going to talk to you about God’s love until you open your heart. Your heart is closed, and nothing is getting through. I’m wasting my breath and time.” That became a turning point in Gloria’s life. She realized that she had closed out the love of God and she deliberately decided to open her heart.

There are many of us who keep love out. The truth may be that we have good reason to be closed because we’ve been hurt. We’ve loved those that have abused us. We’ve loved those that have abandoned us. Once we’ve opened up and become vulnerable and then been hurt it’s hard to open up again. But that’s exactly what we need to do if we are ever to get the love we want and need.

The first century Christians in Corinth had this problem. They wouldn’t open up to love. Here’s what St. Paul wrote to them in II Corinthians 6:11-13:

We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.

That’s a word for us today. We must choose to open up, to take the risk, because love is received as much as given.

But love is given as well as received. Love doesn’t go just one way. Loving and being loved are so closely connected that sometimes it is hard to distinguish which way it’s flowing. I John 4:12 says, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

When I was a teenager too young to drive I bought an old car at a nearby gas station. The price was good even if it had no brakes and had to be towed home. One day I was working on the engine and could not get it to start. The battery was charged; there was plenty of gas. Nothing I tried worked.

Then my father walked out of the house and offered to help. I knew he knew nothing because he was in his 40s and really old. He looked under the hood and told me that the ground wire wasn’t connected to the coil. I had no idea what he was talking about and assumed he didn’t know what he was talking about either. But after he left I connected the loose ground wire and the car immediately started. He was smarter than I thought!

Electrical systems need to be grounded to work. Electricity is invisible. Electricity is powerful. The circuit has to be complete. It’s the same way with love. God loves us and we love others. When we are grounded the system works! That’s what it means in I John 4:12 when it says, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” His love is grounded in us.

Love is a triangle: God, others and us. We open our hearts and choose to receive the love of God. God loves us even though we are sinners. God loves us because he is full of love and he has decided we are worth it. We fill up with love from God and then we love others even though they are sinners. The circuit is complete. We are loved. We are grounded.

This is described in I John 4:16-21:

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

There is so much more that is taught within the Bible about love. We just can’t cover it in such a short time. So maybe what we need is a simple summary:

1.) We all want love.
2.) God loves you.
3.) Open your heart to receive the love of God.
4.) Love others as God loves you.

Our Father we thank you for your great love in our lives, the
love that is ours through Jesus Christ. Please help those of us who are
closed to open wide. Help us to take the risk and receive all the love that
you have for us. And may that love flow through us and complete the
circuit as we love others. In the name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen

Psalm 37:4

Mary Poppins is a movie classic about life in nineteenth century London. One of the characters is an uptight prim-and-proper banker who really doesn’t enjoy life. One day he brings his son to the bank and, because of his son’s misconduct, the dad is summoned before the owners of the bank. It is an awful, wonderful day when he decides that he is going to change his style and begin enjoying life.

That’s what we all want to do—enjoy life! Some of us seek enjoyment from a prison of perfectionism. We are so busy doing everything just right that we have lost our joy along the way. Some of us seek enjoyment from day-to-day chaos. Our lives are so completely out of control that we wonder if we will ever be happy again. But all of us share the desire for a good life—a life with some magical mix of contentment, purpose, peace, happiness and joy. Joy most of all! We simply want to enjoy life.

You may be surprised to learn that the reason we want enjoyment is that God designed us for enjoyment. When God was plotting the motherboard of humanity he wired in a desire for joy. That would have been a cruel design if God had not also provided the resources for us to enjoy life.

Listen to the summary of creation that is written in the first chapter of the Bible:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

God designed a world for enjoyment, with personal relationships, marriage, sex, family, fish, birds, plants, food and more. Then God stepped back and checked out everything he had made and saw that it was very good. God enjoyed us humans and the world he put us in, and he enjoyed the prospect of our enjoying what he had made.

When a musician performs, when a poet writes, when an artist draws a masterpiece, when you give a back rub—the purpose is to give enjoyment to others. When the recipient of our creativity says “thank you” we respond by saying “I’m glad you enjoyed it!” That’s the way it is with God—he is glad when we enjoy life as he designed us to enjoy life. We say “thank you” and God says, “I’m glad you enjoyed it!”

It is especially important for us to realize that God designed us for enjoyment because there are experiences in life that are deeply troublesome and the troubles of life can steal the enjoyment of life. Jesus is the one who said in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Jesus left heaven and came to earth. His purpose was to follow up on what God had done in creation so that the purposes of God might be fulfilled, and that includes our enjoyment of life to the full.

But this same Jesus also said in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Troubles are an inevitable part of our world and our lives. Strange as it seems, we will never really enjoy life until we understand the inevitability of troubles. Everyone has them. They have been around since the Garden of Eden. They are going to continue for the rest of our lives. There is no escaping trouble.

We often try to eliminate trouble from life. We exercise and eat right to stay healthy and avoid the trouble of sickness. We save money and buy insurance to protect against the trouble of poverty. We choose our friends, raise our children, get an education and plan our lives to be as trouble-free as humanly possible. We treat others in ways to minimize life’s problems—either by being very nice with the hope that everyone will be nice back or by being very mean with the hope of protecting ourselves from others’ evils. We convince ourselves that if we work hard enough and long enough we can get past the troubles of life and then we’ll be home free.

Living a good life is commendable. Just don’t think it will eliminate trouble. Athletes die. Vegetarians get sick. Billionaires can end up bankrupt. Children raised in the best possible way can turn out wrong. Sometimes we are betrayed by those we treat the best. We will never escape troubles in life. They are part of the sinful world in which we live and they are woven into the fabric of every human biography.

Wow! This sounds terribly bleak. It’s hardly what you would expect to hear when we’re dealing with enjoying life. That’s exactly the point. Unless we understand how to deal with the troubles we are never going to enjoy life as we are supposed to.

So how do we fit all of this together? There are three powerful concepts. They are contentment, delight and joy.

Contentment aligns expectations and circumstances. Let’s take a look at how this works. Advertisers tell us that a typical American is exposed to 3,000 different ads per day. If you sleep seven hours a night and don’t dream ads that’s about 180 ads per hour or three ads per minute. These ads are designed to trigger discontent. They invite us to want cars, houses, vacations, jobs, computers or relationships that we don’t now have. It is impossible to acquire all that looks appealing to us. Not only do we not have enough money, we don’t have enough time.

We have a choice: control our expectations or control our circumstances. Some of us try very hard to control life’s circumstances. We seek to do it all—perfect grades, perfect bodies, perfect weddings, perfect houses, perfect jobs, perfect lives. But, no one can pull it off. Some seem to do better than others but often they are the ones with the highest expectations and therefore have the biggest disappointments. Not one of us is capable of controlling all of our circumstances.

Try personalizing the concept. Think of something that reduced or eliminated your enjoyment of life this past week. What did you do? Many of us tried very hard to change the circumstances so that we would be happy. We worked hard to get more money, to change jobs, to fix relationships, to get rid of pain and to solve our problems.

Discontent is especially epidemic in our generation because our expectations are so high. Advertising gives us the impression that we can all be perpetually young, strong and good looking. Modern medicine has so many successes that we all expect to live very long healthy lives. We have idealized marriage to the point that we think there shouldn’t be any troubles in marriage, and when there are we are tempted to abandon that relationship.

All of this is ironic. We live at a time of greater prosperity, longer life expectancy and more resources than any generation in human history. At the same time we may enjoy life less than most other generations because our expectations keep rising faster than reality can keep up.

Contentment is the alignment of expectations and circumstances. If we cannot change our circumstances to match our expectations then the other choice is to change our expectations to match our circumstances. In old-fashioned terms: “Be content with what you have.”

Imagine how much more enjoyment there would be in life if we chose to be content with the job we have, the person to whom we are married, the money we earn, the bodies God gave us and most of the rest of life’s circumstances. I propose a 100% increase in the enjoyment of life if we actively adjust expectations to circumstances rather than always try to adjust circumstances to expectations. It was St. Paul who wrote in Philippians 4:11-12:

. . . I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

What an interesting choice of words: “ . . . I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” Apparently St. Paul was once discontent. His expectations were out of control. He understood the concept of contentment and then deliberately learned and chose to adjust his expectations to his circumstances.

This is a powerful truth, and it will work pretty much for anybody. You don’t have to read the Bible or believe in God or be a follower of Jesus Christ. If you change expectations to match circumstances you will experience contentment and life will be a whole lot more enjoyable. But there is something more that works only for Christians. Consider the words of Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Here’s how I used to understand these words: If you like God he’ll give you whatever you want in life. That seemed like a good deal to me. It’s also a rather selfish approach to a relationship—love God and you can use him to get wealth, health and everything else.

I remember the day I understood these words in a totally different way. I was a seminary student working part-time as a church youth pastor. College students came home for the summer and I was teaching their class. One student briefly spoke about the meaning of the words and said that if we make God the delight of our lives he will control the desires of our hearts and change our hearts to desire the right things.

Why didn’t I think of that? I was the pastor (sort of). She was a college sophomore. I remember the room we were in, her name and where she sat. While I doubt she would recall anything about this, she had a major impact on my life and thinking.

What if our hearts’ desires were to change to what God wants us to desire and then God gave us the fulfillment of those desires? Then God becomes the goal of life and we get everything we want and need. Then we can truly enjoy life in a way that would otherwise be impossible.

This is not only the best way to truly enjoy life; it is the only way to truly enjoy life. Make God your heart’s desire. Love him. Pursue him. Please him. When you and I delight in God he will cause us to desire what is good and right.

Jesus said the same thing in a different way in Matthew 6:33: “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” The context of Jesus’ words includes food, drink, clothes and getting over the worries of life.

We frequently talk about having the right priorities in life. Students of language say that the word has changed. Centuries ago the word only appeared in the singular. There was no such word as “priorities”; the only word was “priority”. Only one priority can top the list of life. Jesus says that those who want to really enjoy life should have the priority of God.

What would that look like? We think about God. We love God. We consider God in every detail of our lives—the car we drive, the attitudes we have, the words we speak, the relationships we have. God is more important to us than time, money, health, friendships, business deals, vacations or luxuries.

But it’s more than just thinking about God; it’s delighting in God—thrilled with who he is, loving what he says, amazed by his goodness, believing him in everything, looking for his hand in everything that happens. And when we delight in God, he changes the desires of our hearts and we enjoy life.

I’ve known people who have hated their jobs until God changed their desires to love their jobs. Some have never wanted to see a husband or wife again and God changed the desires of their hearts to fall in love all over again. People disliked the place where they lived until God changed their heart to prefer that place more than any other. These are those who came to truly enjoy life!

The greatest opportunity to live out these teachings of the Bible is not in the easy parts of life but in the hardest parts of life. What we need is a joy that is for all seasons, designed to celebrate the best, but also strong enough to survive the worst.

What if we could have a joy that lasted even through the greatest difficulties of life? Not that we would ever say that we “enjoy” being sick, experiencing disaster or facing death. But it is possible to have joy even in these difficulties. Jesus’ brother, James, wrote in James 1:2-3, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” These are the words of someone who so totally delights in God, adjusts expectations to experience contentment and truly believes that God is good even when life is bad that she even has joy that floats her through the bad days.

Ground fault interrupters are those often-misunderstood little switches in the middle of bathroom and outside outlets. They are designed to shut off the electricity rather than allow you to have a shock that might kill you.

Recently I couldn’t get an appliance to work and I was in a hurry. I was inconvenienced until I figured out that the GFI needed to be reset. While bothered by the inconvenience I was glad that the GFI worked. I was happy about what I was sad about.

That’s what the joy of Jesus does in a Christian. We experience the goodness of God in the troubles of life. We are happy God’s grace works. We are sad about the problems we face. We rejoice in what went wrong. It is like a test. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”

We received a long-distance phone call to our home this past week from the dad of an adult son who shared with us some difficult news about his son. This son has made some poor choices in life and has faced his share of problems and difficulties. For the better part of four decades these parents have prayed for their son to come into a right relationship with God and for his life to be what God wants it to be.

He has not felt well over recent months. He tried many different medical remedies, but just a few days ago he had an MRI that showed a large mass on one of his lungs. He has been given a list of possible causes, but even the best on the list isn’t very good. So this is a very heavy time. It’s about as bad as things can get.

But this dad went on with joy in his voice to talk about what has been happening in his son’s life. His relationship to God has been transformed. He has come close to Jesus Christ in a way that he never was before. He has a peace and a contentment that has his father flabbergasted as he witnesses what his boy is going through. It’s both at the same time. In the same sentences, with fluctuating tone of voice, this dad talks about this great difficulty and this supernatural joy.

I am fascinated by the stories I hear from persons who have experienced great trauma. Cancer survivors, those who have been assaulted and those who have suffered near-death experiences. Sometimes they are individuals who have been given a prognosis that tells them exactly how many more days they have to live.

They say that the world looks different now. They are not in so much of a hurry. Things that once seemed all-important now seem unimportant. The colors of flowers are more vivid. The coldest days of winter don’t seem so bad. Their families are more precious. And their relationship to God is the highest priority of everyday life.

These people are totally enjoying life. They are living out all the principles we have considered. They fully understand the enjoyment God designed them to live. They have experienced the troubles of life firsthand. They are content and they delight in God. In spite of their circumstances they are the dream come true.

Every time I hear this I think, “Can’t this be done without an accident, without cancer or without trauma?” Can’t we truly enjoy life as God intended without having the tires shot out from under us?

The answer is yes! That’s precisely what God wants. He wants us to choose to enjoy life, to choose to align expectations with circumstances and to be content. Choose to delight in God and let him give you the desires of your heart. Choose to live the joy of Jesus Christ in the midst of difficulty.

St. Paul said it well in Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

Enjoy life. Live it to the full. That’s what Jesus said.

When a relationship has grown cold and the marriage is in trouble, often only one of the marriage partners wants to work at falling back in love. So, what is that person to do? Loving alone is hardly the ambition of most people! It’s sad to hear a man say, “She’d probably get mad if I brought home roses, or say, ‘You shouldn’t spend the money.’” Or to hear a wife say, “I’ve tried acting loving before and it hasn’t done any good. And, frankly, I can’t stand the rejection and humiliation anymore.”

These stories bring us to the conclusion that there’s no point in loving alone. But is that right? Did you know that that’s exactly what God did? The Bible says, “We love because he first loved us.” The message of the gospel is that God loved us when we didn’t love him back. God was kind to us when we were sinning against him. God pursued us when we ran the other direction. God was committed to us even when we wanted nothing to do with him.

You see, God decided to love us. He made a commitment and then he acted in accord with his commitment – totally independent of whether we would ever love him back or not. He loved us into loving him. And that’s the greatest truth of falling in love again. Even if the other person doesn’t love us back, we love as we have learned from God. That’s the way to fall in love again and that’s the way to love another person into love with you.

When asked why they are getting married, many couples quickly say, “Because we’re in love!” But few human beings possess the kind of love which can survive the inevitable trials of the typical marriage. Love is merely what gets commitment going.

The first car that I owned was an old Plymouth Coupe. It seldom started easily in the winter – or the summer for that matter. I used to keep a can of gasoline in the car – I know that’s not a good idea, but it’s what I did. When I wanted to start the car, I would pull the hood release, go around and pour gasoline right into the carburetor. Usually it would get the engine running enough to engage the fuel pump that would then suck the gasoline out of the tank and up to the engine, and then it would fire.

Now in some ways it’s like that in the marriage relationship. In the beginning it’s love and infatuation that prime the engine of a relationship. But it’s the continuing supply of commitment that keeps it going.

I once read an interview in USA TODAY of a lady who had been married for 54 years. In describing their commitment she said that the low point of their marriage was trying to raise two quarreling kids while her husband, an oil company executive, traveled a lot. Then she said, “But we never thought the marriage wouldn’t go on.”

They had a commitment. Love may have ebbed and flowed throughout the years, but it was their unwavering commitment that kept their marriage going.

A secular marriage counselor might suggest that praying for love in your marriage is a form of auto-suggestion. It might help, but it would have nothing to do with God. But as a believer in Jesus Christ, I suggest praying for love out of the conviction that it is spiritually effective.

St. Peter suggested the link between marriage and prayer when he wrote, “Husbands,…be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” This is spiritual advice for Christians!

How many of us pray for love in our marriages? Sometimes we might pray that our spouse would love us better, but that’s not the way to pray. Pray to better love your husband or wife! Instead of assuming love to be an emotion out of your control, pray for love to be God’s gift in your marriage. Ask God to help you to overcome the things in your life that are unlovely. Ask him to help you change so that you will be easier to love. Ask him to love through you and to teach you how to be a better lover.

I challenge you to try this thirty-day test. Pray sincerely and fervently every day for a month that the love in your marriage will grow stronger and better. Try it for thirty days and I predict that you may well discover the link between praying in faith and falling in love!

Marital love goes through periods of change just like the seasons. Some are warm like summer; some are cold and difficult like a Minnesota winter; some are colorful and changing like a New England autumn; some are fresh and promising like a budding spring. What every married couple needs to learn is how to hang in there as the seasons change.

Marriage takes time and work. When love grows cool and the marriage is threatened is precisely when we must redouble our efforts to rekindle the fire at the hearth of commitment. Like most things worth knowing, lasting love must be learned.

In pre-marital counseling I tell couples to closely observe the marriages of others. Take note of the way he treats her. Listen to the way she speaks to him. Do they touch each other? Is there a warmth and kindness between them? We learn to love by finding teachers who are good lovers. Look for couples who model an enduring love. Get to know them and ask how they faced the struggles of life. Find godly men and women who have depended upon Jesus Christ, who have made prayer the routine of their marriage and learn from them.

We are all significantly and powerfully influenced by systematic exposure to good marriages where people are continually growing in love. We need to chose our models well!

When proposing to his girlfriend, one young man said, “I’m not wealthy, and I don’t have a yacht and a convertible like Jerome Green, but, my darling, I love you.” The girl replied, “I love you too; but tell me a little more about Jerome Green.”

The painful reality is that love is sometimes a fickle thing. How often have you heard divorcing couples say, “We just don’t love each other any more.”

Love is very important to marriage, but it’s not all there is. Millions of couples have thought that all that was necessary for a successful marriage was love – only to discover that their love wore thin in the daily realities of two people living together. Love is as much a product of marriage as a producer of marriage.

Charleen and I have known each other all our lives. But it was in high school that I began to see her in a new way. My heart was captured by this vivacious, blond cheerleader and we started dating. Soon we began saying “I love you” to each other.

By contrast, the love we share today is so much more. It’s a commitment we’ve made to each other for life. Love is the product of years of shared joys and struggles, laughter and tears. It’s forged by praying together through problems and debts; through sharing the joy of welcoming each of our children into our family.

When we now put our arms around each other and say “I love you,” it means something quite different – and so much more – than those words spoken as teenagers years ago.

In 1985, Michael J. Fox starred in a movie called Back to the Future. The plot centered on the fantasy of time travel. He and his scientist friend traveled back in time aboard their DeLorean sports car to the time when the lead character’s parents were teenagers. The story line assumed that if someone could travel 30 years back in time and change the past that the future would be changed as well.

Of course, that was fantasy, make-believe. Yet, it’s a fantasy that many of us would like to turn into reality. Imagine what it would be like to step back in time and be able to forever alter the worst decisions you ever made.

What if the convicted murderer could go back in time and unpull the trigger? What if the dropout would return to school or the failed marriage would never have taken place or the crippling accident would be avoided or the addictive drugs would never be taken? Or, what if the family money that was invested in portable typewriters could instead go into Microsoft stock? If only the missed opportunity could be seized.

If you could travel back in time and change just one thing about your life, what would it be? It can be a sad feeling to wish for a life that could have been but never will be.

What if you are a Christian and you missed God’s best for your life? God had a plan for you to be happily married, to have a meaningful job, to be a positive influence in the lives of others. God wanted you to live a good and a righteous life. You had your chance and missed God’s best. There is no going back and you wonder if there is any hope for Plan B or if you must go to your grave with regrets because of what might have been.

In past studies we have learned about the sovereign will of God, the revealed will of God and the personal will of God. We learned that most of what we need to know is already in the Bible and that God invites us to pray for wisdom to apply his revealed will to our specific situations. We learned, too, that God loves us, God wants the best for us and God has a plan for our lives.

What do we do if we defied God, ignored his will, did our own thing and now it’s too late for God’s Plan A? What if we have married the wrong person or followed the wrong career? What if we bought the wrong house or joined the wrong church? What if we made other bad decisions that have turned life in the wrong direction?

Before tackling these very important questions we need to make sure that we do not confuse the difficulties of life with missing the will of God. Too many people assume that life was meant to be fun and easy. When life gets hard we feel cheated and look for someone to blame. Some blame God; some blame others; some blame themselves.

The truth is that life is hard for most people. Everyone has problems and pains. Everyone has disappointments and difficulties.

In some cases, following the will of God is the harder path to take. The truth is that if we had done what God wanted it might have been a far more difficult life than we currently have.

The will of God is more about how we live than about the situations we are in. Don’t worry that you may have married the wrong person. The question is how you behave as a Christian married to the person you married? Don’t worry whether you have chosen the wrong career. How do you work for Jesus in the job you have? Don’t worry that you don’t have more money. Do you handle the money you do have in a way that pleases God? God says little or nothing about who we marry, what we do for a living or where we live, but God says a great deal about how husbands and wives treat each other, the way we work on the job and how we represent Jesus wherever our address may be.

No matter how great our mistakes and regrets are about yesterday there is nothing we can do to change the past. The call of God is to live Christianly today and tomorrow. One of the greatest opportunities to live for God is seen in how we deal with what we have. Even if your present situation is one that never should have been, what is God’s will for honoring him now?

In an extreme example, imagine a murderer on death row who is now a Christian. Yesterday cannot be changed, but that Christian inmate can and should live from today to execution day according to God’s will for what is left of his life.

Some people think they have missed the will of God and they haven’t. A common mistake is to compare to other people rather than truly knowing God’s will. Because a sister is married, a brother makes more money or a neighbor has a higher career rating does not mean that is what you should have. It is altogether possible that you are exactly where God wants you and that he is calling on you to live for him in ways that would not be possible if you had a different spouse, different children, a different job or some other circumstance.

With all of that as background, let’s focus now on those who have missed God’s will for their lives and know it. This is the person who deliberately ignored or defied God’s revealed will. As a Christian, he knew he was not supposed to marry a non-Christian, but he married her anyway. She wanted the job so badly that she lied on her resume and got the job God never wanted her to have. They entered a lawsuit against another Christian that God didn’t want in a secular court. Someone has harbored a bad attitude against an enemy when God said to forgive. He became rich by taking unfair advantage of the poor: charging high interest rates, underpaying employees, taking greedy advantage of the law in business. Another has damaged health and relationships with alcohol or drugs. He or she has harbored and nurtured a bad attitude and critical spirit that has repeatedly hurt innocent people.

To keep this practical, let’s get personal. Is there a specific situation in your life where you have missed the will of God? Keep that area in mind as we consider three steps toward regaining the will of God in our lives.

First on that list is repentance. Repentance is being genuinely sorry, admitting we were wrong and committing to turn around and go in a different direction. Repentance is a change of mind, attitude and actions.

St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians and told them about the tremendous and powerful transforming value of repentance. He said in II Corinthians 7:10-11:
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.

We live in a culture that promotes a victim mentality that assumes someone else is responsible. Repentance is taking responsibility for our actions rather than blaming others. It is much more than being sorry when things turned out poorly. It is saying it was our fault.

Genuine repentance can bring powerful transformation. In past generations the evidence of repentance was lengthy weeping before God. While I don’t think it is necessary to cry for three months, those who genuinely repent before God are more likely to lie on the floor and pray with tears than they are to pray a quick prayer to get it over with.

In the United States there are often two parts to a capital criminal trial. The first part is to determine guilt and the second part is to decide the sentence. Juries often look for evidence of remorse when making the sentencing decision. If juries can tell if someone is truly sorry and repents, so can Go and so can we.

Jesus told one of his most famous stories in Luke 15:
There was man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” So he divided his property between them.

Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’” So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” So they began to celebrate.

Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. “Your brother has come,” he replied, “and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.”

The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”

“My Son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

Jesus’ famous parable of the Prodigal Son is a story about deliberately disregarding the father’s will and then coming to repentance. He came to his senses. He saw things differently. He admitted he was wrong. He was humble. He blamed no one else. He made no demands.

When we have missed God’s best for our lives, we should repent. We should come to our senses and admit that what we have done is wrong. We should be humble and genuinely sorry. We should take responsibility and ask for forgiveness. Decide to go in a new and better direction. And, tell God!

Is repentance hard? Sometimes it can be indescribably hard. Yet, repentance may be the key to unlock the prison door of past sins and enter the freedom of a whole new life with God. Repentance can be revolutionary and good.

Related to repentance is repair. When we have done damage to ourselves and to others we can do our best to fix what we have broken. Sometimes it is as simple as saying, “I’m sorry.” Go to the person who was injured and apologize and ask for forgiveness. The other person may be a parent, former boss, neighbor, ex-husband or wife, teacher, patient or friend.

If the other person won’t talk to you, send a letter. If a letter won’t work, go through a mutual acquaintance. If the other person is dead, consider going to the cemetery and standing by the grave to say, “I’m sorry. She won’t hear you, but it is symbolically the best that you can do.

Sometimes the repair is restitution - paying back what was taken. Zacchaeus was a first century tax collector who cheated and stole from taxpayers. Then he met Jesus Christ and had a total change of direction. He repented of what he had done wrong and promised to make things right. Luke 19:8 says that “Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

The point here is not that we have to repay 400% of what we have stolen but that we do whatever is necessary to repair the damage that we have done.

What comes to mind for you? Is there anyone you need to go to and make things right? An apology? A repayment? How about repairing someone’s damaged reputation?

Some common sense is needed here. Don’t fix what isn’t broken. You may have harbored evil thoughts concerning someone but that person doesn’t even know it. It’s probably not a good idea to call and say to your best friend, “I’ve always thought you were a first class loser and I never have understood why I ever liked you in the first place.”

Don’t do something that will make matters worse. If you were unfaithful to your wife 50 years ago it’s probably not a good idea to confess your sin on your Golden Wedding Anniversary or on a deathbed. Some attempted repairs do more damage than good.

Don’t do what’s easiest for you. Do what’s best for others. Do everything you can to make things right and make things better for anyone whom you have harmed.

Some things can’t be fixed or changed. If you have married someone you never should have married, stay with that marriage and do your best to make it good. If you have run up debts that you never should have entered into, you are obligated to pay that money back. If you have murdered someone, you may apologize to the family but you can’t bring the victim back.

The principle is straightforward. If we have missed God’s best for our lives, we should repent of what we have done wrong and try our best to make it right. When in doubt about what to do, remember the promise of James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

After repentance and repair comes renewal. It is time to move on to God’s best for the future. Some call it Plan B. That’s fine in the sense that it would have been better to do what God wanted in the first place. But, never think that God’s present will for our lives is second rate. God has a perfect and powerful will for right now and for the future.

If God wanted you to be a missionary and you chose to be a manager, be God’s missionary where you now manage. If God wanted you to remain single but you went ahead and married, build the best Christian marriage you can with your husband or wife. If God wanted you to be honest and you decided to become a thief, even though you may spend the next ten years in jail, live for Jesus Christ behind prison bars.

The most important issue for the present and the future is not what happened in the past but how we do the will of God with what we now have.

Jonah was the Old Testament prophet after whom one of the books of the Bible is named. Unfortunately, he is most famous for an unexpected ride inside a fish. But the story before and after the fish is really more important. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh to deliver his message to a sinful people. Jonah didn’t like the people of Nineveh so he headed in the wrong direction – he deliberately disobeyed the will of God. God intervened, gave him a fish ride and had him vomited up in the right direction. God got Jonah to Nineveh. It was Plan B, but it accomplished exactly what Plan A originally intended.

The nation of Israel was repeatedly told to avoid idolatry and disloyalty to God, and yet they worshipped idols and were repeatedly disloyal until God allowed the armies of Babylon to sweep across their country, destroy their cities and take them into captivity. Plan A was lost; but they pleaded with God for Plan B. They thought that meant going back to Jerusalem and to their homeland. Instead this is what God told them in Jeremiah 29:10-14:
“When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “ and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

The Prodigal Son was welcomed home by a father who loved him no matter where he had gone and no matter what he had done. The father in Jesus’ story was just like God, anxious to make the very best for the child whom he loved.

Hear this loud and clear: God loves us and wants the best for us. If he needs to kidnap us and scare us with a fish to get us where we need to be – God will do that. If he needs to carry us away to some foreign land to bless us there – God will do that. If he needs to welcome us home from a life of total disaster – that is what God will do.

We can totally trust God. If we mess up and miss Plan A, we can repent and repair and be renewed. We serve a God of hope. We belong to a God of second chances. We are followers of Jesus Christ who came to seek and save those who are lost.

Let’s consider the case study of Jeremy Mullins who grew up in the family-owned manufacturing business. He worked there as a teenager. When he went away to college, he worked in the factory during summer vacations. After college he became a permanent employee. It’s the only job he ever had. When his father died of a heart attack, he inherited the company.

Some of the employees have worked for the company all their lives. They have been loyal through recessions, salary reductions and job offers to go elsewhere. And Jeremy has tried to reward them with job security and good pay.

It’s a family business in more ways than one. Jeremy’s father and grandfather before him owned the company. But it feels like a family, too. Most of the hundred or so employees and their relatives have known each other almost all of their lives. Some of their parents and grandparents worked there before them.

Now Jeremy Mullins faces one of the most important decisions of his life. In the same week, two opportunities have come his way. The first is from a company in Florida that wants to hire him for a high salary and significant stock options. He could earn a great living without all the headaches of being the top boss. His financial future would be secure.

The second offer came from a multi-national company that wants to buy his business and close it down. They really want his company’s name, reputation and patents, but they don’t want the current employees and management.

Selling, taking the new job and moving makes good economic sense. Besides, none of his own children want to enter the business, and he would eventually have to sell the company anyway. If he waits until retirement age the company may not be worth much because of competition, or it may be worth more and could be sold to the employees. It could go either way. If he sells now he will make a fortune but force all the employees to look for new jobs.

Jeremy is a Christian. He’s committed to doing what God wants. So what should he do? There are risks either way. There will be criticisms either way. If he sells and moves, some will say he is greedy and selfish. If he stays and keeps the company going, some will say he missed the opportunity of a lifetime and tried to make next year into 1952.

We all face important personal decisions that can be difficult to make. Our decisions may be in the area of business, health, housing, finance, career, politics, family, neighborhood, church, school, dating, marriage, friendships or any of the other relationships of life.
Some people may be hurt and angry or disagree no matter what decision we make. We can see both sides of the issue and are frightened we will make a mistake that will haunt us for years to come. We want God to tell us exactly what to do, but he doesn’t give us the handwritten letter from heaven that we would like to have. Time is limited. Doing nothing is a decision of its own and may be the worst possible decision.

How should a Christian go about making important personal decisions? Honestly, it’s not an exact science. We usually have to choose without knowing all the facts. We won’t always get it right. But we do have significant help from God that teaches us how to decide.

First on the list is to always start with God. Tell God that you want to do his will no matter what. Commit to do what is right, even if that is very hard to do. Let there be no doubt in your mind or in God’s mind that his will and his way are top priority.

Just the opposite is to start out with your mind made up and then tell God to help get what you want. Lots of people do that and are disappointed or angry with God for not giving them their way.

As Christians we have committed to be followers of Jesus Christ. We seek to be like the New Testament Christians who willingly called themselves “slaves of Jesus Christ” and resolved that they would do his will even if it meant suffering and death. We take seriously the counsel of Proverbs 3:5-6 where it says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Tell God, “I trust you. I believe in you. I’m depending on you and your help, not upon myself.”

Next, get the facts. We need good information in order to make good decisions. We need to avoid jumping to conclusions. We need to avoid making decisions based on ignorance or false information.

Proverbs 15:14 says, “The discerning heart seeks knowledge.” Knowledge is necessary for wisdom. We must know the facts in order to make a good decision. Bad information often leads to bad decisions. Usually we cannot get all of the information we would like. That’s one of the reasons we need God’s help. Often we need to decide before all the information is in.

Third on our list is to research the Bible. Most of what we can know about the will of God is already revealed in the Bible. A powerful teaching in II Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

God has already put into the Bible everything we need to know in order to be equipped to do what we need to do. The Bible is our source book and the reference book for what God wants us to know and what God wants us to do.

Another section of the New Testament, II Peter 1:2-4, helps to explain the same concept:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption of the world caused by evil desires.

God has already given us in the Bible everything we need to live good and godly lives. We don’t have to search the world for God’s will; we have it. We need to search the Bible where God’s will is already recorded for us to learn.

The question is how do we find out what the Bible has to say? The obvious answer is to read the Bible. Every Christian should make a regular effort to read God’s word. If you read three or four chapters a day, you’ll read the entire Bible in a year. If that’s too much, then read a page or half a page each day.

Mark your Bible. Underline the concepts and truths and advice that specially stand out to you. Carry your Bible with you to church and write notes in the margins. Mark your Bible so that you can more easily find the information you need when you need it.

Learn how the Bible works. Buy or borrow a study Bible with indexes and marginal notes so that you can easily look up what God says about marriage, borrowing money, raising children, getting along with neighbors or how to behave in stressful circumstances. Buy some Bible research software for you computer. Take a Bible and for an hour or so just learn by yourself how to find what you’re looking for. Like a lot of other things in life, a few minutes reading instructions can go a long way to getting the greatest benefit.

The bottom line is to research the Bible and know what it has to say about the decision you need to make.

Number Four is to seek wise counsel. This can go hand-in-hand with Number Three because wise counselors often know what the Bible says and can help us discover God’s will in the Bible. Proverbs 13:10 says, “Wisdom is found in those who take advice.”

Let me tell you my own experience. I have found that there are good and godly Christians with enormous wisdom and vast experience. They know the Bible and they have deep insights. When I face challenging and difficult decisions, I go to those who are wise and ask for their advice. It doesn’t mean they are always right. It doesn’t mean that they can make my decisions for me. But, they are gifts from God toward knowing what to do. I can barely imagine making an important decision without first consulting with wise and godly Christians.

Just as it is important to study the Bible before we face a crisis, it is also important to know wise Christians before we face a crisis. Building relationships, becoming connected with other Christians in the church, knowing who to ask and who to trust is an important part of making wise decisions in life.

Here’s a quiz. If you were to face a very important personal decision next week, who are three godly wise Christians you could call for counsel? Be sure that your list of three is not just good buddies who will tell you what you want to hear. Pick people who will tell you what God wants you to hear!

Number Five on the list is to pray for wisdom. Knowledge has to do with facts. Wisdom is how we use those facts. Wisdom is about being smart. But, we are looking for God’s smarts, not human smarts. It is the application of God’s truth and God’s will to our specific situation.

There is an interesting example in Proverbs 26:4-5. At first reading it almost sounds silly and contradictory. Proverbs 26:4 says, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you’ll be like him yourself. Proverbs 26:5 says, “Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.” The truth is that sometimes we need to keep quiet when a fool speaks; and sometimes we need to answer when a fool speaks. It depends on the particular fool and the particular situation. So how do we know what to do when? We need wisdom.

James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” This is one of the opportunities for Christians to have a supernatural encounter with the Holy Spirit of God. We pray for wisdom and the Spirit gives to our heads and hearts the wisdom we need to apply God’s will to our specific situation.

A word of caution is important here. If someone claims to have wisdom from God that contradicts the teaching of the Bible and the counsel of godly wise Christians, that person is probably wrong. All of the pieces should fit together in order to get the complete picture of God’s will and God’s wisdom. We should be highly suspicious of persons who claim they have a word from God that is not incompatible with God’s Word.

Number Six is to make a decision. To this point we have done everything we can do and asked God to help us in every way he has promised. It is time to actually decide.

The question here may seem overly simple: What seems to be the right thing to do? You have committed this to God. You have gotten the available facts. You have researched the Bible. You have sought wise counsel. You have prayed for wisdom. Okay, what do you think you should do?

If “doing what seems right” sounds a little less spectacular than you expected, listen to what the Bible says in Acts 15:28. The early church leaders were trying to decide if Gentiles had to become Jews to become Christians. Acts 15:28 says, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements . . . .” How did they decide this very important issue? They did what seemed good to them.

Paul and Timothy had been traveling together as missionaries around the Roman Empire. Now they were trying to decide whether they should stay together or split up. According to I Thessalonians 3:1-2:
So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God’s fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith.

How did they make this decision? They thought it was the best way to handle the matter.

In the opening lines of the third book of the New Testament, the book of Luke, St. Luke has accumulated all this information about the biography of Jesus. He’s a physician and an historian, and he’s trying to figure out what to do with this information. Luke l:3 says, “Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you.”

The reason we have the gospel of Luke is because it seemed like a good idea one day, but it was based upon this overall context.

Once you have decided what seems right, make a preliminary decision about what you are going to do. Don’t tell others yet. Tell God in your prayers that this is what you have decided. Ask God to show you if you are wrong. Ask God to confirm the decision if it is right. Live with the decision for a few days or weeks – as if you’re going to do it, but allowing for the possibility of reconsideration and change.

Then finalize your decision. Conclude that this is what you are going to do and proceed to do it. Rest in the confidence that you have done everything in your power to seek and do the will and wisdom of God. Tell others what you have decided.

Then, implement the decision. Do it! There may be doubts and criticisms, but now is the time to act. And do it Christianly. Colossians 3:17 says, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Do what you have decided to do. Go for it. Trust God to stop you if it’s wrong and help you if it’s right. Depend on him.

Those of us who are Christians are to live by faith. That means that we trust God for what cannot be seen. It means that we follow the process and then depend on God to turn our decisions and actions into his great good. Romans 8:28 says, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

As Christians making important decisions we have a process and a presupposition. The process is to commit to God, get the facts, research the Bible, seek wise counsel, pray for wisdom, make a decision and implement that decision. But it’s all based upon this presupposition: God loves us; God wants the best for us; God is always on our side.

Let me ask you a question. What do you think is the missing ingredient in most marriages? I’d like to suggest that it is prayer. Many people pray in a crisis, but it’s regular, daily prayer that really makes the difference.

Here are some things we should pray for as husbands and wives. Start by renewing your marriage commitment – tell God you’re in it “for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health, till death do us part.”

Pray daily that you will be faithful to your spouse and that he or she will be faithful to you. Don’t wait for temptation to strike. Ask God to help you keep the flame of romance burning in your relationship. And pray for passion. Your sexual relationship is very important to a successful marriage. God invented sex and he wants to bless this area of your life.

When you pray, be sure to submit the problems you are facing to God. Whether it’s problems with finances, communication, sex, children or in-laws, submit them to the Lord.

And what about praying together? When was the last time, as husband and wife, you held hands sitting on the couch late at night or early in the morning and had a genuine prayer time together?

For those of you who will really pursue praying together, you’ll find that the future will be exciting. Failing to pray together results in missing out on much of God’s very best for you and for your marriage.

As a parent I dearly love each of our children and when they were young I did everything I possibly could to make them succeed. I provided clothes, food and shelter. I took them to the doctor and the dentist. I helped them in every way I could. I prayed for them, helped them with homework and played with them. I tried to gently push them in the right direction, but I couldn’t live their lives for them. I could share my experience and show them how to go, but it was up to them to take advantage of all the good I was able to give them.

And that is precisely what God is continually doing with our marriages. He gives gifts, provides encouragement, sets limits, prevents tragedies, teaches, pushes and even disciplines. But it is up to us to take full advantage of all that God does to make our marriages succeed. He doesn’t force us. He never dictates or takes away our freedom.

God is on the side of our marriage’s success, but it is up to us to take advantage of what he wants to do to make our marriages succeed.

Marital veterans also tend to talk to each other a lot. They may argue frequently during much of their marriage, but after retirement they are apt to mellow—accepting a partner’s traits that may have annoyed them for years.

Successful marriage partners express optimism that ultimately they’ll make it. They share at least some activities and interests, along with basic values and goals. This underlying agreement appears to keep them bonded together despite the unexpected changes that occur over time.

And last, but not least, couples with enduring marriages are much more likely than the unhappily married to attend religious services or to have a spiritual dimension to their daily lives.

You see, marriage is primarily a spiritual relationship. That’s because it is God who joins a husband and wife in marriage and God can enable marriages to succeed. May all of our marriages be regularly renewed by the spiritual power of God himself!

The United States government established the Department of Homeland Security to prepare against future terrorist attacks. Our government warns us that terrorist attacks are inevitable and we should do everything possible to be ready.

Satan is a terrorist. He is out to get us. He doesn’t play fair. He is clever and mean and our best weapon against his terrorism is advance preparation. The Bible tells us to “Resist [Satan], standing firm in the faith.” Jesus was prepared when Satan tempted him. He responded with direct quotes from the Bible. We, too, need to be ready before Satan’s assaults come. How do we get ready? Read the Bible. Memorize key verses. Pray regularly. Fight back.

The spiritual battle against evil is everywhere and affects everyone. The good news is that when we belong to Jesus Christ, we have the Holy Spirit inside of us and he is far greater and stronger than Satan will ever be. We have every resource we need to win – because of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Of course, the Gallup Poll is not what determines the existence of Satan. He’s either real or fake, a myth or a reality.

The Bible teaches that Satan is real, powerful and very, very bad. Let’s have a quick lesson on Satan. “Satan” and the “Devil” are different names for the same person. “Satan” means “adversary” because he is the opponent of God and good. “Devil” means “the accuser; the slanderer” because he is constantly trying to put-down God and God’s people with awful accusations and malicious indictments.

Some people overestimate the devil. They think that he’s the evil equal of God. This is simply not true. God is the creator; Satan is a creature. God is eternal; Satan had a beginning in time. God knows everything; Satan is smart but limited in his knowledge. God is everywhere; Satan cannot be in more than one place at one time.

Ultimately Satan is doomed. The battle is ferocious but God will win. The fatal blow against sin and Satan was struck when Jesus died on the cross and rose again to life. Satan couldn't top that. The last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, gives the details of how God will win the final victory that will last forever.

He called to tell me that his car wouldn’t start. I asked him if the engine turned over when he turned the key, and he said it did. I asked him if the car ran okay the last time he drove it. He said that it ran just fine. When I asked him if he had checked to see if there was a spark, he said he didn’t know what I was talking about and had no idea how to find out. So I asked him if the car had gas. He said he’d have to check. The fuel gauge read “empty”, so he bought a gallon of gas, put it in the car and it started just fine. He was looking for a hard answer when the answer was quite easy.

We often do the same thing when it comes to seeking the will of God. We pray and struggle and search for what to do when we haven’t done the obvious. Sometimes all we need to do is what we already know to do.

Not that discovering the will of God is always easy. Sometimes it’s very hard. I can tell you from personal experience that there have been times when I have pondered and prayed for a very long time trying to figure out what God wants me to do.

Actually, the will of God is revealed in three different ways in the Bible. Let’s call them different flavors.

Flavor #1 is the sovereign will of God. The sovereign will of God is what God wants and what God gets. By sovereign, we mean that God is the absolute boss. If he decides that something is going to happen, it is going to happen – exactly the way he wants it to happen.

Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon in the 6th century BC. He summed up the sovereign will of God very well in Daniel 4:35:

(God) does as he pleases
with the powers of heaven
and the peoples of the earth.
No one can hold back his hand
or say to him: “What have you done?”

For the most part, God doesn’t tell us what he is going to do. His sovereign will is his secret until he does it. There are only two ways for us to learn the sovereign will of God: 1.) Prophecy – when God tells us in advance what he will do, and 2.) History – when we can look back and see what God has already done.

What is our personal and practical relationship to the sovereign will of God? I certainly take great comfort in knowing that God is in charge! Beyond that, we need to always remember that our plans are tentative and ultimately dependent on what God wants and what he does.

In James 4:15 we are told:
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

This is a reminder to us that everything we plan and do is subject to God’s sovereign will.

The second flavor is God’s revealed will. This is when God tells us what he wants us to do. On an everyday, practical level, this is the most important flavor of all. God tells us in the Bible what he wills for us to believe and do.

I John 2:17 says, “The world and its desires pass away, but the (one) who does the will of God lives forever.”

We know from the Bible that it is God’s will for us to believe in Jesus Christ and commit to him as Savior and Lord. God has revealed to us that Christians should profess their faith in Jesus Christ through baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In the Ten Commandments God tells us that his will is for us to not have idols, tell the truth, never steal and don’t commit adultery.

In I Thessalonians 4:3-5 we read:
It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God.

And, there are other verses where we find God’s will for our lives. I Thessalonians 5:18 reminds us to “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” In I Peter 3:17 we are told, “It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” II Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.” And Ephesians 5:18, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”

The Bible tells God’s will about husbands and wives, parents and children, employers and employees, paying taxes, obeying the laws, studying the Bible, and much more. It is very interesting that the Bible says little or nothing about the career we’re to follow but a great deal about how we’re to behave in our jobs. God has not told us whom we are to marry, but he has told us how to have a Christian marriage. We are not instructed on which highway to drive, but he has clearly instructed us about controlling our anger (when in stressful driving situations).

Imagine someone asking God to reveal his will about which apartment to rent or which house to buy or which car to lease. God replies by asking, “Have you been baptized?” “Have you asked forgiveness from that person you hurt?” “Have you paid your taxes?” “Have you told the truth?”

I sometimes wonder if God doesn’t think to himself, “I’ve revealed my will to you on dozens of important matters and you haven’t listened. Why should I tell you what to do when you don’t listen to me anyway?” Most of what we need to know about the will of God is clearly spelled out in the Bible. We need to read it, and we need to do it.

That brings us to the third flavor: the personal will of God. This is when God gives specific direction to individuals. He tells a person how to decide a personal issue.

Joseph faced the toughest personal decision of his life. He fiancee, Mary, was pregnant. He knew that he was not the father. He agonized over what to do and was leaning toward breaking off the relationship. God gave him personal direction.

Matthew 1:20 tells us, “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’” That was a revelation of the personal will of God to Joseph in that specific situation.

St. Paul was in Jerusalem with threats against his life. God revealed to Paul that he should leave Jerusalem and go to Rome. In Acts 23:11 we are told, “The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, ‘Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.’” The personal will of God for St. Paul was that he testify about Christ in the capital city of Rome.

Throughout the Bible, and at times since then, God has given direct, specific declarations of his will to individuals. However, it is relatively uncommon. It is not the normal or usual way for God’s will to be discovered.

The Internal Revenue Service sometimes gives individual tax rulings (or letters) that tell you what to do in completing your annual income tax return. However, most of us can find out what we are supposed to do by just following the instructions that come with the tax return forms. In other words, the general instructions are adequate for tens of millions of taxpayers, but a few dozen or a few hundred sometimes receive personal instructions. Those personal letters apply only to those taxpayers to whom they are addressed – they don’t apply to everyone.

God has given to us the instruction book of life called the Bible. For most people, most of the time, it tells us most of what we need to know. Sometimes God gives personal, special instructions to individuals - information that applies directly and personally to them.

There’s something else interesting in the biblical examples of God revealing his specific will to individuals. For the most part, they never asked. There is no record of Joseph asking for an angel to tell him what to do. There isn’t a record of Paul requesting an appearance of the Lord to tell him about going from Jerusalem to Rome. These were initiatives from God more than requests from individuals.

It’s helpful for us to understand the relationship between God’s will and God’s wisdom. God has revealed enormous direction for our lives in the Bible. He has told us what he wants and how we are to live. What we most often need is wisdom to figure out how to take this information from God and apply it to the specific situations of our lives.

Proverbs 16:16 says, “How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!” Proverbs 24:14: “Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul; if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.” Ephesians 1:7-8, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” James 3:17, “The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

And then James 1:5-6 talks about a situation where we have the revealed will of God, but we’re not sure how to apply it to our own lives and we’re wondering if God might be upset with us because we haven’t figured it out. There we are told:
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave on the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

We sometimes misunderstand how to discover the will of God. We pray for God to show us where to go on vacation, which church to attend or how much medicine to take. What God wants us to do is listen to the Bible, obey what he says and then use wisdom to apply his revealed will to our situation.

Let’s suppose you’re trying to figure out whom to marry. God has already revealed that he doesn’t want a Christian to marry an unbeliever. We know God’s will about that. God has already revealed that husbands and wives are to submit to one another, to treat each other with kindness and to provide physically and spiritually for the family. We know God’s will about how to live inside a marriage.

But we don’t know whether to marry a specific person. What do we do? We should not expect a personal revelation from God that says a specific name. Rather, we should ask God for wisdom to make the right choice. Within God’s revealed will and with God’s gift of wisdom we are to make the choice that will please God and be best for us.

God wants us to commit to him. In fact, he wants us to make the decision in advance to do whatever he wants us to do. Pray with Jesus, “ . . . not my will but thy will be done.” Pray and say, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

God wants us to know his revealed will. We read the Bible. We go to church and listen to the teaching. We do everything we can to know what God wants. Ideally, we learn what God wants before we need to know.

The time to learn CPR is before you need to use it. Generally, it’s not good to have to go home and look up CPR in a book when someone is lying unconscious on the floor. It’s the same with the will of God. Study it in advance!

God wants us to accept Jesus as Savior. He wants us to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit. God’s will is that we love our neighbors as ourselves, forgive our enemies, tell the truth, be kind, avoid gossip, be generous with our money and share the gospel with others.

Ninety-nine percent of God’s will is already fully revealed and available to us for our everyday lives. The question is what are we going to do with what God has told us?

God told the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 6:3, “Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.”

The Old Testament prophet Samuel taught that, “To obey is better than sacrifice.”

I John 3:21-22 says, “We have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.” And I John 5:3 tells us, “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.” (Don’t misunderstand. God is not asking us to be perfect. God is not saying that he will withhold his personal will or not give wisdom because we have ignored or disobeyed one of his commands.)

It’s really quite simple. To discover God’s will means that we listen to what he has already told us, and that we seek to do what he says. It is out of this context of listening and obeying that God gives us the wisdom and direction for every decision of life.

What is the specific area where you would like to know the will of God right now? Here’s the deal – pray and ask God to give you the wisdom you need to know what he wants you to do. But, also promise God that you will do your best to obey what he has already told you. If there is sin in your life – ask for forgiveness and quit it. If there is something God wants you to do that you’ve been putting off – decide right now to do it as soon as you can.

These teachings about the will of God are based upon material we covered in a previous lesson, but it needs to be reinforced for those who have heard it before as well as for those who have not. It is that our discovery of the will of God for our lives grows out of three essential teachings of the Bible: 1.) God loves us; 2.) God always wants the best for us; 3.) God has a plan for our future.

Be assured that God wants you to know and do his will more than you could ever want that for yourself. God is on your side; he always has been. He loves you passionately and seeks your best with all his heart.

May God’s will for you be clear, and may God’s best be your life’s story!

Sometimes the choices we have to make are between wonderful alternatives. It’s time to change jobs, and you’re ready to move to a new location. Two job offers come your way. They both triple your present salary. But the choice has to be made between living in Aspen and Maui. Or, your car has really high mileage and it’s time to trade it in. The choice you find yourself making is between a new Mercedes and a new Lexis. And then you get a voice mail from your travel agent saying, “You’re all set on your trip to London. You have first class, but you need to call back immediately to let me know whether you want a window or an aisle seat.” How are you going to make all these important decisions in life?

But sometimes we must choose between painful alternatives. Should I take the job far from my family or stay near those I love with less than adequate pay? Should I have surgery that means I will never have children or risk losing my life to cancer?

Sometimes we have no choice at all. Our child is afflicted with a chronic behavior problem that has no definite diagnosis or treatment. My husband or wife is leaving the marriage and there is nothing I can do. The judge’s verdict was unfair and there’s no option but to suffer the consequences.

We ask ourselves, “Where is God in the midst of life’s most important decisions?” “Does God even care what kind of car I drive?” “Does it matter to him that all my alternatives seem to be bad?” “Does he care about the tragedies in my life?”

As Christians we want to discover the will of God. We want to do what is right, but how can we do what is right unless we first know what is right. Knowing the will of God is the cornerstone to all of life’s important decisions.

Unfortunately, we often skip the most important step to discovering God’s will. We want to go right to the answer. We want to know who to marry, where to work, how to invest or what to decide.

But we must start at the beginning by answering a simple but very important question. That question is do you believe that God is good? If we get the answer to that question right, then all the rest of the process relating to discovering God’s will begins to fall into place. Our answer will shape our entire approach to discovering and doing God’s will in our lives.

Don’t answer too quickly. Think about the huge disappointments in life. How do you reconcile the goodness of God with the death of a child, teen suicide, chronic pain, violent assaults or broken dreams? How do you reconcile a God who is supposedly good with things that are terribly bad?

It takes faith to believe that God is good when we often face evidence that God may not be as good as he’s supposed to be.

Before you decide that God is not good or before you abandon God in anger or disappointment, think about the alternative. If God is not good, we have no hope. If God is not good, we are on our own. If God is not good, evil is the ultimate victor.

The cornerstone in discovering God’s will is to believe that God is good and that he desires good in our lives. If we can truly believe in the goodness of God for our lives, everything else begins to fall into place. It is far easier to trust and obey a good God. It brings hope, encouragement and perseverance through chronic calamity when we are completely convinced of the benevolence of Almighty God.

One of the most amazing teachings in the Bible is that God loves us. It’s not because we are so lovable, because we’re not. God loves us because he’s a lover at heart and he chooses to love us.

There are two unhealthy but common misunderstandings about the love of God. Some people refuse to believe that God loves them because they see themselves as too unlovable. Some interpret the circumstances of their lives as proof that God is an unloving enemy rather than a loving friend.

Other people take God’s love for granted. They consider the love of God to be a basic human right. They interpret love as always making them happy. They think that God works for them and that God’s job is to make life fun and easy.

The simple truth is that God really loves us. He loves us whether we love him or not. He loves us enough to always seek the best for us, even if that is hard and harsh. He loves us every day in every way. His love is the most amazing gift anyone could ever believe or receive.

My mother-in-law died unexpectedly this year. Her death became a time of reminiscing and storytelling. I learned some things about her that I had not previously known although I had known her all of my life.

Lillian Alles grew up in a difficult family situation. Her parents had an unhappy marriage. There was a lot of sadness and dysfunction and chronic problems with alcohol in her family. When she reflected back on the time when she became a Christian she said, “I never felt loved until I experienced the love of Jesus Christ.”
She was transformed because she was loved. Just for who she was. She may not have gotten it from her parents. She may not have gotten it from her family. But she got it from God.

I John 4:9-10 says:
This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

I’m the father of four children. While it is unimaginable to me that I would sacrifice the life of one of my children for you, let there be no doubt that if I would do that for you, I would do anything for you. It should be obvious. If God loved us enough to give his Son, God loves us enough for anything else.

I John 4:16 says, “We know and rely on the love that God has for us. God is love.”

As Christians, we want to know God’s will for our lives. As Christians, we assume, we believe, we are convinced, we completely trust and we rely on the love that God has for us. In every agony and in every ecstasy of life, we always begin with the premise that God loves us.

We know it's a fact. And that fact leads to the experiential feelings of another great truth about God: he wants the best for us. God is always on our side. God always seeks our good. God always understands what we are facing. God always desires the best options from which we may choose.
There are days when this is difficult for me to believe. Those are the days when I’m stressed, when it seems as if everything is going wrong, when I’m scared, when I feel alone. I can wonder if God wants the best for me.

There are days when I wonder about the problems faced by other people. I remember my friend with terminal cancer. I think about the missionary shot down and killed when her plane was mistaken for that of a drug runner. My heart breaks for the couple with infertility. What about the hard worker who can’t get a good job, or the single parent who gets ripped off by an unscrupulous salesperson? Where is God when a child is abused and scarred for life? Does God care about the parents who are bankrupted emotionally and financially by their child’s chronic problems? Is it really God’s will when the honest politician loses the election, or when the innocent defendant is convicted and sent to prison? Where is God’s best on those days in those lives? If God really wants the best for us and the worst happens, does that mean that God doesn’t care or that God can’t do anything about it?

I know the usual answers because I’ve said them a thousand times. The answer that some good purpose will result from this that you just can’t know now. Or that everything will work out later in wonderful ways you can’t foresee. Someone will come to Christian faith as a result of what has happened. Or that God will use this to teach you some lesson that you would not otherwise learn.

I’ve said these very words. I believe them – I wouldn’t have said them if I didn’t believe them. Yet, they somehow ring hollow and inadequate when the pain is more than morphine can dull or when someone you love with all your heart has just died.

We need something more. We need to believe first of all, and most of all, that God wants the best for us. We admit that we don’t understand how that works. We admit that our belief in God’s goodness doesn’t always line up rationally with what we experience. It is a matter of faith. As Christians we believe that the Bible is telling us the truth in Philippians 2:13 when it says, “It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

This is the same truth when we are seeking God’s will for present and future decisions. When God tells us we should honor our marriage vows, be content with what we have, forgive our enemies, pray for others, give generously, avoid lawsuits against other Christians and don’t get drunk – God wants the best for us. God is never playing games with us, never trying to hurt or harm us, nor is he withholding good from us. God always, always wants the best for us.

When seeking God’s will on the college to attend, the person to date, the investment to make, the career to follow, the house to buy, the path to pursue – always begin with the assumption that God is on your side and directing you to his very best. “It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

So Assumption #1 is that God loves us. Assumption #2 is that God wants the best for us. And, Assumption #3 is that God has plans for us. In other words, God has thought through what is best for us. He doesn’t just love us and want the best for us, he has figured out what our lives should be like. He has laid out the way he wants our biography to be written. He is the architect of our souls and lives.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.”

This wonderful promise from God is frequently quoted and often memorized. It was originally spoken to the Hebrew people when they were a defeated and captured nation in Babylon. If you read the entire chapter of Jeremiah 29, you learn some interesting things.

The people of Israel had gone through terrible tragedy. Their nation had been conquered, Jerusalem was devastated and most of them were forced to relocate cross-country to Babylon. They yearned to go back home. This is what they wanted. This is what they prayed for. This is what some false prophets predicted was soon going to happen.

God’s plan was different. He planned to keep them in Babylon for seventy years, which was more than the life expectancy of most of them. God told them to settle down, build houses, pay taxes and pray for the prosperity of Babylon as long as they lived there. God had it all figured out. He planned to leave them where they were, not where they wanted to go.

God told them: “I know the plans I have for you . . . plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

God has plans for us as well. He has a schedule that reaches into the future. He has a design to bring together the parts and pieces of our jobs, our homes, our relationships and our dreams. God’s plans are good plans because he loves us, because he’s a good God, because he wants the best for us. His plans are never to harm us, but always to do us good. His plans for our future are filled with hope.

In the future we will study more specifically how to discover the will of God. We will talk about exactly what God does and does not want us to do. We will discuss the difference between specific direction from God and wisdom from God to make right choices. We will consider how to make decisions on important issues.

But all of this is built on what we first believe about God. If we’re not convinced about his invariable goodness, we will never trust his direction. If we truly believe that God is good and that God wants us to know and do his will, we have already taken the first and most important step to knowing and doing the will of God.

Whatever the decisions are that you are now facing, do you believe that God is good? Do you believe that God loves you? Do you believe that God wants the best for you? Do you truly believe that God has plans for you, plans to give you hope and a future?

If all your answers are yes, you are ready to know and to do the will of God in your life.

Christians are members of the family of Jesus called the church. Families have to compromise and work hard to support one another. It doesn't just happen automatically. Sometimes it requires sacrifice. It requires putting the good of the group ahead of the desires of the individual. The call is for each of us to do whatever we can do to get along with others. That means doing whatever we need to do to bring peace in our relationships with others. We are to take harmony as a personal responsibility. It’s my job, not someone else's.

Harmony doesn’t mean that we all agree on everything. Harmony doesn’t mean that we’re all the same. Harmony means that we get along with each other.

I have to tell you that this has definitely not been my experience. Over a lifetime in the church and among Christians I have been repeatedly impressed by the good behavior of followers of Jesus Christ. Not that I haven't seen bad examples, I think I can match story-for-story anyone’s bad examples, but the number of good examples I’ve seen has been extraordinary. And, some of the best behavior has been in the worst of circumstances. Under persecution, stress, sickness, false accusations and death – I have been stunned by the grace, goodness and love I have witnessed from Christians.

My experience matches up well with the expectation of St. Peter when he wrote to Christians who were facing difficulty on every side. Life was hard in the first century. In many ways the Roman Empire was a total mess. Cities were overcrowded. Sewage ran in the streets. Sickness was rampant and life expectancy was short. Immorality was common and corruption was pervasive. It was the worst of times, yet Peter expected and encouraged Christians to treat others with kindness.
And the same principle applies today. When others are behaving badly is precisely when Christians must behave well. For when darkness reigns and hope wanes, Christians have the greatest opportunity to shine brightly.

After his release, Paul left Philippi and traveled to other cities to preach and teach. During his travels he was shipwrecked, beaten and imprisoned on multiple occasions. Theological controversy followed him as well. Some of the early Christians claimed you had to become a Jew before you could become a Christian. Paul taught that salvation was available to all because of God’s grace. He preached that God sent his son Jesus to die on the cross to accomplish our salvation and it’s a free gift to anyone who believes. The church almost divided over that issue.

In spite of his physical suffering, some of Paul’s deepest wounds came from criticism from other Christians. But through it all, the Philippians stuck with him. They prayed for him, gave him financial support and remained faithful friends.

About ten years after his first visit to Philippi, Paul wrote a letter to the Philippians describing his gratitude for their partnership in the gospel and rejoicing over their perseverance in sticking with him.

There’s a powerful lesson here for us. Just as growing an oak from an acorn takes years, impacting the lives of others takes place not from a single event, but over the long haul.

Do you ever wonder how you will be remembered someday? If I could choose, I would like to be remembered as St. Paul describes his memory of the Christians in the ancient city of Philippi. In a letter to them he wrote, “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayer for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel.”

Paul’s memory is with gratitude. He thanks God every time he remembers the Philippians. I would like to have people grateful for my memory. Paul says that they were memorable “because of [their] partnership in the Gospel.” The word “partnership” is a translation of the Greek word koinonia. Koinonia means association, it means close fellowship. The Philippians shared a partnership in the Gospel with Paul. They were loyal to the same Savior.

If our desire is to be remembered with gratitude, we can glean some practical suggestions from Paul’s words to the Philippians. The first is to be a partner and not a loner. We should share our lives with others like the Philippians did with Paul. A second suggestion is to be a giver and not a taker. We should think in terms of what we can do for others, rather than what they can do for us. A third suggestion is to be a sympathizer and not a critic. Instead of criticizing, we can try to imagine what it is like to walk in someone else’s circumstances. Last, we should be encouragers, not discouragers. The world is full of discouragers, but it is the encouragers who are remembered with gratitude.

I find myself touched by the memory of those who gave their lives for their country. Over the years my wife and I have visited many cemeteries for America’s war dead. When we read the names and dates on the markers, we wonder how they lived and how they died. How would these soldiers want to be remembered? Probably they would rather be remembered for who they were and how they lived, than for the bullet or bomb that ended their lives.

In a letter St. Paul wrote to the Christians in the ancient city of Philippi, he said, “I thank my God every time I remember you.” Wouldn’t that be a wonderful way to be remembered – with gratitude? As we observe Memorial Day, what better way to honor the dead than with gratitude to God for their sacrifice?

In the American Civil War there were 364,511 recorded deaths. That number is almost as many as the number of military deaths in World War II, although by the middle of the 20th century the population of our country was far greater. Therefore, the percentage of deaths in the Civil War was far more significant. There was hardly a family in the north or the south that did not have a father or a brother or a husband or a son die. Those losses were not easily forgotten.

Various southern states began a tradition of having one day each year when they would remember those from the Confederate army who had died. They called it Memorial Day, a day when they would set aside time to decorate the Confederate graves. Ironically, it was an officer in the Union army, John Logan, who picked up the idea and first declared May 30, 1868, as the day to remember the war dead and specifically to decorate the graves of those who had been part of the grand army of the republic.

As the holiday evolved changes came to include the war dead from future wars, not just the Civil War dead. Eventually it became a day of memory not just for those who died in wars but also for civilians who had died. Even the date changed so that the official holiday became the last Monday of May.

Personally, I find myself touched by the memory of those who have given the ultimate human sacrifice for their country. Charleen and I have visited cemeteries around the world where America’s war dead are buried. We’ve walked the long rows in the American cemetery outside Manila in the Philippines. We’ve spent time at Punchbowl Cemetery near Pearl Harbor where so many of the dates of death are the same. We’ve been to cemeteries along the East Coast of the United States, most notably Arlington National Cemetery, and spent time there reading the markers and wondering about the people. Our family has been to Fort Snelling on Memorial Day. After the public ceremonies ended we walked up and down the rows of markers, reading the names, the dates of birth and death and the branch of the service in which they had served. We wondered about their short lives, how they had lived and how they had died.

All this raises the question of what makes men and women memorable. Surely, we would not say it is primarily their deaths. I would hope we would say it is primarily their lives. And, if somehow it were possible for those whose bodies lie under the markers in these cemeteries around the world to come back, I am convinced that they would insist that they not be primarily remembered because of a bullet or a bomb that ended their days. They would far rather be remembered for who they were and what they did, the relationships they had or the words they spoke. Memories should be crafted far more out of life than out of death.

That brings us full circle to our own lives. At least sometimes we have wonder how we will be remembered. If we could attend our own funerals or read our own obituaries what would be said about us? How will we be remembered? Will we be worth remembering at all?

For the best of answers to these thought-provoking questions let’s go to the first chapter of St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians. There it describes the most memorable of Christians in the ancient Greek city of Philippi. It’s a chapter that combines memory with gratitude.

It’s true that there are those who are remembered without gratitude. In fact, there are some people long gone who are remembered with animosity if not with hatred. But that was certainly not true of these Philippians.

Candidly, I would choose to have people be grateful for my memory. I would like for their memory of me to contain thanksgiving.

The apostle writes in Philippians 1:1-11:

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Paul writes of two characteristics that made these Philippian Christians memorable. The first is that they shared together in a partnership. He writes in verse 3, “I thank my God every time I remember you.” But then he explains why he remembers them as he does: “. . . because of your partnership in the gospel. . . .”

The English word here for “partnership” is translated from one of the few Greek words that some who have not studied Greek but have been part of the Christian community may have often heard. It is the Greek word koinonia. But it’s hard to translate a single word from one language into a single word of another language. Koinonia is more than just a single term and it’s more than just partnership. It means association or fellowship. It is sometimes translated as “communion”, friendship or close relationship.

Let me try to communicate what koinonia means, not from a Greek English lexicon but from an English dictionary, with the definition of what is a partner. Actually, five different definitions are given. A partner is an associate, sharer or participant. A partner is a husband or a wife. A partner may be defined in terms of games as one who plays with another or others against an opposing team. A partner may be defined in terms of the law as one of two or more associates as joint principles in carrying on any business with a view to joint profit. Or, a fifth definition, one that I had never heard before, is the nautical definition of a partner: One of the timbers forming a framework for an opening in a deck to strengthen it for the support of a mast.

I think the Apostle Paul would have agreed to all of these definitions because they all describe something of his relationship to the Philippians. You see, the idea behind all of this is that it is seldom a casual and brief acquaintance or a single event that greatly impacts another person’s life or that makes that person memorable in the lives of other individuals. Rather, it’s the sharing of life. It’s a partnership. It’s joining together in association, teamwork, bonding. It’s that kind of a relationship that shapes the life of another person and then leaves the other person with a lifelong memory filled with gratitude.

But, if the apostle Paul were here I think he would strenuously object to an inadequate secular definition of koinonia or even partnership. He would point out that he was very careful in the selection of his words, saying that his memory of the Philippians was as a partnership in the gospel. And it wasn’t just because they all spoke the same language or lived in the same day or had traveled to the same places or had other things in common. It was that they were all one in Jesus Christ. Their loyalty was to the same Savior, the same Lord and the same truth. It was for that reason that they had this partnership together, a common bond in the Savior whom they all acknowledged. The rest of the letter to the Philippians is loaded with practical examples of how that partnership was practiced.

At the time of the writing of these words St. Paul was a prisoner in Rome. Certainly there must have been those who thought that if he was in prison there must be good cause for him to be there. In those days prisons were much like prisons in many countries even to this day. It was necessary for family and friends to take care of the individual and personal needs of the prisoner. Paul says that he was in chains. Probably, at least at times, he was chained to a wall or had his hands or feet chained together. But, in all probability, he was chained to a Roman guard and the guards would change on a regular basis. So, day after day he had neither privacy nor provision. His needs were great.

The Philippians were so concerned about Paul that they selected one of their own, a man named Epaphroditus, and asked him to leave his job, his family, his church and his city of Philippi and make the long journey across the empire to Rome so that he could minister to the personal needs of their beloved friend and partner, Paul.

The letter explains that they prayed for him, hoped for him, wrote to him, provided for his physical needs and provided money. When there was bad news, they wept with him; when there was good news, they rejoiced with him. They shared a partnership.

All of this seems so terribly distant, though. How does this kind of koinonia, this partnership, make us memorable today? How is this relevant to where we are and what we do? There’s a sense in which I struggle to illustrate that, not so much because of a lack of examples but rather because the examples are so numerous. I know very well the stories of partnership in the gospel that the people of Wooddale Church could tell. They are not my stories to tell in public but I can tell you in general terms what they’re like. There are those in this community of faith who have rejoiced with ecstasy over wonderful gifts from God. There are others who have experienced pain that most of the rest of us cannot comprehend. I’ve heard those stories. I’ve rejoiced with those who have rejoiced.

Often I have people tell me of the response of other Christians to their news, both good and bad. Almost without exception they tell me that others seemed more excited than they were over good news. They are absolutely thrilled. And somehow that escalates the thrill. And when the stories are of deep pain and distress other Christians were understanding and sympathetic giving assurance of their prayers and their love. Again and again I have had people tell me that when they have gone through difficulties they have found others within the church who have traveled the same path. Others tell of men and women who say, “I’ve not experienced what you’re gong through, but I want you to know that I care and I love you. If there’s anything I can do to help, I will.” There are many stories of people who have prayed, supported, loved and helped in all kinds of ways. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.

If you would like to be remembered with gratitude, here are four practical suggestions. The first is to be a partner and not a loner. Get to know people. Share life with others, whether it’s the triumphs or the difficulties.

A second suggestion is to be a giver, not a taker. Continually think in terms of what you can do for others rather than what they can do for you. Regularly look for the needs of others and try to meet them. Relate to other people in such a way that you’re not wondering how they can contribute to your life but how you can contribute to their lives.

Next, be a sympathizer and not a critic. Imagine being in the other person’s situation. Don’t be critical of how that person got there but be understanding of that person’s pain or pleasure. Wonder what it is like; try to imagine walking in her or his shoes.

Be an encourager, not a discourager. There are plenty of discouragers in the world but there is always a shortage of those who will encourage. That’s one of the reasons the Apostle Paul so fondly remembered the Philippians and why he was so grateful for them. You see, Paul also had his times of discouragement. Maybe it’s hard for us to imagine that. We sometimes think that the saints of the Bible were these perfect people who did not deal with the ordinary problems that we face. We make a mistake if we do that. We are wrong if we elevate Paul or others to a spirituality that simply was not true. We minimize their humanity in a way that simply is not accurate.

Understand that Paul was in jail. He was in chains. His life was in jeopardy. He was accused of a capital crime. He was appealing to Caesar. It was his last resort. And after reciting all of his woes, he writes to the Philippians in 1:18 and 19:

And because of this I rejoice.

Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.

Do you want to be remembered with gratitude? Then be like the Philippians. Be a partner to other Christians, someone who gives more than you take, sympathizes more than you criticize, encourages more than you discourage. Do these things and you will be loved and you will be remembered with gratitude.

There is a second characteristic of the gratefully-remembered Philippians. It is not only partnership but perseverance. Paul wrote about their “partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. . . .”

The letter to the Philippians was written probably in AD 61. We estimate that Paul’s first journey to Philippi was about a decade earlier, in AD 50, 51 or 52. That means that ten years had past. A lot had happened in that time. If you read Acts 16 you will find that the Philippian church had a tumultuous beginning. When Paul and Silas first arrived in town there was no synagogue there. That was the usual place where they would begin their religious teaching. So they went out by a riverside where they found some God-fearers, Gentiles on the fringe of Judaism, praying. They presented the gospel and there were those who received Jesus Christ as Savior. But it wasn’t long until the authorities put Paul and Silas into prison. They severely and illegally beat them.

Paul was a Roman citizen. It was clearly against the law to beat him; but they never bothered to ask his citizenship. They beat him almost to the point of taking his life. With his wounds still open and in chains and in the deepest dungeon he demonstrated the grace of God as he and Silas sang hymns together. It was a wonderful thing.

As they were singing an earthquake rocked the prison and the gates flew open. The jailer feared for his life if the prisoners escaped; but they didn’t. The jailer and his family were added to the church as a result of those events and Paul and Silas’ response to them.

But Paul and Silas were clearly not welcome in Philippi, so a short time later they left the town and moved elsewhere. Paul traveled broadly. He was shipwrecked. He was beaten on another occasion and left for dead. There are some who believe that he actually died and came back to life again. He was criticized. There were those who said he wasn’t a very good missionary. Some claimed that he wasn’t even really an apostle and that he was simply pretending to be something he was not. Some of the deepest wounds were inflicted by those whom he loved the most. If you read the letters to the Corinthians you see that fellow Christians in the church at Corinth were most critical of him.

Then there was theological controversy which threatened to tear apart the first century church. Some said you have to work to become a Christian. Others claimed that you have to become a Jew first and then you can become a believer in Jesus Christ. Paul and others said, “That’s not true. Everything is by the sheer grace of God, through Jesus Christ. When he died on the cross he accomplished our salvation. It is full and free, simply for the accepting.” The church almost divided over that.

Yes, there were a lot of difficult times. But through all of them the Philippians stuck with him. They persevered. They maintained friendship, partnership, association, colleagueship. Not that they always agreed with him. Not that Paul was easy to get along with; he was not. But they hung in there. They persevered. They prayed for him. They supported him. They remained faithful friends. So when he wrote that it was a joy just to think about them he knew what he was talking about. He was reflecting back over a long relationship of good times and bad when they were always there for him. He was grateful for every memory of them.

There’s a powerful lesson here for us on impacting other peoples’ lives. It’s a reminder that it is seldom one single event that shapes another person. It’s not a word that was spoken or one particular event. It’s what takes place over years. In the same way that it takes a long time for an acorn to grow into an oak tree, so it is with a relationship that remembers with gratitude.

Parents who learn this lesson have the long optimistic view. They hang in there and wait for the day that may not come for decades when a son or daughter says: “Dad, Mom, thank you for believing in me when I was so unlovable. Thank you for praying for me and staying faithful to me.” That’s perseverance.

Husbands and wives need to have this long term view as well. Marriage is far more than romance, a wedding ceremony and fun. Both sides of the wedding vows come into play. There is worse as well as better, sickness as well as health, poverty as well as riches. Those who persevere find that the difficulties of life can become a bonding agent, a glue, for the partnership.

It is also a lesson for churches and for Christians. Churches have their ups and downs just as people have their ups and downs. Every church needs Philippian Christians who will remain faithful through both the good times and the bad times.

If you want to be worth remembering with gratitude here are a few suggestions to add to the list. Take the long view rather than the short view. Don’t judge life and others by a single occurrence but rather trust God to be the God of change. Really believe that God is capable of the kind of miracles that will transform another person’s life in the long run.

A second suggestion is don’t give up until God gives up. Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6, I am “confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

The third suggestion is to be an anchor rather than a piece of driftwood. A lot of us tend to flow with the currents of the day. We need anchors, fixed points. Those who will be our partners and will persevere are dependable and constant through all the changes in life.

All of this is simply to say “persevere” so that at a later date people may say of you what Paul said to the Philippians: “I thank my God every time I remember you.”

I conclude with a personal word because my experience with Wooddale Church has been an amazing parallel to what Paul wrote to the Philippian church. The people of Wooddale Church have been partners with me in every good sense of koinonia, partners in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They have persevered with me over the decades and I have benefited enormously from that perseverance. So, from personal experience I can say to the people of Wooddale Church, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every rime I remember you.”

May God bless you and grant you that kind of relationship with the church of which you are a part.

Whoever would love life and see good days
must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.
He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

Peter was right. This is very important advice and it’s directed to you and me. We certainly love life and want to see good days. The Bible is telling us that we need to watch our mouths and pursue peace. Why? Because . . . God is watching – his eyes are on us!

Some people would read these words as a threat. I take them as a marvelous promise. We have a God who is engaged in what’s happening in our lives. He’s not watching to check up on us, he’s watching in order to bless and benefit us. He listens to our prayers so that when we tell him about our struggles with other people, he encourages us to treat others right. He says, “Ask me, and I’ll help you.”

Our part is to “turn from evil and do good.” God promises to watch over us, to be attentive to our prayers and, best of all, to be on our side!

• Demonstrates a compelling modesty, shunning public adulation; never boastful.
• Acts with quiet, calm determination; relies principally on inspired standards, not inspiring charisma, to motivate.
• Channels ambition into the company, not the self; sets up successors for even greater success in the next generation.
• Looks out the window, not in the mirror, to apportion credit for the success of the company to other people.

His description of great leadership is amazingly Christian and biblical! Listen to how closely it parallels how the Bible instructs us to live: “Be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.” In other words, when people insult you, be nice to them. When someone gives you evil, give them good. As a Christian, be a blessing to others.

Now, this is no call to absurdity. It does not suggest letting others abuse you or take cruel advantage. It’s simply a forthright call to always treat others well. It’s not only good business practice, it’s God’s way!

Often there isn't much we can do to change someone’s difficult situation. We say, “What can I do? I don’t have the resources to take care of their bills. I can’t go to the estranged husband or wife and persuade them to come back into a relationship. I can’t get the fired person’s job back. I certainly can’t change a terminal diagnosis.” But what we can do is feel with the other person. We can listen to their hurts and horrors. We can cry with them.

We feel the pain of the broken heart when the marriage is over. We are saddened by the widow's loneliness. Our heart goes out to the person in prison whether he is guilty or innocent. We can sit with the person with a terminal disease and hold her hand. We feel sympathy for the person with AIDS. We are angry over the crimes and injustices against the poor. We weep with those who have been abused.

As Christians, we must never be insensitive to the plight of others. Our goal is to feel more sympathy than blame, always imagining that their suffering could be our suffering. We may not have the answers to the problem, but we can be sympathetic!

I heard the story of a Sunday School teacher who’s the founder and primary owner of one of America’s larger fast food chains. For decades he’s been teaching a class of young teenage boys. He makes them such a high priority that he builds his schedule around being there on Sunday morning. He personally visits the home of every student and after they move on to the high school class he often gets them jobs in his restaurants so that he has an on-going mentoring relationship with them.

Several years ago he visited the modest home of one of his students who was one of nine children. After the visit he thought about the great big house that he and his wife lived in. And you know what he did? He gave his home to the family – not for publicity or for a tax deduction – just out of compassion for their needs.

Now, most of us can't give away a house, but all of us can look for ways to act courageously for the good of others.

There is indescribable ecstasy for a couple at the birth of a baby. Here is a new life that is uniquely theirs. A future all wrapped up in a tiny body with little hands and unfocused eyes. It’s almost as if a piece of immortality is given in an otherwise very mortal world.

Then come the days, months and years of bonding—of growing, sharing, laughing and crying. It is a lifetime commitment and relationship that nothing can end. Whether near or far, for good or ill, in success or failure, even death can’t erase that child from your heart and mind.

Most parents would not trade anything in the world for their children. Words cannot describe what a son or daughter means to a father or mother. But there are some problems that were never dreamed of when that little boy or girl was a baby. They are problems that never got a moment of thought when he was learning to ride a two-wheeler or when she went on her first date; problems that seemed impossibly remote during those super-busy years of school, church, sports, pets, hobbies and panicky trips to the emergency room. They are the problems that come when children grow away. For some these are the problems of a distant tomorrow; for others they are the problems of a painful today.

The first of these problems is the problem of the empty nest. In some ways the “empty-nest syndrome” is a modern phenomenon. When the patriarchs of Genesis were having children at and after age 100 their nests stayed full for centuries. Then for most of history parents have not lived long enough or far away enough for their nests to be empty for very long.

“Empty-nest syndrome” comes from that lost feeling when the last child leaves home. For the first time in most of their married lives parents are alone again. The once messy house is uncomfortably neat. The quiet yearned for is painfully deafening. The center of family activities is now gone. To many it is like a death and they do not know how to cope.

There are some realities that we need to recognize for that empty-nest time of life. The first reality is that it is a transition time. The emptying of the nest is one of the passage times of life similar to the major transitions of starting school, going through adolescence, getting married or beginning a family. It is a phase that most parents must go through. For some it is relatively easy. For others it is unbelievably difficult. For most, it is inescapable. Often it is complicated by other “passage points” in life such as menopause, job change, physical aging or retirement. When we recognize it as a normal transition of life we are better prepared to view the emptying of the nest as the ending of one important chapter of life and the beginning of another.

Parents who refuse to recognize the qualitative difference in relationships between their children as youngsters and as adults are in for the most difficulty. We must learn to relate as adults-to-adults rather than as adults-to-children.

Surveys of school age and adolescent children show parents to be the most important people in their lives—more important than teachers, teammates and even peers. But eventually that begins to change. When children grow up, move away, get married and raise families of their own, parents are no longer the center of life. We must recognize the reality that we will never again be as all-important to our son or daughter as we once were.

Nor are we still responsible! When children move away responsibility for themselves dramatically increases and parents’ responsibility dramatically decreases. This is hard for parents who once felt full responsibility for their children’s clothes, health, schoolwork, friends, spiritual life and everything else. While it is true that the sense of responsibility never fully disappears parents must recognize that their children are now responsible for themselves.

The Bible contains some interesting negative examples of parenting and it is pretty clear in its criticism of those parents. In Genesis 27 Mother Rebecca schemed and manipulated to help her son Jacob deceive his father Isaac and steal the blessing from his brother Esau. Her sons were grown and married but she couldn’t give up control.

Another example is found in Matthew 20:20-21. Mrs. Zebedee was the mother of two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John. She boldly asked Jesus to give the place of prominence in Christ’s kingdom to her two grown sons. She did not allow them to be responsible for their own lives. She did not face the reality of changed relationships.

When the nest empties it is not only the close of an old chapter but the beginning of a new one. Blessed are those who see the reality of new opportunities. There is a new freedom of resources in time, money, maturity and ministry. Exciting opportunities are available that were impossible when the children were at home. St. Paul writes in Titus 2:3, “Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.” Paul is here describing a contrast. These older empty-nest women could give themselves to being irreverent troublemakers, slandering others and sitting around drinking alcohol, OR they could pass on to others the marvelous lessons God had taught them. The empty-nest should be seen as a reality of opportunity from God to do new and good and different things that were not previously possible.

None of this is to say that it is easy. This transition is very difficult for many parents, but Christians have a God who is adequate for every challenge. His grace is as sufficient for the empty-nest as for the labor room and the nursery. The difference between Christians and non-Christians is not that Christians lack problems and difficulties. The difference is that we have the resources of God. In Revelation 1:8 we read, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Our God is good and almighty for every season of life from Alpha to Omega, from A to Z. Parents must face the reality (and it’s a great reality!) of the adequacy of God for the empty-nest!

Bust we also must realize that there are pitfalls to avoid. James Dobson in his book 30 Critical Problems lists four. The first pitfall is isolation. He writes:

Do not allow yourself . . . to pull within the four walls of the house and cut yourself off from people. Keep up your social life even when the easiest thing to do is stay at home. Call your friends; they’re probably lonely, too, and get involved with them.

He goes on to say, “most loneliness . . . is not something others do to you. It’s something that you do to yourself.”

Next on Dobson’s list is the pitfall of inactivity. Inactivity is often the twin brother of isolation—it’s sitting at home and doing nothing. Often the isolated, inactive person rationalizes with health problems and other excuses. Actually, isolation and inactivity are more often the cause than the result of the problems. Dobson’s advice is the advice we have already read from the epistle to Titus . . . it’s to get out and to do something. Initially it may not even be critically important what that “something” is. Get a job. Do volunteer work. Take responsibilities at church. Become an adopted grandparent. Find other people’s needs and meet them! Just don’t become active meddling in the lives of adult children who need to strengthen their own wings!

Third on Dobson’s list is to avoid self-pity. He writes:

Avoid the pitfall of self-pity. That attitude will kill you, quite literally. Because no one can stand the awful thought that he’s not needed. I wouldn’t entertain it. That’s Satan’s lie. Start giving to others, bake something, send flowers, write a card. Begin getting into the world of other people.

Self-pity is really a form of the sins of pride and selfishness. It is making “self” the center of life rather than living for God and for others.

The fourth pitfall to avoid is what Dobson calls despair. It’s giving up. It’s saying that nothing good is going to happen and that life is hopeless. That is unacceptable for a Christian. Our God is a God of the future. With him there is always hope. When we give up hope we are calling God a liar and surrendering to sin. We must renew faith and have confidence in the God of tomorrow.

All of these pitfalls may be natural temptations for the person struggling with the transitions of the empty-nest. But that doesn’t mean we have to give in.

I am an experiential expert on poison ivy. In 7th grade I missed 3 weeks of school when I was covered from head to toe with poison ivy. It was awful. My arm was swollen to double its normal size; I had weeping blisters; it was in my eyes, between my toes . . . everywhere! What I wanted to do more than anything else was scratch, but I knew that scratching was the worst thing to do if I wanted to get better.

And the worst thing a parent suffering from the empty-nest syndrome can do is surrender to isolation, inactivity, self-pity and despair. If you want to get better and grab the great new opportunities, don’t scratch—no matter how much you want to!

A second problem that comes when children grow away is the problem of a heavy heart. There is no greater fear or heavier burden to Christian parents than spiritually wayward children. Most Christian parents would rather face disease or disaster than see their sons and daughters turn their backs on God. Adult children who live in sin, who reject Jesus Christ as Savior and who repudiate the ways of the Lord cause more sorrow for their Christian parents than absolutely anything else they could do. It is a burden too great for some to bear. Parents of children who have grown away from the Lord can fully identify with the Apostle Paul in Romans 9:1-5:

I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit—I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

Paul is talking about his fellow Jews, saying that they by right should have everything spiritually. They should know God, love God, be blessed by God and live for God—and yet they don’t. Paul responds with “great sorrow and unceasing anguish”, saying that he would give up his own salvation and go to hell if it would bring them to God: “I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers.”

Christian parents of ungodly children could say the same thing. If anyone should love the Lord, worship him and live for him it is children who grew up in Christian homes, who went to Sunday School from infancy, who memorized verses and learned how to pray and study the Bible. If anyone should be godly, they should. Yet, some are not. So parents may have “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” to the point that they could wish themselves “cursed and cut off from Christ” for the sake of their children. It is a great sorrow to face with a heavy, heavy heart!

While there are no words to make that sorrow disappear there are important principles to remember. First of all, remember that God cares more about your children than you do. St. Paul loved his nation of Israel with all his heart, but he dared not forget that God told Israel in Jeremiah 31:3, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Paul loved his people enough to wish that he could be cut off from Christ if it meant that they would be saved, but Jesus was cursed on the cross for their salvation! Parents, never forget that God loves your son or daughter infinitely more than you do. He loved enough to sacrifice his own beloved Son for your child!

Next, remember that God can go where and do what parents cannot. Parents of wayward children particularly worry when their children are out of their sight. Often we are tempted to try and influence our children’s hearts from the outside. The reality is that we cannot be with our adult children all the time (or even a small fraction of the time!). We cannot convict our children of sin. There is no use trying.

But God can! Psalm 139:7-8 asks: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” And in John 16:8 we learn that it is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict of sin. Parents can’t do that. Parents can’t be everywhere. We can’t get inside our children’s hearts. But the God who loves our children more than we love them is everywhere and his Spirit does get inside hearts to convince of sin and call to righteousness.

A third principle is to distinguish between relationship and approval. Parents of wayward children may be tempted to cut off their relationship with their children so they don’t seem to be approving of the sin in their lives. That was not Jesus’ way. He continually associated with sinners even though he did not approve of their sin—so much so that he was accused of approving of sin and being a sinner himself.

Let me give you an example. The daughter of Christian parents marries a non-Christian in a marriage clearly forbidden by the Bible. I believe the responsibility for parents is to clearly and lovingly communicate their disapproval (if necessary—she may already well know!). But she is still their daughter. That may mean attending a wedding as a parent that you disapprove of as a Christian. But make every effort to maintain the relationship, to love and be a parent and do not assume that such a relationship connotes approval of sin.

Another important principle to remember is that we influence by life, not by domination. Too many Christian parents of grown wayward children try to dominate their children’s lives and pressure or manipulate them into righteousness. This is clearly not the biblical way. The biblical way to win others is by godly lives. I Peter 2:11-12 talks about this principle in general terms:

Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

But then he applies it specifically to the home situation in I Peter 3:1-2:

Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

The way to win our children is the same as the way to win non-Christians anywhere. The way Christian parents influence wayward children is the same as the way Christian wives influence unsaved husbands—by living godly lives. In other words, back off on domination and manipulation and live a godly and gracious life before your children!

A final principle to remember is to keep the joy. St. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:4-7:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

God has given us joy in Jesus Christ. We must not allow anyone or anything to rob us of that joy. We dare not let our children become the center of our lives. Jesus Christ must be the center of our lives. Only when Jesus is the center of our lives and the source of our joy will we be able to have our heavy hearts lifted and be able to best be God’s influence in our wayward children’s lives!

On November 13, 354 AD in Tagaste, Algeria, there was a son born to a heathen man named Patricius and a Christian woman named Monica. The son grew up to be a heavy burden on his Christian mother’s heart. He drank heavily. He used his brilliant mind to follow Greek philosophy rather than Christian revelation. He lived an immoral life with various mistresses. His mother pleaded and prayed, but he rejected her Christ and her Christian lifestyle.

One day he boarded a ship and left Algeria. He went across the Mediterranean to Italy, to Milan, where he lived more deeply in sin. Her nest was empty and her heart was heavy. But she prayed and lived righteously.

Then this son heard about a great orator named Ambrose. He decided to go and hear him speak because it was said that Ambrose was the premier of all public speakers. As he listened he was touched by the message. He began to feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit in his life. Struggling with the conviction of sin he ran to a garden to be alone and overheard a child in a nearby house say, “Take up and read.” He had with him a Bible that he had taken to hear Ambrose speak so he opened the Bible and read these words from Romans 13:13-14: “ . . . not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.”

There in that garden St. Augustine repented and turned to Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord. He was 34 years old. The next Easter (387 AD) he was baptized and a short time later that year his mother Monica died. But Augustine went on to impact his world and future generations for Jesus Christ like few men in history.

Parents, when your nest is empty, when your heart is heavy, when your children grow away . . . be like Monica who fixed her hope on Jesus Christ.

A college student wrote to a newspaper financial columnist asking for advice. He said he had saved $2000 and needed to increase his investment to $5000 by graduation. The columnist explained that it would be hard to do. The only way to get such high returns in such a short time was with great risk. The trouble with great risk is that there is potential for great loss as well as great gain. The columnist went on to make such suggestions as reducing expenses by spending less, increasing income by working more or keeping investments less risky with surer returns.

That is a good commentary not only on finances but also on parenting. Some parents want a quick return on their investments. They hope to turn their children into masterpieces by sending them to Computer Camp or a youth seminar. While a week at camp may turn your daughter into a computer whiz or a conference may turn your son into a spiritual giant, it seldom works that way. And you are dealing with high risk if you think you can adequately shape your child’s life with a quick-return investment. It takes time and it takes work!

The great masterpieces of Michelangelo are the product of a lifetime of hard work rather than a momentary splash of genus. And so it is with our children. Raising them right is the product of a lifetime of hard work. In fact, even more than financial investments and artistic classics, in parenting - - - masterpieces take time!

Let’s look at four parenting lessons on the making of masterpieces. The first lesson is that the process is long. Great Bible characters took a long time getting ready. Moses had lots of promise even when he was born. He was raised by a godly Jewish mother and grew up in the court of Egypt’s Pharaoh. He had the best of both worlds. Yet it took 80 years of preparation before he was ready for God to use him as the leader of Israel. And even then Moses made some stupid mistakes. Eighty of his 120 years were spent getting ready.

Jesus spent 30 of his 33 years preparing for his 3 years of ministry. Ninety percent of his earthly life was given to the process of preparing a masterpiece—and he was God’s perfect Son! How strange that we parents sometimes think our sons should be on a faster track.

It is important for us to remember that the Bible teaches that we are training now for later. In Proverbs 22:6 we are told, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” This does not mean that a child will depart from the way that he or she should go before becoming old (although that might happen!). It does mean that we are training children to be adults. We are going through the process toward a product that won’t come until later. We are not raising children, we are raising adults - - - although we must allow them to be children along the way.

In addition, we must recognize that single events in life seldom make for success or failure. Too often we hear parents attribute the whole direction of their children’s lives to single events. There’s the boy who became a world-class athlete because his father gave him a soccer ball on his first birthday. There’s the girl who became a great spiritual giant because her parents dedicated her to God when she was 5 days old. Or the child who ended up an atheist because a 9th grade Sunday School teacher said the wrong thing one Sunday at church.

You simply can’t explain life so simply. It is not the single events that make all the difference. Lots of boys get soccer balls and don’t play sports. Other girls are dedicated and go spiritually astray. Most people hear something wrong at church but don’t turn against God. The making of a masterpiece is the result of thousands of decisions, strokes, mixtures and times. That means that when we as parents blow it, when we make a really bad decision, it’s not the end of the world, nor is it likely to ruin our children’s lives. It also means that when we do a single thing right it is probably not by itself going to guarantee success for our sons or daughters.

The shaping of lives is like the shaping of the Grand Canyon. That natural wonder is the result of hundreds and thousands of years of the Colorado River going through droughts and floods. It is the complexity of summer heat, winter cold, desert sands and pouring rains that have made the masterpiece.

Look in the mirror. Do you see a masterpiece? I hope you do! I do! Oh, it’s not yet complete. There are some blank areas with nothing yet. There are discolored and smudged areas that need redoing. But I can see God’s genius and grace on the canvas mirror. There is a lot left to do, but he’s still making a masterpiece.

When we become impatient with our children and think they are not all that they should be, we need to look into the mirror and see that God is still in the process of painting us the way we need to be made. Realize how long it has taken for us to get this far . . . and give them time!

Most of us want our children to start up where we left off. We don’t want them to make the same mistakes and suffer the hurt we have gone through. That’s good, but it can never fully happen. They can and should benefit much from what God has done in our lives, but they, too, must go through their own process to become a masterpiece. And masterpieces take time . . . and the process is long.

The second lesson is that maturity comes at different times. Luke 2:52 tells us, “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.” In other words, Jesus matured through his growing-up years. Understand that maturity and immaturity are not a matter of righteousness and sin. There were times in Jesus’ life when he was immature and times when he was mature, but he was no less righteous in immaturity than in maturity.

The story of 12-year-old Jesus in the temple shows a double aspect of his maturity. In Luke 2:47 we read, “Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.” This shows that he was advanced. He matured earlier than most. But there are two sides to this story. On the one hand he was amazingly mature for a 12-year-old. He was able to discuss with the spiritual leaders of Judaism the religious issues of the day. But at the same time we see his immaturity when he left his parents without telling them where he was going. And he probably hurt their feelings by the true but abrupt explanation he gave them in Luke 2:49-50. This shows he was not yet fully mature. Maturity is not a matter of right and wrong, of sin and righteousness. Maturity is a matter of development, especially the completion of development.

Different children mature at different rates. The most obvious is physical maturity. Some young people are full-grown in early adolescence; others are “late bloomers”. In high school Charleen waited until I was as tall as she was before she was willing to date me. She matured more quickly than I did.

Other children mature at different times. Some are at the emotional maturity of a 2-year-old when they are 2; others are still there when they are 3 or 4. Some mature early and others mature late. It’s not good or bad. It’s just the way it is!

There is little that parents can do to make children mature faster. Parents must be patient and wait for maturity to come. In the meantime encourage, love, train and discipline but no one can mature someone from the outside until he or she is ready to mature on the inside.

The principle applies often. Some students are slow to mature academically. One parent told me about a son who barely passed math all through grade school, junior high and 10th grade. The parents hired a tutor, monitored his homework, kept him in special programs and almost gave up hope. In 11th grade he started doing better. In his senior year he got all A’s in math and went on to become a math major in college! All those parents did was right and good but they could not make him mature before his time came.

Parents must be sensitive to maturity levels. Don’t be angry or put unnecessary pressure on children because of immaturity. Be patient. Do what is right. Encourage. Wait. Even in the same family maturity comes at different times for different people!

The third lesson is a spiritual lesson and it is that salvation makes a temporal as well as an eternal difference. Too often we think of salvation only in terms of the eternal difference it makes in a person’s life. True, salvation does determine a person’s eternal destiny, but salvation also changes us here on earth. John 3:1-6 talks about two births—birth below and birth above:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”

Just as it is impossible to live physically until we’ve been born physically so it is impossible to live spiritually until we’ve been born spiritually. So parents must not expect Christian behavior from someone who has not been “born from above”.

At this point I must share some pretty direct words to parents. As Christian parents it must be our highest priority to seek to win our children to Christ through our words and our lives. However, we must not demand or force our children to salvation any more than we can force salvation on anyone else. And we must not assume that because a child prayed a prayer of salvation at a very young age that that was a spiritual transformation unless it is fully evidenced in the later years of life. We have a responsibility to live the Christian life and be witnesses in our own homes as much as in our communities and in our businesses.

It is also important to ask those children who are 18 years old or younger and who have grown up in Christian homes, “Have you been born again?” There are teenagers and even adults who depend on some experience they had in preschool years that they may not even remember but they were told by an adult that they prayed a prayer or had some spiritual experience. The important thing is to know that your faith and trust for salvation is in Jesus Christ right now and that you are seeking to live for Jesus as Lord of your life. If not, you need to be born again!

I grew up in a Christian home and made a childhood profession of faith, but it was not until a very memorable day in February when I was 15 that I made a very personal renewal of that salvation commitment. That was the day the spiritual turning point came in my life.

Many young people who grow up in Christian homes may have similar experiences. We must come to a point where we make faith our own and are not just a cultural copy of our parents’ religion.

Once that commitment has been made and we have been born from above we then have a commitment from God for our completion. God promises that all those who have been born again will eventually become complete masterpieces. Philippians 1:6 says, “ . . . he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” So God promises that eventually he will make mature and complete masterpieces of every child and every parent who has been born again. What a relief!

A fourth lesson is that parents are divine tools in God’s hands. We parents do not have the ultimate responsibility in the formation of our children. God does! But parents are tools in the hands of God to paint children into masterpieces like Jesus Christ. Our responsibility is not primarily to our children; our responsibility is primarily to God to be the right kinds of tools.

As the right kinds of tools in God’s hands we have certain characteristics, among them is patience. As in a long-term financial investment we must be patient. You can’t buy and sell every time the market goes up and down; you must hang-in-there for the long-term return. That is sometimes very hard! There are days when we want the finished product now! It’s easy to get discouraged because things aren’t going the way we would like them to go.

One day Charleen said to me, “Parenting would be so much easier if we knew everything would turn out right in the end.” How true! If we could see into the future and catch a glimpse of our children in adulthood—healthy, godly, happy, successful—it would be a lot easier to get through report cards, adolescent rebellion, broken bones, drugs, sex, arguments and all.

But we can’t see into the future. If we could there would be no need to trust God. If we could we probably wouldn’t do our best. We wouldn’t work or pray or worry so much about doing what is right and necessary to accomplish the masterpiece.

Patience is rooted in trust and understanding. We trust God for the finished product throughout the process. We understand that the process is long. We realize that maturity comes at different times, that salvation makes a temporal difference and that parents are divine tools.

I know the power of parental patience in the hands of God because I am a product of such patience. I look back on all my mistakes, my sins, my immaturity growing up and wonder at my parent’s patience with me. How grateful I am that they trusted God and were willing to wait for the masterpiece to take shape. And now I must remember to be a patient parent in the hands of the same God who wants to make masterpieces of my children!

Love is the number one Christian virtue and characteristic. It is a reflection of God. We must teach our children the love of God by letting God love them through us. But often we let other things get in the way. What’s most important isn’t being able to talk at the age of 2, being an athlete or getting good grades. If a dish gets broken or a fender scratched it really doesn’t matter much. Most important of all is that we demonstrate the marvelous love of God to our children through all of life’s events.

Sometimes our egos get in the way. We react to our toddler’s misbehavior in the store on the basis of our own embarrassment rather than love for him. When our teenager has problems we handle it more on the basis of what our friends will think than out of love for her.

Love is doing what is best for the other person. It is self-sacrificing. According to I Corinthians 13:4-7:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Closely related to love is respect. I separate it because it is so important. Sometimes ordinarily polite, gracious people completely change when they relate to members of their own family by showing a lack of respect to their spouse or children or parents that they would never show to a stranger.

Parents, respect your children! More than anyone outside of your home! If ever you are polite, ever gracious, ever kind, ever careful to listen—show such respect to your children!

Here’s how I see it. My children are persons in their own right, created in the image of God. They may be younger than I am but they are no less valuable. I must, and I do, hold them in awe as special to God. I dare not be rude. I dare not take them for granted. I must listen to what they have to say and consider their thoughts and feelings—not in a condescending way but as equals. In no way am I superior to, better than or more important than any of my children. We are all equals before God and I must consistently treat them accordingly.

Treating our children with respect makes us effective tools in the hands of God. Through such respect our children learn self-respect and grow in self-esteem. They learn that they are invaluable persons created in the image of God.

Parents are also powerful tools to teach values to children. I used to think we did this by sitting down and talking to them—which is good! I worried that if there was not a special effort or plan values would not be taught and communicated. I was wrong. There is no way not to teach values to our children! We constantly live our values whether we think about it or not. And our children constantly see our values lived out and learn their values from us.

Some years ago in Colorado there was a very effective Sunday School teacher who taught powerfully about Christian life and ethics. One day he took his own children and several others from church families to a Rocky Mountain ski area. In order to save a few dollars each he lied about the children’s ages and got cheaper lift tickets. He taught more about values in that single stupid action than in all his Sunday School lessons combined.

As parents we must get our own values right and then live them. Our children quickly will learn our values about honesty, the Bible, prayer, sex, alcohol, church, marriage, success, failure and everything else. Parents who pray when faced with a crisis teach their children the value of prayer. Parents who get up early for personal devotions teach their children the value of God’s Word. Parents who faithfully tithe teach their children the value of stewardship. Parents who are faithful to each other in their marriage teach their children the value of morality.

We are the tools of God to teach our chidden the values of life. And it doesn’t stop when our children are grown. Parents in their 60s are teaching children in their 40s how to retire. And parents in their 80s are teaching children in their 60s how to face aging, illness and even death.

Life is a canvas. On it God seeks to paint an eternal masterpiece with many colors, many strokes and even many brushes. But the boldest and often the most important strokes and colors are painted by the brushes of parents. So moms and dads, be the best of tools in the hands of God to paint a true masterpiece on the canvas of your child’s life . . . for the glory of God!

Some time ago a group of Wooddalers went to the Orpheum Theater in St. Paul for a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. During the program host Garrison Keeler explained his understanding of where babies come from when he was growing up in Lake Wobegon. He said it was rumored that babies actually grew under the skin of their mothers in the mother’s abdomen, but that was just too far-fetched to believe. Then he and his friends finally figured it out. Babies come from a big gumball machine in heaven. The machine releases a gumball and it comes rolling down the chute and boom, you’ve got yourself a baby. The next Sunday morning one of those Wooddalers observed me in the church foyer interacting with several of our four children and said, “The old gumball machine really worked for you!”

The Psalmist used a different analogy speaking of children as arrows and writing in Psalm 127:5, “Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.”

Whether it’s gumballs or arrows I’m grateful for each of our four children. I delight in parenthood. I love our children and thoroughly enjoy them. They are among my best of friends and greatest source of happiness. But there are frustrations, too! Not just for me but for just about every parent.

Dr. James Dobson once asked his radio listeners to write in about their frustrations as parents. From 1,000 letters he listed the frustrations in order of frequency. The number one frustration was lack of confidence in parenting. Here are some typical comments:

Seeing my own bad habits and character traits in my children; the feeling of inadequacy from not knowing how to cope with children’s problems; humanness of parents gets in the way of the ideal; not being able to make children feel loved and secure; losing confidence in my ability to parent; overwhelmed with responsibility in raising children; failing my children; inability to relate to children; dealing with guilt when it seems that I fail my children; I’m not the example I should be; inability to cope; frustration with myself as a parent rather than with my children; maintaining self-confidence as a parent through rebellious teen years; it’s too late to go back and do it over.

Most parents will agree that this is the number one frustration. We so desperately want to do what is right, yet we are unsure of ourselves. We are so keenly aware of our own weaknesses and sense that the stakes couldn’t be higher in lives and eternity!

The second of the thousand responses was the struggles of raising a teenager. The two most difficult periods for parents is when children are toddlers and when they are teenagers. Both are major transition times in life. The teen years are the time when children are becoming their own persons, when they can switch back-and-forth between acting like adults and children in the same minute, when parents most fear the outside influences and directions of their children’s lives. For some it is a particularly difficult transition.

A third frustration expressed in that mail response was time pressure. Parenting is a 24-hour-a-day job. There are no coffee breaks or vacations. Even if you are a thousand miles away you still function as a parent. There is no let up. Pressures are constant. For many people that is compounded by other factors such as having more children—when one doesn’t demand your attention another one does; by moms who work; by being a single parent; by financial needs. When our family was young I often told Charleen that she must not get sick until our youngest child turned 21. But moms and dads do get sick and pressures mount until some parents snap.

A fourth frustration was the difficulties in disciplining children. What is lenient? What is strict? What works and what makes things worse? Like all the rest of parenting, discipline is not an exact science. There is room for error and the rule that seems to apply one moment may not be quite applicable the next moment.

The fifth frustration was the lack of interest or rejection of parents’ spiritual values. This is a tough one. Many of us as Christian parents would rather lose our jobs, our homes, our money, our health and even our lives than lose our children from Jesus Christ. We try to do everything right. We have family devotions, take our children to Sunday School and church, send them to summer camp and put them in Christian school, but our children may still turn away from Christ and the church. For many it is more than frustrating, it is heartbreaking.

Sixth was a lack of support and involvement from the father. Mothers become frustrated with fathers who don’t accept responsibility for discipline and spiritual leadership. Women often take parenting much more seriously than men and are further frustrated by husbands who seem to contradict the values the women are seeking to instill in their children.

Next on the list was negative outside forces on the children. Music, school, magazines, TV, friends or drugs often push in opposite directions from everything Christian parents seek for their sons and daughters. These pressures cannot be accepted and cannot be avoided. Those who put their children in Christian schools find many of the same problems; those who leave the city for the rural areas find that the negative outside forces are waiting for them when they arrive.

Last on the list was sibling rivalry. In my opinion no one with fewer than two children should get full credit as parents. You don’t understand what it’s all about until your little angels start fighting over a piece from a Lego set or over which TV program to watch. It’s as normal as sunrise and sunset but it certainly can be frustrating.

None of these eight frustrations stands alone; they all overlap. They don’t even have the decency to come one-at-a-time; they sometimes even come all at once! It is amidst these frustrations that Christian parents must sort out our priorities in order to be the kind of parents God wants us to be.

There are four priorities that we will deal with here. The number one priority of life is the number one priority of parenthood—to live for the Lord. The very best gift we as parents can give to our children is godly parents. That doesn’t mean super-pious, stick-in-the-mud types. It means parents who love God and live for him, who enjoy God and his gifts and who know how to pray and love and learn.

No parents are perfect. There have never been perfect parents; there are never going to be perfect parents. But living all-out for God will make us the best parents we can be. Don’t delay! It’s tough to go back and change what’s happened. Don’t wait for your next job, the crisis to pass or even tomorrow. Start now!

According to Psalm 127, “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.” There are many people who live with something or someone other than God as the first priority. But if God is not the first priority, everything else is a loss.

The next verse says, “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves.” There are parents who get up early in the morning and work late into the night, and they worry. But it’s all a waste of time. You can put in all kinds of hours and read all the books you can get your hands on. You can try your very best and be the most concerned parent ever. But if God is not the number one priority then it’s a hopeless cause.

Psalm 127 goes on to say, “Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him.” How important it is to remember that children are a gift from God.

Let’s move on to Deuteronomy 6:4-9: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Love for God is the first and highest priority.

But look at what follows in the next several verses:

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

The greatest responsibility of parents is to themselves love God and out of their love for God teach their children to love God. Some Christian parents mistakenly think their number one job is to teach their children obedience. This may be a tragic mistake! Children learn to obey and conform on the outside without the love of God on the inside. When they reach adolescence or adulthood they no longer conform or obey because they haven’t learned to love. As parents we should be less concerned about specific legalistic obedience and more concerned about loving God!

Love of God is the base from which we get strength for difficulty, wisdom for parenting and faith for the future. Remember, parenting is not an exact science to be lived by the rules. It is a relationship with children based on our relationship with God.

During high school I stayed overnight at a friend’s home one Friday. For some reason I no longer remember I got up and left early in the morning. As I tiptoed down the stairs to go out the door I heard some noise in the living room. There in the corner, dressed in pajamas and robe, knelt my friend’s father in prayer. By some measures he had a lot going against him as a father: he was an immigrant whose accent marked him as different; he had a physical handicap that caught your attention; he didn’t relate particularly well to teenagers; he didn’t even go to the same church as the rest of his family; and he died—leaving his wife a widow and his family fatherless. But he loved God and lived for the Lord. And today that son is a pastor who also loves God and lives for the Lord. The number one priority of parenthood is also the number one priority of life: it is to live for the Lord!

The second priority is to enjoy the blessings. Psalm 127:5 says of children, “Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.” God intended for children to provide happiness. They are to be a source of pride and strength when coping with all of life’s enemies, critics and problems.

I’m concerned that some parents miss that happiness. They are so concerned about their children’s grades, clothes, habits, rebellion, spirituality and cost that they miss the good things. What a tragedy to so over-emphasize the negatives that we fail to claim the joy and happiness God has given to us.

Claiming the happiness of parenthood is key to raising happy children. Children who grow up with parents who are always grouchy, who continually criticize and who never enjoy their families are not likely to be happy themselves. Blessed is the child whose parents not only love him but enjoy him! How great it is to grow up knowing that in spite of your problems you are the delight of your parents’ hearts and a source of their greatest happiness!

Enjoy the blessings by claiming the happiness and by savoring the moment. My father once told me that the fastest time of his life was between 40 and 50. Busyness and looking to the future can steal the special years of childhood and parenthood that cannot be repeated. Do not take for granted the joy of holding your infant in your arms because all too quickly he will be grown. Delight in being there when your one-year-old takes her first steps or you five–year-old first rides a two-wheeler. Give priority to helping your youngster memorize verses for Sunday School, attending his T-ball game or her basketball game. Count these moments as gifts from God that are more important than watching TV or reading a soon-to-be-forgotten newspaper. Count it a privilege to help your teenager with homework, to guide your adolescent through the exciting and troubling transition from childhood to adulthood. Savor every moment of watching your son choose his wife or helping your daughter prepare for her wedding.

Several times every year I write an entry in my daily journal reminding myself that “these are the best years of your life. The children will all-too-soon be grown and gone. Enjoy these gifts from God now rather than someday looking back in regret over opportunities missed.”

Susanna Wesley is said to have spent one hour alone with each of her 19 children every week. Parents, do not so focus on the frustrations that you miss the blessings. Make the time. Claim the happiness. Savor the moment!

There’s a third priority that needs to be included and that is to face the problems. Every family has them. There are no perfect families. There are no perfect parents. There are no perfect children. The issue is not whether we have problems but what we do with them. Some parents deny the problems and hope they will go away; others admit to their problems and do something about them.

A young woman was learning to mountain climb. At one point she stopped her ascent and told her instructor, “I can’t climb any higher. There are too many bumps.” The teacher replied, “Thank God for the bumps. They are what we climb on!”

It’s exactly the same with parenting. It is the bumps that we climb on. They may be problems with incest, alcohol, anger, depression, materialism, lying, stealing, pornography, music, self-centeredness, salvation, sin, handicaps, grades, self-image, rebellion, homosexuality. We don’t get to pick the problems. But we do get to decide whether or not we will admit them and do something about them.

Some parents won’t admit problems because they see it as a negative reflection on them. But we must remember that God was a perfect parent of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Yet, his children rebelled and sinned. If we think we are failures because we have problems with our kids then we must think ourselves better than God! But God admitted to the problem and did something about it—at the great sacrifice of Calvary’s cross.

We must face the problems that arise. Admit to them—as painful as that might be. Be willing to pay the necessary price of action. For some children it will bring the remedy. Like God’s children, some of ours may even reject an ultimate remedy at great sacrifice. The ways to climb over the problems are to admit the problem, pray about the problem, seek counsel and ask for help from others.

Finally, we must trust God. We must remember that we do not have sole responsibility. Some of us as Christians take so seriously our parenting responsibility that we think we are the only factor for success or failure.

I do the same thing sometimes as a pastor. I care so deeply for Wooddale Church and its people that I personalize virtually everything that has to do with the church. I begin to think I am solely responsible for the success or failure of every marriage, the attendance at every service, the amount of every offering, the spirituality of every member. At times I’ve been bent low under the burden. It is then that I must go to God and be reminded that this is not my church; it is Christ’s church. I do not have the ultimate responsibility; God has the ultimate responsibility. I am not the only factor determining what happens in people’s lives and the church’s programs. Individuals make decisions and do things over which I have no control or influence.

And so it is with parenting. They are not our children but God’s children. We do not have the ultimate responsibility. God has the ultimate responsibility. We are not the only factor in determining our children’s lives. They can and will make decisions over which we have neither control nor influence.

We can find great comfort and joy in knowing that God is on our side. He wants us to succeed as parents. He wants our children to grow up to godly maturity. He wants us to depend on him and trust him. We must not succumb to modern psychological theories of parental influence that exclude the power and persuasion of God in our children’s lives. Yes, we are concerned. Yes, we care. Yes, we love our children with all our hearts. Yes, we do our very best. But we do not accept full responsibility. We trust God. We pray daily committing our children to God and holding them up before him with a loose grip. We trust him to do what we cannot do, to go where we cannot go and to be the perfect parent we cannot be.

Those who follow these priorities have a high probability of success because they place their children in God’s special care. But we must also remember that there may well be struggles and frustrations along the way. Because you care, I invite you to reconsider and even reorder your parenting priorities. Number one: live for the Lord. Number two: enjoy the blessings. Number three: face the problems. And number four: trust God.

Charleen and I were flying from Denver to Minneapolis on what seemed like a routine Northwest flight. We were on time. The weather was good. It seemed like a normal approach for a routine landing. Just as we neared the runway the engines surged, the plane groaned with acceleration and soon banked hard to the right. For a moment all conversation inside the cabin ceased. Then suddenly everyone began talking about the abrupt change in direction. Something important had happened. Actually, not something; it was someone. Air Force One had arrived in the area. Our flight was waved off to make room for the President of the United States.

Once long ago there was another interruption in conversation when everything and everyone suddenly stopped. It was not so much what had happened as who had arrived. The once dead Jesus showed up for all of them to see. They had heard that he was alive, but seeing Jesus for themselves was still a shock. “While they were . . . talking . . . Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” That was a very ordinary greeting, sort of like walking up to a group of people and saying, “Hi!” But they were dumbstruck by this.

There is an old story about a man who walked through a cemetery late one night and fell into an open grave that had been dug in preparation for a burial that was to take place the next morning. He tried to climb out but the sides were slippery from rain and he could not make it. He finally decided to sleep in the hole that night and get help to climb out the next morning. A few hours later another person took a shortcut across the cemetery and fell into the same grave. As he tried to climb out of the hole, he heard a voice from inside the grave simply say, “You can’t get out of here.” But, he did!

The point is that the very thought of a dead person moving and talking is enough to spook just about anyone.

The whole group saw Jesus alive! They heard him say, “Hi!” They saw, but they did not believe—because truth and belief are two very different things. Sometimes we believe what is not true and other times we doubt what is obviously true. “They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.” Because they could not deny their experience they found an alternative explanation so they would not have to believe that Jesus had come back to life again.

Their doubts were real. Some would say their doubts were absolutely normal and legitimate. And Jesus did exactly what he always does for sincere doubters. He gave proof to help them believe.

Evidence number one was his appearance. He proved himself to their sense of sight.

Evidence number two was his voice. He proved himself to their sense of hearing. “He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself!’ ”

Evidence number three was his body. He proved himself to their sense of touch:

“Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.

Are you familiar with what is called the skeptic’s prayer? A skeptic is someone who has trouble believing. There are those who struggle to believe but find it hard. There are so many questions and too many doubts. If they are sincere seekers for truth, there is a prayer that may be helpful. It goes like this: “God, if there is a God, please show yourself to me. Help me see your truth and believe.” There are tens of thousands of people who have sincerely prayed such a prayer and sincerely searched for the truth that have come to resounding Christian faith. While it does not have the same results for everyone, it is a good place for doubters to get started.

For those that day who saw, heard and touched Jesus there was an interesting transition in their disbelief. We are told, “They still did not believe it because of joy and amazement.” That is different. It is sort of “disbelieving belief”. It is like the woman who answers the doorbell to be told that she just won the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Million Dollar Sweeptstakes and gets so excited that she says, “Me? Who me? I have never won anything!” and then slams the door in the presenter’s face.

“They did not believe it because of joy and amazement.” I think they really did believe!

Jesus pulled up a chair, ordered some broiled fish to eat and started teaching them his last instructions before returning to heaven.

There is something special about last words. They may be the last instructions to your five-year-old before going to kindergarten for the fist time. They may be the exhortations of a commencement speech for a high school or college graduating class. They may be the last letter leading to the end of a relationship, a “last will and testament” or the final sentences on a deathbed. They are special. They are different. And so it was with the final four teachings of Jesus before leaving earth and returning to his home in heaven.

First of all, Jesus taught that his life, death and resurrection fulfilled biblical prophecy. “He said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’ ”

The Jewish Bible is not organized the same way our English Bible is. While the same content exists in the Old Testament, it is in a very different order in the Jewish Bible. There are three sections in the Jewish Bible: the Law of Moses; the Prophets; and the Psalms. Jesus is saying that when you read through the Old Testament it is full of prophesies about him. In the Garden of Eden there is the prediction of the coming of a Savior. The prophet Micah tells that the Messiah will be born in the little village of Bethlehem. Isaiah describes a suffering Messiah that is an uncanny description of the suffering that takes place in crucifixion. Jesus is saying that he was no surprise to God or to history. All of this was part of the divine plan that was very old. God knew what he was doing. God predicted what he would do. God did it all through Jesus.

Jesus condensed and summarized the prophecies of the Old Testament with his teaching in the New Testament, saying, “The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” Before returning to heaven Jesus wanted to make sure that they (and we!) got it. Jesus Christ is God’s way to salvation. This was God’s plan from the start. He died to be our Savor, paying the price for human sin and providing the way to heaven forever.

His second final teaching was that our thinking must be illumined. Luke 24:45 explains that Jesus “opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” There is a very great and powerful truth here. It is that we cannot truly understand the Bible by ourselves. We need the light of God to be able to see the truth. We need for Jesus Christ to open our minds in order to understand what the Bible says. Reading the Bible is not just an intellectual experience; it is a spiritual experience. It is a means to encounter God. Unless God is involved, the Bible is just words and stories and teaching like any other book.

My father was pretty healthy for most of his life. Then, in his seventies he became seriously ill and went through several hospitalizations, surgery, blood transfusions and massive antibiotic therapy. One day he told me something I did not know about him, a change that had recently occurred in his life. He told me that although he had been with many people through the crises of their lives he never had a lot of sympathy for people who were sick. He thought they were sort of wimps. He could not understand why they complained and did not just get better. But, he explained, lying in a hospital bed, desperately ill and maybe dying, he understood others as he never understood them before. In other words, his experience opened his understanding in a way that objective observation never could do.

Jesus taught that an intellectual reading of the Bible is never enough. Unless a person experiences Jesus Christ, the Bible will never be understood. We can have an IQ of 200, a Ph.D. in biblical studies, be able to sight read Hebrew and Greek and still not understand the Scriptures. We need the light of God. We need the experience of Jesus Christ.

Every time we open the Bible to read it we should begin with a prayer asking for divine understanding. We should expect more than words. We should expect to experience God.

I have heard many reports from those who have found the Bible boring and difficult to understand until Jesus Christ changed their lives. Then they could not put the Bible down. They read it and loved it and understood it for the very first time. They (and we) are just like those to whom Jesus gave his last instructions—“he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”

Final teaching number three was that the story must be told. Jesus told them, “You are witnesses of these things.” It only makes sense. If this is God’s historic plan for human salvation, if Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy, if salvation from sin and eternal life comes through Jesus Christ, if the Bible is true, if Jesus transforms our lives and thinking and if we experience this for ourselves, we must be witnesses of these things!

As Christians we don’t have to be trained theologians or professional evangelists, but we must tell what we have experienced through Jesus Christ. The way we do it should fit our personalities and relationships, but tell we must! Christianity is a word-of-mouth revolution. It does not primarily spread through televisions ads or religious events. It spreads through our witnessing—telling what we have experienced. Eighty-five percent of Americans who come to Christian faith do so through the influence of a friend or a family member. In Jesus’ last instructions he wanted to make sure we knew that telling the story is up to us.

Jesus’ fourth and final teaching before returning to heaven was that power must be provided from God. Referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Jesus knew we would need help to live the kind of lives God wants us to live. Life is hard and we are weak. The challenges are beyond our resources. So, God promised to send the Holy Spirit to earth to live inside of every Christian.

The Holy Spirit is God, just as much God as the Father is God and just as much God as Jesus the Son is God. However, the Holy Spirit, unlike Jesus, does not have a body and is, therefore, invisible. Invisible does not mean less God or less powerful. God promised that the Holy Spirit would come to live inside every Christian and give us the power to face life and have joy, to be the witnesses for Jesus Christ that he called us to be and to get us through death and into heaven forever.

Jesus taught that he would first leave and go back to heaven and then he would send the Holy Spirit from heaven to earth to take his place. He also told them to stick around in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit arrived (which was a few weeks later on the holiday called Pentecost).

Jesus did what he said he would do. He sent the Holy Spirit and ever since then the Holy Spirit has lived in every Christian as the power source for living. Some tap into his power; some try to live without the power of the Spirit.

In hot weather there are two ways to run an air conditioner. We can run it with just the fan or with the fan and compressor. If it is a hot day we can run the fan for 24 hours and just stir up the hot air. The fan cannot cool by itself. Turn on the compressor and the air will cool. We need the power of the compressor to change the temperature.

So it is with our lives. We can live by our own power just moving the hot air around, or we can tap into the power of the Holy Spirit of God. The question is: how do we get the Spirit’s power in our lives? The answer is really very simple. We must want it, believe and ask for it.

Jesus finished his final four teachings.

When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

In some ways this does not totally make sense. It makes sense that Jesus went back to heaven. That was his home and he went there to prepare a place for us to live forever. He wanted to make heaven our home as well. So, in that sense, his return to heaven makes sense.

But what is harder to understand is the response of his friends. They had witnessed the crucifixion and were convinced they had lost Jesus forever. Then he came back to life and they were thrilled to get him back. Then he takes off and leaves them again for heaven. And their response is worship, joy and praise to God. Does that figure?

Yes! Worship, joy and praise makes sense if you believe that God’s prophecy is fulfilled, if your thinking has been illumined, if you have a story to tell and if you can count on the power of the Holy Spirit to transform you on the inside.

So, are you transformed? Has Jesus Christ opened your understanding to the Bible? Are you living by the power of the Holy Spirit? If yes, then you can worship, you have joy and you praise God.

I have a question for you. If you could ask Jesus for one thing about your relationship with God, what would you ask him for? Don’t let it be about your job or money or health or house or car or family or friends. It’s okay to talk to God about those things, but if you were to ask Jesus for one thing about your relationship to God, what would that one thing be? Would you ask Jesus to become your Savior? Would you ask for forgiveness for some particular sin? Would you ask him to help you understand the Bible? Would you ask him to help you tell other people the story of Jesus? Would you ask for the power of the Spirit of God in your life? If you could ask Jesus for one thing about your relationship to God what would you ask for?

Ask Jesus now for the one thing you most want in your relationship with God.