See How Jesus Sees

 

   I was coming out of the Wal-Mart parking lot one afternoon and saw a man standing on the corner begging.  He had a little sign that simply said, “Please Help.”

   Maybe it was because he said, “please”, or maybe it was because he looked so desperate, I handed him a five dollar bill and he said, “God bless you sir.” 

   Now, don’t give me undue props for sharing what I had with this man.  I gave him that $5.00 without it really affecting me at all.  For a fleeting moment I patted myself on the back for my “generosity”, but then reality hit me.

   I had given that man $5.00 because I thought that was the right thing to do.  It was a very natural response.  However, as I drove on down the road I began to question myself.  I asked myself, “Did you see that man the way Jesus sees Him or did you just react because you knew it was the right thing to do?”

   I had to admit I had not looked on that man the way Jesus looks on him.  Jesus looks at him and loves him. I didn’t love him.  I felt sorry for him.  I only did what I thought a human being should do when they see a person like that on the street.

   Jesus taught me a lesson that day.  I can’t say for certain that I will react differently the next time such a situation confronts me, but I think maybe I will.  Reaching out the car window to hand over money is not all Jesus expects of me in these situations.  He expects me to see the person the way He sees him.  He expects me to act out of love for a fellow human being. 

Preach The Simple Gospel And They Will Come

 

 

   Occasionally, I hear my pastor tell the congregation, “If you are not a member of a church, you are not where God wants you to be.”  He often reminds people that the Christian life is about relating to people, and He designed the church to help make that happen.  None of us are called to be a hermit or a recluse, completely cut off from people around us.

   In response to that we often hear people complain about the church’s shortcomings.  I can’t count the number of times I have been told that the church is full of hypocrites and that’s why that particular person doesn’t go to church.  My response is always the same.  “You are dead right.  The church is full of hypocrites, because all church members are human beings.  But, if you are intent on keeping your distance from all hypocrites you will likely have to quit going to the movies, the grocery store, the place where you work, or any other place people go, because hypocrites go there.”

   People in the right kind of church never brag that they are better than those who do not attend.  In my church, for instance, we all know that we are all sinners saved by God’s marvelous grace.  None of us believe we are any better than anyone else and the thing that makes us different is our eternal destination.  Those whom God has touched with His saving grace will be spending eternity in heaven.  Others have a different destination.

   I know that most of the people who read my blog are already saved people, but maybe you know someone who needs to hear what is being said in this post.  Print this and give it to them.  People who want to hide behind the behavior of others have to be smaller than those they hide behind.  It’s quite a simple proposition.  You can be a member of a church and not be saved.  But, if you are saved you need to be in the Lord’s church, or at least the one you believe to be the Lord’s church.

   A simple gospel message is being ignored as much by the church and today’s preachers as it is the unsaved.  In the 1950’s Billy Graham burst upon the American scene with that simple gospel message and hundreds of thousands responded to it.  Where is that simple message being preached today?  Today we are so caught up in psychological humdrum that the simple message is lost in the shuffle.  When I tell my preacher friends that they should be preaching the gospel message clearly and very straight forward, they often respond that there are no lost in the congregation.  Look at it this way; maybe there are no lost people in the congregation because the gospel is not being preached.

   God brings people to the gospel story today, just like He did Billy Graham.  God’s word does not return to Him void.  Isn’t that what the Bible says?  Preach the gospel week after week and they will come.  I believe that with all my heart.  

   Just this past week I had a member of a local Baptist church say to me, “Ken, I am so hungry to hear the gospel preached that I am willing to go to any church where it is done regularly, even if it is not Baptist.”  I have heard similar sentiments for years. 

   Savedspeople never get tired of hearing the gospel and lost people must hear it to be saved.  Who is to deliver it if not your church?

Mother’s Day Kindles Hope

 

    This is the first year I did not have to buy a Mother’s Day card.  My mother passed away last October, at the age of 99.  However, while I did not need to buy her a card, it doesn’t mean she is not in my mind.  When I stood at her gravesite, conducting her memorial service, I told all my family what I truly believe, that we will see her again one day.

   It was also my joy to tell them that she herself was enjoying a grand reunion with her husband, her oldest daughter, and two of her first four grandchildren.  I believe that to be the promise of our Lord, as stated often in His Word.

   That hope is why I could stand and get through her memorial service, as I had already done for her husband, and my wife’s two parents, as well as one of her brothers.  People often question how I could get through conducting services for close family members.  I suppose some would even question the closeness of our family, seeing that I was able to conduct those services.  It has to do with what all of us believe about eternity and the promise of God regarding our spiritual heritage.

   You see, if you truly believe what you say you believe then you know that our time apart from deceased loved ones is short, compared to eternity.  The Word of God tells us that we are not to sorrow as those who have no hope.  I have conducted so many funerals for people who had no hope of eternity with God, because they had ignored His claims on them throughout their lives.  Frankly, it is difficult to comfort people who had no knowledge of whether or not their loved one had found the Savior before passing.  While I would refrain from telling them their loved one was likely doomed to hell, I nevertheless could not offer any hope for any other eternal existence.

   So, this Mother’s Day I expressed thankfulness for my own mother’s spiritual journey.  She found Christ late in life, in her sixties, but she found Him.  Because she found Him I know she is with Him in glory today and I know I will join her there one day. 

   So Mother’s Day was a mixed bag for me.  On the one hand I miss not telling Mom how much she meant to me, but on the other hand I know she is not gone forever.

CERTAINTY IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD

   A few years ago a large metropolitan newspaper ran a headline which had resulted from a nationwide survey they had made.  The headline read, “Almost Everybody In The United States Is Unhappy.”

   The article accompanying the headline stated there is more unhappiness in the United States than there had ever been in history.  The article consisted of a number of statements made by people who were supposed to be “in the know”.

One man from Georgia said, “People seem to more upset and uneasy than at any time I can remember.  I am traveling across the country in my work and I hear people saying the same thing:  and the thing I hear them talking about is how uncertain everything is.”

What is going to happen to our world?  What about the explosive Middle East?  What will happen in Eastern Europe?  It seems like everything that used to be nailed down is coming apart.

Will we find a cure for AIDS?  What about Alzheimer’s?  What other diseases are lurking out there just waiting to strike?  What about all the tremendous social problems we face?  Can we afford all the things we are trying to do to address social problems?  Is there any hope for the prevention of world chaos?

In the midst of all this uncertainty I would like to remind you about certainty.  Certainty in an uncertain world.  Is there any such thing as certainty?

That’s the theme of this post.

Listen to what the Scripture text said:  “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.”  I John 5: 13

Dear readers, that is a statement of certainty meant to drive away the uncertainty many people seem to feel about salvation.  Some people even go so far as to say that you cannot ever really know for sure whether or not you are saved until the day you die.

But, that isn’t what the Bible says.

Surely, the Bible is saying that if you believe in the Son of God, you may not only know, but you may be certain that you have eternal life.

Here is a great certainty from God ....God’s offer of certainty in the midst of an uncertain world.

Deep inside of each of us there is a longing for assurance and security. We are told in the science of the human mind that security is one of the basic needs of a human being.  This is especially true when it comes to spiritual things, because we know spiritual things have eternal ramifications.  When it comes to the question of what happens to us when we die…this is something we want to know.  There need be no questions hanging over this.

Of that I am certain.

Radical Religion

 

    However misguided they may be, one must admire some of the passion that drives certain radical elements of some religions to do what they do.  In some cases they will even give their lives because they believe so passionately in what they are doing.  Sadly, some give their lives in an attempt to protect their religion from criticism, and others do so because someone has insulted their prophet.  What these misguided followers are doing is taking the advice of radical teachers whose sole purpose in life is to kill anyone who does not follow their particular religion…infidels.

   True religion does not need the protection of mere humans.  The Christian religion is based on love, not hate nor fear.  WHEN Jesus is insulted, as He often is, Christians do not feel it is incumbent upon them to punish the insulter.  God does not need our protection nor does He need our wrath to be inflicted upon those who do not believe as we believe.  That is the big difference in how we see our role as disciples, compared to those who follow radicalism in another religion.

   Oh, to be sure, Christianity also has its radicals.  But, even they express their radicalism without blowing up babies or cutting off the heads of those who do not adhere to their particular brand of Christianity.  I have some friends who follow a path of discipleship that is foreign to me.  Their brand of discipleship requires anyone who fellowships with them to think the same way they think or believe what they believe.  While they do not behead people they do murder character.  Back in the denominational wars of the Southern Baptist Convention, if you really wanted to denigrate someone you just let it slip that he “might have some homosexual friends” or that he “sees nothing wrong with women deacons or even a woman pastor.”

   That particular kind of character assassination was called guilt by association.  There was a particular layman up in Missouri who was a past master at making decisions about someone by looking at the friends he kept.   One hears little of this these days, so it has either stopped or it has gone underground and is no longer in the news of the state Baptist papers.  Mind you, though, it does exist.  Christian radicals are not unlike radicals in other religions.  While some religions practice actual physical assassination, Christian radicals often excel in murdering reputations, or incinerating character.

   There is nothing a Christian can do to change a radical from another religion.  Only God can affect change in a person like that.  What a Christian can do is live the way Jesus taught us to live, letting love for one another be demonstrated every day, and placing a precious price on relationships one with another.  How radical would it be if all of us started living like Jesus lived, unbent by criticism, returning love for anger, and never letting our wrath guide our actions?

Time Is Short…We Must Evangelize

    With no insight as to exactly when the Lord is coming back to claim His faithful, I have been feeling more and more like the time is short.  I am all but certain that we are going to hear His trumpet call one day and He will split the air, and “every eye will see Him….”

   If indeed our time is short, what should we be doing?  I don’t know about you, but if Jesus comes during my remaining days I want to be caught doing what He command us to do.  That is one reason I write this blog, and why I try to share Christ with those around me.

   I am so sad to see practically no emphasis on evangelizing the lost in most of our churches.  Oh, we work hard to get new members for the church, but far too few of them are actually coming into the church without ever having accepted Christ earlier in life.  For the most part, adults we baptize these days are just changing denominations.

   To be sure, if someone comes into the office and asks about Jesus we will speak with them and someone will share Christ with them.  But, I see very little encouragement from the church to go “into all the world and make disciples…”

   Folks, we need to see some dynamic evangelism in our churches these days.  We are seeing almost none.  Dynamic evangelism finds ways to send people out into the community to meet lost people in the places where they gather.  I know of one pastor who sets up in a Starbucks and just meets people he doesn’t know.  He meets with the, prays with them, witnesses to them and some of them come to Christ who would never darken the door of the church.

   If we are going to win people to Christ or even witness to them, we need to go where they are. 

   Billy Graham is about to have what he refers to his last crusade and this time it will be different from anything he has done before.  There will be no stadiums, no theaters, just millions of homes all over the globe.  Just suppose every church got involved with this crusade and enlisted homes of their members into which lost friends and relatives can be invited.  When there they will view a broadcast of the sage of evangelism preaching a message directed to reaching those people for Jesus.

   The potential of this crusade is enormous, but the potential will stay potential unless Christians get involved.  That is what I call dynamic evangelism…a telecast with one goal, preaching Jesus to the lost.

  Yessir…that is dynamic  evangelism.

 There Are No Atheists in Fox Holes

   It seems that in our “enlightened” society it is “cool” to call yourself an atheist.  The atheist lobby in this country has been emboldened in the past few years by several court cases that agreed with them about the erecting of religious symbols of any of the major religions on public property.   Let’s make sure we understand the constitutional situation here, because it is not what the atheists say it is.  The constitution says this about religion; “Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of religion or the free exercise thereof.”  That’s it.  Nothing else.

   There is nothing in that statement about “separation of church and state.”  There is nothing in that statement about church infringing on government.  It is all about prohibiting the government from infringing on the church. 

   Now, I am a believer in separation of church and state, but not the way it is being perverted in today’s litigious society.  Separation of church and state has never meant separation of churchmen and state.  That is why priests, preachers, Imams and rabbis can run for office, even the presidency.  However, the fact that they can is no reason they should.  When JFK was running as the first Catholic with a chance to be elected, people said of him that he had a sworn loyalty to a foreign government (The Vatican) and thus would not be a fit president.  Thank the Lord he proved those nuts wrong.

   My own version of separation of church and state means, at least to me, that the state should never be promoted in the church and the church should never be infringed upon by the state.  I don’t believe for one minute that erecting a Menorah or a cross on a public square at Christmas time in any way could be taken as the state promoting religion, but most judges today do not have the cajones to say that.  These gutless wonders find it so much easier just to tell Christmas and Hanukkah revelers to take a flying leap off a nearby cliff.  These judges use each other’s rulings as precedents, which can quickly become sacred.   The Supreme Court has been little help in this.  They just simply choose to ignore lower court rulings on the subject and refuse to take the cases.  In other words, the atheists win because of sloppy judges, not because they are right.  But, they have been emboldened.

   I have known a few atheists.  Their greatest fear is that one of their kids will get religious.  When Ms. O’hair’s son became a Christian she disowned him and did everything she could to make him appear less than capable of making such a weighty decision.

   One thing I remember when I visited a known atheist in our community during his hospital stay was how he kept repeating over and over again, “Oh, it hurts so bad.  Please God make it stop.”  There it is.  A prayer to a god he did not believe existed.  When I visited him again after he was released from the hospital I asked him if he remembered how much he hurt.  He said he did.  I said, “Do you remember what you kept saying over and over again?   He said he did not.  I told him he kept saying, “God, please make it stop hurting.”

   “Did I say that?” he asked.  When told he did he then said, “Well, preacher, you know that’s just a figure of speech.  It didn’t mean anything.”  When I told him that would be a poor thing to say to his eternal judge when he faced him in death, he said, “Well, now, preacher…if there is no God, there is no judge.”  All the while his sweet wife was sitting in the corner weeping for her husband.  A few weeks later I was called to their home where I was told, “Jim accepted Christ last night.”  His burdened wife had led him to the Lord.  I saw a whole different man sitting before me.

 Maybe something about that non-existent judge got his attention.