God Can Make Us Forget
What do we do in the face of a crisis? We may feel like the man who was filling out a form when he came to the question: “Who do we contact in case of an emergency?” He wrote, “Anybody in sight.”
The problem with emergencies is that our reactions may make the problem worse. A medical student was doing a rotation in toxicology at the poison control center. A woman called while she was on duty and was very upset. She had caught her little daughter eating ants. The student quickly reassured her that the ants were not harmful and there would be no need to bring her daughter into the hospital. The mother calmed down and at the end of the conversation happened to mention that she had given her daughter some ant poison to eat in order to kill the ants. After hearing that the student told her that she better bring her daughter into the emergency room right away.
One beauty of the Bible is that it gives examples of individuals who face the same challenges we face. If we pay attention to those stories we can find guidance that helps us in the same kind of crises.
There is no better source for learning how to respond when others mistreat us than the life of Joseph. We learn from him that we cannot successfully move into the future if we carry baggage from the past. Having been sold into slavery by his brothers and having been imprisoned wrongfully for a crime he didn’t commit he had, by God’s providence, become the Prime Minister of Egypt. God used him to avoid an international disaster by showing him that seven years of famine were coming to Egypt and by giving him the wisdom to make preparation.
However, the greatest crisis Joseph faced wasn’t the famine. His great test was responding correctly to the mistreatment he experienced on the way to his position as Prime Minister.
We can see the depth of the pain he endured, and how he rose above it, in the naming of his two sons. “Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, ‘It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.’ The second son he named Ephraim and said, ‘It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering’ ” (Genesis 41:51-52).
It’s possible to read the story of Joseph’s life without understanding how much his experiences hurt him until we come to the naming of his children. He spent roughly thirteen years, from age seventeen to age thirty, as a victim of mistreatment by others. After everything he endured Joseph showed us how to rise above our circumstances. His great statement is a source of hope for all of us: “God has made me forget all my trouble.” That doesn’t mean that he couldn’t call to mind what he had experienced, but it does mean the sting had been taken out of it.
Some people are so bitter over past experiences that they aren’t able to move into the blessings of their future. We can’t step successfully into the future while carrying the baggage of our past hurts. It is important that we forget our past and only God can help us do that.
We also see with Joseph that forgetting the past releases us to blessing. “The second son he named Ephraim and said, ‘It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.’ ” Not only did God make him forget his previous mistreatment, but God made him fruitful in the land of his suffering.
The beauty of these lessons Joseph learned is that he could meet his brothers with a forgiving attitude. I am amazed at Joseph’s willingness and ability to forgive his brothers for what they did to him. They hated him, plotted to kill him and settled for selling him as a slave. Yet, when he saw them again and they were at his mercy he treated them with kindness and forgiveness. He could only do that because God had made him forget and God had made him fruitful.
Being willing and able to forgive those who have hurt us is a key to successful living. Glenn Schaeffer said that during a children’s sermon one Sunday morning, he held up an ugly-looking summer shirt that he wore occasionally around the house. He explained to the children that someone said the shirt was ugly and should be thrown away.
“This really hurt me,” he explained. “I’m having trouble forgiving the person who said those mean things. Do you think I should forgive that person?” I asked the children.
Immediately, his six-year-old daughter, Alicia, raised her hand. “Yes, you should,” she said without hesitation. “But why? The person hurt my feelings,” he responded. To which Alicia wisely answered, “Because you’re married to her.”
Joseph demonstrated what an extraordinary man he was when he forgave his brothers completely. “And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here” (Genesis 45:5). He didn’t settle for resolving his own emotional pain, he wanted them to be healed, too.
Corrie Ten Boom was in a service in Munich after the World War II. She saw the former S.S. officer who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. She remembered the shame and abuse she and her sister endured because of him. He came to her as the church was emptying: “How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,” he said. “To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!”
He then thrust his hand forward to shake her hand. And she, who had preached so often of the need to forgive, didn’t reach for his hand. She knew how wrong she was. She prayed, “Lord Jesus, forgive me and help me to forgive him.” She tried to raise her hand and could not. She breathed a silent prayer. “Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.”
As she took his hand the most incredible thing happened. As she described it she felt a current pass from her shoulder along her arm and through her hand. At the same time she felt a love for this man spring into her heart. It almost overwhelmed her. She observed that when God tells us to love our enemies He gives, along with the command, the love itself.
We have each experienced pain. All of us have been mishandled somewhere, in some way. It is important that we allow God to make us forget. That opens the door for Him to make us fruitful. And then we can forgive completely. It’s a great thing to walk into tomorrow without carrying the baggage of yesterday’s hurts.
June 25, 2009
Hope for the Rejected
Life has its share of pain. Difficult circumstances, beyond our control, can make us suffer emotional pain. In 1858 the Illinois legislature—using an obscure statute—sent Stephen A. Douglas to the U.S. Senate instead of Abraham Lincoln, although Lincoln had won the popular vote. When a sympathetic friend asked Lincoln how he felt, he said, “Like the boy who stubbed his toe: I am too big to cry and too badly hurt to laugh.”
Everyone wants to be loved. The only problem is that when we are open to be loved we are vulnerable and can be seriously hurt. One of the sad human interest stories in the Bible is the account of Leah, Jacob’s first wife. She was his first wife, but she wasn’t his first choice. Jacob loved Leah’s younger sister, Rachel.
Jacob’s life is an interesting narrative. He had tricked his brother, Esau, out of the family birthright and had lied to his father to get the paternal blessing. His mother, Rebekah, sent him to her brother’s house so Esau wouldn’t get revenge on him after his father’s death. For the next twenty years Jacob worked for Uncle Laban. For seven of those years he was earning the hand of Laban’s daughter, Rachel. On the morning after the wedding Jacob discovered that Laban had given him Leah instead of Rachel and so he worked seven more years for Rachel.
The saddest part of the story is the pain Leah felt. Though she was his wife Jacob didn’t love her. His heart had been captured by Rachel. In Jacob’s defense, he never intended to marrry Leah. He thought he was marrying Rachel. Laban, the father of both girls, did Leah no favors. Now she was stuck in a loveless marriage and was trying to win Jacob’s love by having sons. “Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, ‘It is because the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now’ ” (Genesis 29:32). It is impossible to read those words without feeling compassion for Leah, who was trapped in circumstances beyond her control. “Surely my husband will love me now” is a glimpse into the soul of a wounded, rejected woman.
Rejection is painful. It seems that there is no way to work ourselves out of it. We can’t do enough to win the love of some people. Leah lived a frustrating life of trying, but failing, to win the love that she wanted. With the birth of her second son, Simeon, she revealed the deep-seated pain she felt: “Because the LORD heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too” (Genesis 29:33). She was not only unloved, but she knew it.
We have all experienced rejection in some ways. Someone we love doesn’t return our love and there’s nothing we can do about it. It hurts! In reading this account of Leah, it is hard to see the “good news” in it. The good news is hard to find in these verses. Leah didn’t find Jacob’s heart suddenly changed toward her. The good news is fully revealed in the life of Jesus. He demonstrates that God has accepted us. Jesus is the only One who can ultimately heal the pain of rejection.
For those of us who know how much it hurts to be caught in a painful situation we didn’t create, the good news is that God loves us even if some others don’t. That is seen in the life of Jesus. Jesus attracted people who were hurting because Jesus loves hurting people.
In his Gospel Luke described a picture that showed the heart of Jesus: “Now the tax collectors and ‘sinners’ were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them’ ” (Luke 15:1-2). Crowding around Jesus were the hurting, and rejected members of society. Standing aside criticizing Him were the religious leaders. The motley crew that was rejected by the religious elite was welcomed and loved by Jesus.
Leah’s story reveals that she knew that only God could help a person who lived with rejection. Each time she had a child she talked to God about it. She even named one of her sons Judah, “Praise.” It isn’t reading too much into the story to see that her relationship with Jacob was not ideal, but her relationship with God was healthy. She found that God was Someone she could talk to honestly. She also trusted Him with the secrets of her heart and found his provision (He gave her six sons and one daughter) to be her source of hope.
What can anyone say to a person who is hurting? There really is only one message: God loves you. He doesn’t reject anyone, even tax collectors and “sinners.” That is how each of us was able to become part of His family. He simply loves us and, if we believe in Him, will break the pattern of rejection in our lives.
One day a beautiful, but very troubled, little girl came through the door of a Day Nursery. From the very beginning the nursery worker became captivated by this child who had so little and needed so much. The little four-year-old was suffering from decisions she didn’t make. She was born in prison after her mom had used marijuana, crack and cocaine her entire pregnancy.
The little girl was nonverbal and had very little control over her emotions or her behavior. It was clear that the girl’s progress would be a mighty battle. Whenever somebody approached her, she became violent for long periods and ended up in a fetal position on the floor. The nursery worker found herself praying for the tormented little girl day in and day out.
As months rolled on, a relationship developed between the woman and the child whose mother wasn’t able to care for her. The woman and the little girl worked through the challenges they faced, sometimes taking one step forward and four steps back. Daily, they sat in the big rocking chair in the Day Nursery office, swaying back and forth and back and forth. During those rocking sessions the compassionate attendant would sing “Jesus Loves Me.” The four-year-old always settled down and became very still at the melody. Though she never spoke, peace seemed to fill her face as she listened to the song.
One day after a very long battle the woman held her special little girl to again calm her fears and pain. In silence they rocked back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Then the girl looked up with tear-filled eyes and spoke for the first time ever. She said, “Sing to me about that Man who loves me.”
All of us have suffered from life. All of us have been misunderstood and, probably, rejected. The good news is that there is a Man who loves us. His name is Jesus and He not only welcomes us, but He heals all our wounds.
Life has its share of pain. Difficult circumstances, beyond our control, can make us suffer emotional pain. In 1858 the Illinois legislature—using an obscure statute—sent Stephen A. Douglas to the U.S. Senate instead of Abraham Lincoln, although Lincoln had won the popular vote. When a sympathetic friend asked Lincoln how he felt, he said, “Like the boy who stubbed his toe: I am too big to cry and too badly hurt to laugh.”
Everyone wants to be loved. The only problem is that when we are open to be loved we are vulnerable and can be seriously hurt. One of the sad human interest stories in the Bible is the account of Leah, Jacob’s first wife. She was his first wife, but she wasn’t his first choice. Jacob loved Leah’s younger sister, Rachel.
Jacob’s life is an interesting narrative. He had tricked his brother, Esau, out of the family birthright and had lied to his father to get the paternal blessing. His mother, Rebekah, sent him to her brother’s house so Esau wouldn’t get revenge on him after his father’s death. For the next twenty years Jacob worked for Uncle Laban. For seven of those years he was earning the hand of Laban’s daughter, Rachel. On the morning after the wedding Jacob discovered that Laban had given him Leah instead of Rachel and so he worked seven more years for Rachel.
The saddest part of the story is the pain Leah felt. Though she was his wife Jacob didn’t love her. His heart had been captured by Rachel. In Jacob’s defense, he never intended to marrry Leah. He thought he was marrying Rachel. Laban, the father of both girls, did Leah no favors. Now she was stuck in a loveless marriage and was trying to win Jacob’s love by having sons. “Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, ‘It is because the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now’ ” (Genesis 29:32). It is impossible to read those words without feeling compassion for Leah, who was trapped in circumstances beyond her control. “Surely my husband will love me now” is a glimpse into the soul of a wounded, rejected woman.
Rejection is painful. It seems that there is no way to work ourselves out of it. We can’t do enough to win the love of some people. Leah lived a frustrating life of trying, but failing, to win the love that she wanted. With the birth of her second son, Simeon, she revealed the deep-seated pain she felt: “Because the LORD heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too” (Genesis 29:33). She was not only unloved, but she knew it.
We have all experienced rejection in some ways. Someone we love doesn’t return our love and there’s nothing we can do about it. It hurts! In reading this account of Leah, it is hard to see the “good news” in it. The good news is hard to find in these verses. Leah didn’t find Jacob’s heart suddenly changed toward her. The good news is fully revealed in the life of Jesus. He demonstrates that God has accepted us. Jesus is the only One who can ultimately heal the pain of rejection.
For those of us who know how much it hurts to be caught in a painful situation we didn’t create, the good news is that God loves us even if some others don’t. That is seen in the life of Jesus. Jesus attracted people who were hurting because Jesus loves hurting people.
In his Gospel Luke described a picture that showed the heart of Jesus: “Now the tax collectors and ‘sinners’ were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them’ ” (Luke 15:1-2). Crowding around Jesus were the hurting, and rejected members of society. Standing aside criticizing Him were the religious leaders. The motley crew that was rejected by the religious elite was welcomed and loved by Jesus.
Leah’s story reveals that she knew that only God could help a person who lived with rejection. Each time she had a child she talked to God about it. She even named one of her sons Judah, “Praise.” It isn’t reading too much into the story to see that her relationship with Jacob was not ideal, but her relationship with God was healthy. She found that God was Someone she could talk to honestly. She also trusted Him with the secrets of her heart and found his provision (He gave her six sons and one daughter) to be her source of hope.
What can anyone say to a person who is hurting? There really is only one message: God loves you. He doesn’t reject anyone, even tax collectors and “sinners.” That is how each of us was able to become part of His family. He simply loves us and, if we believe in Him, will break the pattern of rejection in our lives.
One day a beautiful, but very troubled, little girl came through the door of a Day Nursery. From the very beginning the nursery worker became captivated by this child who had so little and needed so much. The little four-year-old was suffering from decisions she didn’t make. She was born in prison after her mom had used marijuana, crack and cocaine her entire pregnancy.
The little girl was nonverbal and had very little control over her emotions or her behavior. It was clear that the girl’s progress would be a mighty battle. Whenever somebody approached her, she became violent for long periods and ended up in a fetal position on the floor. The nursery worker found herself praying for the tormented little girl day in and day out.
As months rolled on, a relationship developed between the woman and the child whose mother wasn’t able to care for her. The woman and the little girl worked through the challenges they faced, sometimes taking one step forward and four steps back. Daily, they sat in the big rocking chair in the Day Nursery office, swaying back and forth and back and forth. During those rocking sessions the compassionate attendant would sing “Jesus Loves Me.” The four-year-old always settled down and became very still at the melody. Though she never spoke, peace seemed to fill her face as she listened to the song.
One day after a very long battle the woman held her special little girl to again calm her fears and pain. In silence they rocked back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Then the girl looked up with tear-filled eyes and spoke for the first time ever. She said, “Sing to me about that Man who loves me.”
All of us have suffered from life. All of us have been misunderstood and, probably, rejected. The good news is that there is a Man who loves us. His name is Jesus and He not only welcomes us, but He heals all our wounds.
June 18, 2009
A Father’s Influence
This Sunday is Fathers Day. It must be said right away that being a father is not easy. Fathers are responsible for helping their children prepare for life. A father was looking at his son’s report card and commented, “One thing in your favor—with these grades you couldn’t possibly be cheating.”
Fathers are expected to face challenges with emotional stability. In a department store a young husband was minding the baby while his wife was making a purchase. The infant was wailing, but the father seemed quite unperturbed as he quietly said, “Easy now, Albert. Keep your temper, Albert.” A woman passing by remarked, “I must congratulate you! You seem to know just how to speak to a baby.” “Baby nothing!” the father replied, “My name is Albert.”
Sometimes a father’s position as leader of the family can be questioned. A child was asked, “Who’s the boss at your house?” The child responded, “My dad is the boss...until Grandma comes over. Then he’s just one of us.”
The Bible has a lot to say about the privilege of being a father. One of the great statements concerning a father’s influence comes from the book of Joshua. The children of Israel had entered the Promised Land and, under Joshua’s leadership, had possessed much of the land God promised them. Joshua was nearing the end of his life and called the nation together. There he issued a challenge that stands today as a principle for every father to take seriously. He proposed a decision that every person has to make, then he provided a personal example for every father. He made a choice for his entire family. “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, 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 24:14-15).
It is important for each of us to make right decisions. The choices we make determine the direction our lives will take. We all face the crossroads Joshua identified, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15).
As in Joshua’s day, we can decide to serve the gods of the past. How many of us perpetuate the sins, the habits and the lifestyles of past years. Too many live with the shame and the bondage of our family’s history. I know individuals who refuse to change because they think that they can’t change the way they are. They feel stuck with the way they grew up.
Don’t live with the stigma of the past. One grandson found a positive way to face his family history. He described the death of his grandfather: “He was a pioneer in interstate commerce. He was standing before a crowd of thousands when the platform gave way and he died.” His grandfather had been hanged as a horse thief.
Joshua pointed out that one of our options is to serve the gods of our present culture. For example, we teach evolution to our children. The theory of evolution has the subtle side-effect of undermining our sense of humanity. It says that we are just another step up in the animal world. Frank Peretti calls it, “From goo to you by way of the zoo.”
We teach kids to respect themselves and others after we try to convince them that they are meaningless accidents that resulted from chance combinations of natural forces. We take away order, meaning and value, then we wonder why our young destroy themselves.
Joshua’s message is especially important for fathers. After challenging each person to make a choice he, as a father, made a choice that influenced his entire family: “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
I have heard some parents say that they will not influence their children in making choices regarding religion. Why not? The ads will! The press will! The movies will! Their confused friends will! It isn’t fair or right for us to see our young ones left to be tossed around by the opinions of our shifting, and too often godless, culture. Joshua reminds us that fathers can make a choice that they and their families will serve the Lord.
Some decisions that shaped my life were made by my mom and dad. The most important moment in my upbringing was when Dad said, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
There is safety for a family that has a godly father. During the early stages of building the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco no safety devices were used and thirty men fell to their deaths. Then a safety net, costing $100,000 was put in place. Ten men fell into it and were saved. Studies showed that twenty-five percent more work was accomplished when workers felt secure. A godly dad is a safety net for his children.
Here is a critical lesson for each of us who are fathers. The decision must first be ours. “As for me.” That decision, dads, will influence the rest of your family.
Max Jukes lived in New York. He did not believe in Christ or in Christian training. He refused to take his children to church, even when they asked to go. He has had 1,026 descendants; 300 were sent to prison for an average term of thirteen years; 190 were public prostitutes; 680 were admitted alcoholics. An estimate of the cost of his family to the state of New York exceeds $420,000.
Jonathan Edwards lived in New York at the same time as Jukes. He loved the Lord and saw that his children were in church every Sunday. He has had 929 descendants, and of these 430 were ministers; 86 became university professors; 13 became university presidents; 75 authored good books; 7 were elected to the United States Congress. One was vice president of his nation. His family never cost the state one cent but has contributed immeasurably to our nation’ success.
Fathers can make a difference. Maybe some are thinking, “I come from a family like the Jukes family. I don’t have a chance.” Remember Joshua’s words. You can choose to serve the Lord. You can begin a new life of faith that will influence those who follow you. You can say, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Whatever our past has been, a godly family or a family that neglected God, we can change the future of those we love by beginning to serve God today.
This Sunday is Fathers Day. It must be said right away that being a father is not easy. Fathers are responsible for helping their children prepare for life. A father was looking at his son’s report card and commented, “One thing in your favor—with these grades you couldn’t possibly be cheating.”
Fathers are expected to face challenges with emotional stability. In a department store a young husband was minding the baby while his wife was making a purchase. The infant was wailing, but the father seemed quite unperturbed as he quietly said, “Easy now, Albert. Keep your temper, Albert.” A woman passing by remarked, “I must congratulate you! You seem to know just how to speak to a baby.” “Baby nothing!” the father replied, “My name is Albert.”
Sometimes a father’s position as leader of the family can be questioned. A child was asked, “Who’s the boss at your house?” The child responded, “My dad is the boss...until Grandma comes over. Then he’s just one of us.”
The Bible has a lot to say about the privilege of being a father. One of the great statements concerning a father’s influence comes from the book of Joshua. The children of Israel had entered the Promised Land and, under Joshua’s leadership, had possessed much of the land God promised them. Joshua was nearing the end of his life and called the nation together. There he issued a challenge that stands today as a principle for every father to take seriously. He proposed a decision that every person has to make, then he provided a personal example for every father. He made a choice for his entire family. “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, 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 24:14-15).
It is important for each of us to make right decisions. The choices we make determine the direction our lives will take. We all face the crossroads Joshua identified, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15).
As in Joshua’s day, we can decide to serve the gods of the past. How many of us perpetuate the sins, the habits and the lifestyles of past years. Too many live with the shame and the bondage of our family’s history. I know individuals who refuse to change because they think that they can’t change the way they are. They feel stuck with the way they grew up.
Don’t live with the stigma of the past. One grandson found a positive way to face his family history. He described the death of his grandfather: “He was a pioneer in interstate commerce. He was standing before a crowd of thousands when the platform gave way and he died.” His grandfather had been hanged as a horse thief.
Joshua pointed out that one of our options is to serve the gods of our present culture. For example, we teach evolution to our children. The theory of evolution has the subtle side-effect of undermining our sense of humanity. It says that we are just another step up in the animal world. Frank Peretti calls it, “From goo to you by way of the zoo.”
We teach kids to respect themselves and others after we try to convince them that they are meaningless accidents that resulted from chance combinations of natural forces. We take away order, meaning and value, then we wonder why our young destroy themselves.
Joshua’s message is especially important for fathers. After challenging each person to make a choice he, as a father, made a choice that influenced his entire family: “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
I have heard some parents say that they will not influence their children in making choices regarding religion. Why not? The ads will! The press will! The movies will! Their confused friends will! It isn’t fair or right for us to see our young ones left to be tossed around by the opinions of our shifting, and too often godless, culture. Joshua reminds us that fathers can make a choice that they and their families will serve the Lord.
Some decisions that shaped my life were made by my mom and dad. The most important moment in my upbringing was when Dad said, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
There is safety for a family that has a godly father. During the early stages of building the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco no safety devices were used and thirty men fell to their deaths. Then a safety net, costing $100,000 was put in place. Ten men fell into it and were saved. Studies showed that twenty-five percent more work was accomplished when workers felt secure. A godly dad is a safety net for his children.
Here is a critical lesson for each of us who are fathers. The decision must first be ours. “As for me.” That decision, dads, will influence the rest of your family.
Max Jukes lived in New York. He did not believe in Christ or in Christian training. He refused to take his children to church, even when they asked to go. He has had 1,026 descendants; 300 were sent to prison for an average term of thirteen years; 190 were public prostitutes; 680 were admitted alcoholics. An estimate of the cost of his family to the state of New York exceeds $420,000.
Jonathan Edwards lived in New York at the same time as Jukes. He loved the Lord and saw that his children were in church every Sunday. He has had 929 descendants, and of these 430 were ministers; 86 became university professors; 13 became university presidents; 75 authored good books; 7 were elected to the United States Congress. One was vice president of his nation. His family never cost the state one cent but has contributed immeasurably to our nation’ success.
Fathers can make a difference. Maybe some are thinking, “I come from a family like the Jukes family. I don’t have a chance.” Remember Joshua’s words. You can choose to serve the Lord. You can begin a new life of faith that will influence those who follow you. You can say, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Whatever our past has been, a godly family or a family that neglected God, we can change the future of those we love by beginning to serve God today.
June 11, 2009
Faith Creates Its Own Environment
My Old Testament hero, from the time I was a child and learned Bible stories, has been Abraham. His remarkable faith and courage in leaving his homeland and journeying to a distant place at God’s direction has inspired me. The apostle Paul recognized that Abraham’s faith stands as a model for all of us to follow when he wrote that Abraham “is the father of all who believe” (Romans 4:11). Abraham is an example of radical faith and obedience to the voice of God.
There are many remarkable lessons about faith in Abraham’s story. One of them has become an important standard for my life. In the book of Genesis, we are given an account of what happened when Abraham reached the Promised Land. “The LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev” (Genesis 12:7-9).
I am encouraged by the fact that God appears to us when faith has taken us to our limits. Abraham had gone as far as he could on the word God gave him in his hometown. Now he had arrived in a strange land where he was lonely, isolated and perhaps apprehensive among strong neighbors. God appeared again and said, “To your offspring I will give this land” (verse 7). God knows when we need to be reminded of His promise. Abraham was living in total dependency on what God had said. Now God spoke again.
Before he left home Abraham was told that he would have a son. It took twenty-five years and a miraculous intervention by God before he and Sarah had that son, Isaac. God sustained Abraham’s faith by reminding him again and again of the promise. In Genesis 12:7, 13:14-17; 15:4-5, 17:19-21 and 22:16-18 God kept Abraham’s faith alive by repeating His promise to Abraham.
Sometimes our faith stretches to its limits. We have been holding onto a promise as long as we can. God knows how and when to reinforce what He told us. A Scripture will remind us, someone will say something to us or in prayer we will remember. The important thing is that we never give up on God’s promises because God will never let us down.
When I was in Bible College one of my favorite teachers, Chester Roberson, pointed out a truth of this story that I have never forgotten. We know that God strengthened Abraham’s faith by restating the promise, but what did Abraham do to maintain his relationship with God while living in a pagan environment? Verse 8 reads, “From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.”
The life-changing truth of this verse is that Abraham pitched his tent but built his altar. The tent in which he lived was temporary. He could fold it, pack it up and take it with him wherever he went. His altar, though, was permanent. What a lesson! His house was temporary but the altar at which he worshiped was permanent. He “pitched his tent” and “he built an altar.”
The inhabitants of the land were pagans. According to Psalm 106:38: “They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood.” The gods they worshiped were cruel and bloodthirsty. Since we know that people become like whatever they worship, we don’t have to guess at the morality of the Canaanites. They would have been cruel and bloodthirsty as well.
Politically and militarily the Canaanites were an imposing civilization. Archaeologists have uncovered massive fortresses from Abraham’s time at Hazor and Megiddo.
In addition to the ungodly atmosphere in which he lived, there were climate problems when Abraham arrived in Canaan. “Now there was a famine in the land” (Genesis 12:10). With powerful enemies around him and a famine in the land Abraham may have felt, “God, are you kidding?” But, he didn’t react that way. He remained steady in his faith. How can that be when his pagan environment was not conducive to faith? The answer is made clear in Genesis 12. He had a permanent place to which he could go to find peace and reinforce his faith. He made certain that he maintained access to the presence of God.
Our culture doesn’t promote faith, either. We live in a world of bad news, negative press clippings, violence and corruption. We live in a world that doesn’t share our values. Prejudice, hatred, violence, selfishness and greed have created problems all around us. If you try to live on that environment alone your faith will die. That is why altars are important. They are places of refuge where we can be refreshed in God’s presence.
Altars are the places to which we can go to breathe the air of heaven in a world that doesn’t support spiritual life. The first diving bells were, literally, bells. They were inverted and dropped into the water trapping air inside. They generally held about a twenty-minute supply of air for divers. Divers would work under water and when they needed a breath they would return to the diving bell. Abraham’s altars were spiritual diving bells. He repeatedly left the environment of the surrounding culture to go to an altar and catch his breath.
When men landed on the moon, they wore space suits that contained an atmosphere inside which supported life. Abraham’s altars were a self-contained environment that supported life in the midst of a culture that worked against faith. Make sure that you have a place to go where you can breathe heaven’s air.
Your altar may be your car. Listening to praise songs or biblical teaching while riding somewhere can create an environment that strengthens faith. It may be that quiet time when you open God’s Word and allow Him to speak to you. It is certainly a worship service at your church. Altars are where we meet God. If we don’t have them this world’s cynicism and unbelief may suffocate us. When we can’t breathe the air of the culture around us because it robs us of our faith, we can have an altar where we go to refresh ourselves. Where we live, Abraham taught us, is temporary. It is important that our altars are permanent. We can’t live without them.
My Old Testament hero, from the time I was a child and learned Bible stories, has been Abraham. His remarkable faith and courage in leaving his homeland and journeying to a distant place at God’s direction has inspired me. The apostle Paul recognized that Abraham’s faith stands as a model for all of us to follow when he wrote that Abraham “is the father of all who believe” (Romans 4:11). Abraham is an example of radical faith and obedience to the voice of God.
There are many remarkable lessons about faith in Abraham’s story. One of them has become an important standard for my life. In the book of Genesis, we are given an account of what happened when Abraham reached the Promised Land. “The LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev” (Genesis 12:7-9).
I am encouraged by the fact that God appears to us when faith has taken us to our limits. Abraham had gone as far as he could on the word God gave him in his hometown. Now he had arrived in a strange land where he was lonely, isolated and perhaps apprehensive among strong neighbors. God appeared again and said, “To your offspring I will give this land” (verse 7). God knows when we need to be reminded of His promise. Abraham was living in total dependency on what God had said. Now God spoke again.
Before he left home Abraham was told that he would have a son. It took twenty-five years and a miraculous intervention by God before he and Sarah had that son, Isaac. God sustained Abraham’s faith by reminding him again and again of the promise. In Genesis 12:7, 13:14-17; 15:4-5, 17:19-21 and 22:16-18 God kept Abraham’s faith alive by repeating His promise to Abraham.
Sometimes our faith stretches to its limits. We have been holding onto a promise as long as we can. God knows how and when to reinforce what He told us. A Scripture will remind us, someone will say something to us or in prayer we will remember. The important thing is that we never give up on God’s promises because God will never let us down.
When I was in Bible College one of my favorite teachers, Chester Roberson, pointed out a truth of this story that I have never forgotten. We know that God strengthened Abraham’s faith by restating the promise, but what did Abraham do to maintain his relationship with God while living in a pagan environment? Verse 8 reads, “From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.”
The life-changing truth of this verse is that Abraham pitched his tent but built his altar. The tent in which he lived was temporary. He could fold it, pack it up and take it with him wherever he went. His altar, though, was permanent. What a lesson! His house was temporary but the altar at which he worshiped was permanent. He “pitched his tent” and “he built an altar.”
The inhabitants of the land were pagans. According to Psalm 106:38: “They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood.” The gods they worshiped were cruel and bloodthirsty. Since we know that people become like whatever they worship, we don’t have to guess at the morality of the Canaanites. They would have been cruel and bloodthirsty as well.
Politically and militarily the Canaanites were an imposing civilization. Archaeologists have uncovered massive fortresses from Abraham’s time at Hazor and Megiddo.
In addition to the ungodly atmosphere in which he lived, there were climate problems when Abraham arrived in Canaan. “Now there was a famine in the land” (Genesis 12:10). With powerful enemies around him and a famine in the land Abraham may have felt, “God, are you kidding?” But, he didn’t react that way. He remained steady in his faith. How can that be when his pagan environment was not conducive to faith? The answer is made clear in Genesis 12. He had a permanent place to which he could go to find peace and reinforce his faith. He made certain that he maintained access to the presence of God.
Our culture doesn’t promote faith, either. We live in a world of bad news, negative press clippings, violence and corruption. We live in a world that doesn’t share our values. Prejudice, hatred, violence, selfishness and greed have created problems all around us. If you try to live on that environment alone your faith will die. That is why altars are important. They are places of refuge where we can be refreshed in God’s presence.
Altars are the places to which we can go to breathe the air of heaven in a world that doesn’t support spiritual life. The first diving bells were, literally, bells. They were inverted and dropped into the water trapping air inside. They generally held about a twenty-minute supply of air for divers. Divers would work under water and when they needed a breath they would return to the diving bell. Abraham’s altars were spiritual diving bells. He repeatedly left the environment of the surrounding culture to go to an altar and catch his breath.
When men landed on the moon, they wore space suits that contained an atmosphere inside which supported life. Abraham’s altars were a self-contained environment that supported life in the midst of a culture that worked against faith. Make sure that you have a place to go where you can breathe heaven’s air.
Your altar may be your car. Listening to praise songs or biblical teaching while riding somewhere can create an environment that strengthens faith. It may be that quiet time when you open God’s Word and allow Him to speak to you. It is certainly a worship service at your church. Altars are where we meet God. If we don’t have them this world’s cynicism and unbelief may suffocate us. When we can’t breathe the air of the culture around us because it robs us of our faith, we can have an altar where we go to refresh ourselves. Where we live, Abraham taught us, is temporary. It is important that our altars are permanent. We can’t live without them.
June 4, 2009
Overflow With Hope
One of my wife, Gwen’s, favorite Bible verses is found in Paul’s letter to the Romans: “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” (Romans 15:13). This verse is a reminder that any hope we have is a gift from God. We can’t work it up by our own effort. It is the Holy Spirit who brings us hope from “the God of hope.” Christians should be the most hopeful people in the world because our God is a “God of hope.”
As I was reading this verse in my devotional time I saw a relationship between hope, joy and peace. Joy and peace are byproducts hope. They are like barometers that predict the weather. Looking at a barometer gives us an idea of what weather fronts are approaching. In the same way, joy and peace are gauges that help me measure my levels of hope. They are early-warning systems for detecting a loss of hope.
I’m not unlike many people in my response to the loss of joy or peace. I try to find relief in amusement or denial. That is one of the reasons entertainers in our society make such an obscene amount of money. People looking for joy and peace are entertained by multi-millionaire celebrities and athletes. When we lack joy or peace we look for substitutes. Sadly, all of us have found that the substitutes don’t work. When the party’s over the pain returns.
Paul, in Romans 15:13 suggests that there is a better answer to loss of joy and peace. He encourages us to look to hope as the ultimate solution to joylessness and unrest. He further explains that hope only comes to us through a relationship with God because it is a gift from God. Even better, he shows that this gift can reach us because of the Holy Spirit’s powerful delivery system.
It is a sad thing to lose our joy. A man had just had his annual physical exam and was waiting for the doctor’s initial report. After a few minutes the doctor came in with his charts in his hand and said: “There’s no reason why you can’t live a completely normal life as long as you don’t try to enjoy it.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.”
No one wants to live without joy. It’s an even sadder thing to try false solutions that don’t work. If the apostle Paul is right, and he is, my answer to lack of joy and lack of peace is in restoring my relationship with the God of peace and making sure that the connection with the Holy Spirit is in working order. That will keep me supplied with hope and will sustain my joy and my peace.
Hope doesn’t mean that circumstances are always what we want them to be. It does mean that we have an attitude that rises above our circumstances and points us toward tomorrow’s victory.
One of my preaching heroes is Arthur Gossip. He was a British chaplain during World War I and pastored, after the war, in Glasgow, Scotland. In1927 his wife died unexpectedly. When he stood in the pulpit the next Sunday he preached a classic sermon: “When Life Tumbles In, What Then?” In that sermon Gossip compared life to watching a plane pass through the sky during wartime. There you are, lying on your back watching a plane fly gracefully across a brilliant sunlit blue sky when all of a sudden it is blown apart by gunfire and falls to earth a tumbling, tangled mess of metal. Only on this occasion the gunfire was the tragically unexpected death of his beloved wife. Gossip went on to explain that he didn’t understand this life, but what he did know was that during this darkest period of his life he needed his faith more than ever. His words expressed clearly the attitude of every one of us who has faced a crisis: “You people in the sunshine may believe the faith, but we in the shadow must believe it. We have nothing else.” A. J. Gossip discovered what many of us have learned: without faith there is no hope.
We know that without hope life is almost unbearable. The late Christian writer, Jamie Buckingham, quoted Hugo Gryn, a London rabbi, in Charisma magazine. In an article in the German magazine, Der Morgen, Hugo explained an incident from World War II. He wrote, “It was the cold winter of 1944 and although we had nothing like calendars, my father who was a fellow prisoner there, took me and some of our friends to a corner of the barrack. He announced it was the eve of Hanukkah, produced a curious-shaped clay bowl, and began to light a wick immersed in his precious, but now melted, margarine ration. Before he could recite the blessing, I protested at this waste of food. He said, ‘You and I have seen that it is possible to live up to three weeks without food. We once lived almost three days without water. But you cannot live properly for three minutes without hope.’ ”
In Romans 15:13 the apostle Paul made an important connection for us. The God of hope, Who supplies us with hope by His Holy Spirit, sustains our joy and our peace. As long as I am connected to the God of hope I will have a joyful outlook on tomorrow and will have peace in the deepest levels of my heart.
That kind of hope can survive anything. William Sangster, a London pastor, reported that radium was lost in a hospital in London. It was found after it had gone through an incinerator, still sending out its rays. Hope that comes from God will pass through the fire and keep on sending out its rays. The evidence that it is still working are the joy and peace of a believer who is living above the clouds of present circumstances.
The exciting part of all this is that the source of our hope, joy and peace is God Who never fails. Sometimes we are reminded of this by others who have a word of wisdom when we are floundering. Gladys Aylward, a missionary to China during World War II, was forced to flee Yangcheng when the Japanese army invaded her city. Unwilling to leave her orphans behind, she and one assistant led one hundred of them over the mountains toward free China.
In their book, The Hidden Price of Greatness, Ray Besson and Ranelda Mack Hunsicker describe what happened: “During Gladys’s harrowing journey out of war-torn Yangcheng...she grappled with despair as never before. After passing a sleepless night, she faced the morning with no hope of reaching safety. A 13-year-old girl in the group reminded her of their much-loved story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. “ ‘But I am not Moses,’ Gladys cried in desperation. ‘Of course you aren’t,’ the girl said, ‘but Jehovah is still God!’ ”
Life brings challenges to all of us. From time to time each of us faces his or her own inadequacy. However, there is good news. “Jehovah is still God.” And, the apostle Paul reminds us that He is the God of hope. There’s not much better news than that.
One of my wife, Gwen’s, favorite Bible verses is found in Paul’s letter to the Romans: “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” (Romans 15:13). This verse is a reminder that any hope we have is a gift from God. We can’t work it up by our own effort. It is the Holy Spirit who brings us hope from “the God of hope.” Christians should be the most hopeful people in the world because our God is a “God of hope.”
As I was reading this verse in my devotional time I saw a relationship between hope, joy and peace. Joy and peace are byproducts hope. They are like barometers that predict the weather. Looking at a barometer gives us an idea of what weather fronts are approaching. In the same way, joy and peace are gauges that help me measure my levels of hope. They are early-warning systems for detecting a loss of hope.
I’m not unlike many people in my response to the loss of joy or peace. I try to find relief in amusement or denial. That is one of the reasons entertainers in our society make such an obscene amount of money. People looking for joy and peace are entertained by multi-millionaire celebrities and athletes. When we lack joy or peace we look for substitutes. Sadly, all of us have found that the substitutes don’t work. When the party’s over the pain returns.
Paul, in Romans 15:13 suggests that there is a better answer to loss of joy and peace. He encourages us to look to hope as the ultimate solution to joylessness and unrest. He further explains that hope only comes to us through a relationship with God because it is a gift from God. Even better, he shows that this gift can reach us because of the Holy Spirit’s powerful delivery system.
It is a sad thing to lose our joy. A man had just had his annual physical exam and was waiting for the doctor’s initial report. After a few minutes the doctor came in with his charts in his hand and said: “There’s no reason why you can’t live a completely normal life as long as you don’t try to enjoy it.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.”
No one wants to live without joy. It’s an even sadder thing to try false solutions that don’t work. If the apostle Paul is right, and he is, my answer to lack of joy and lack of peace is in restoring my relationship with the God of peace and making sure that the connection with the Holy Spirit is in working order. That will keep me supplied with hope and will sustain my joy and my peace.
Hope doesn’t mean that circumstances are always what we want them to be. It does mean that we have an attitude that rises above our circumstances and points us toward tomorrow’s victory.
One of my preaching heroes is Arthur Gossip. He was a British chaplain during World War I and pastored, after the war, in Glasgow, Scotland. In1927 his wife died unexpectedly. When he stood in the pulpit the next Sunday he preached a classic sermon: “When Life Tumbles In, What Then?” In that sermon Gossip compared life to watching a plane pass through the sky during wartime. There you are, lying on your back watching a plane fly gracefully across a brilliant sunlit blue sky when all of a sudden it is blown apart by gunfire and falls to earth a tumbling, tangled mess of metal. Only on this occasion the gunfire was the tragically unexpected death of his beloved wife. Gossip went on to explain that he didn’t understand this life, but what he did know was that during this darkest period of his life he needed his faith more than ever. His words expressed clearly the attitude of every one of us who has faced a crisis: “You people in the sunshine may believe the faith, but we in the shadow must believe it. We have nothing else.” A. J. Gossip discovered what many of us have learned: without faith there is no hope.
We know that without hope life is almost unbearable. The late Christian writer, Jamie Buckingham, quoted Hugo Gryn, a London rabbi, in Charisma magazine. In an article in the German magazine, Der Morgen, Hugo explained an incident from World War II. He wrote, “It was the cold winter of 1944 and although we had nothing like calendars, my father who was a fellow prisoner there, took me and some of our friends to a corner of the barrack. He announced it was the eve of Hanukkah, produced a curious-shaped clay bowl, and began to light a wick immersed in his precious, but now melted, margarine ration. Before he could recite the blessing, I protested at this waste of food. He said, ‘You and I have seen that it is possible to live up to three weeks without food. We once lived almost three days without water. But you cannot live properly for three minutes without hope.’ ”
In Romans 15:13 the apostle Paul made an important connection for us. The God of hope, Who supplies us with hope by His Holy Spirit, sustains our joy and our peace. As long as I am connected to the God of hope I will have a joyful outlook on tomorrow and will have peace in the deepest levels of my heart.
That kind of hope can survive anything. William Sangster, a London pastor, reported that radium was lost in a hospital in London. It was found after it had gone through an incinerator, still sending out its rays. Hope that comes from God will pass through the fire and keep on sending out its rays. The evidence that it is still working are the joy and peace of a believer who is living above the clouds of present circumstances.
The exciting part of all this is that the source of our hope, joy and peace is God Who never fails. Sometimes we are reminded of this by others who have a word of wisdom when we are floundering. Gladys Aylward, a missionary to China during World War II, was forced to flee Yangcheng when the Japanese army invaded her city. Unwilling to leave her orphans behind, she and one assistant led one hundred of them over the mountains toward free China.
In their book, The Hidden Price of Greatness, Ray Besson and Ranelda Mack Hunsicker describe what happened: “During Gladys’s harrowing journey out of war-torn Yangcheng...she grappled with despair as never before. After passing a sleepless night, she faced the morning with no hope of reaching safety. A 13-year-old girl in the group reminded her of their much-loved story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. “ ‘But I am not Moses,’ Gladys cried in desperation. ‘Of course you aren’t,’ the girl said, ‘but Jehovah is still God!’ ”
Life brings challenges to all of us. From time to time each of us faces his or her own inadequacy. However, there is good news. “Jehovah is still God.” And, the apostle Paul reminds us that He is the God of hope. There’s not much better news than that.
May 21, 2009
Humility
A cartoon in Leadership magazine pictured a pastor standing behind his pulpit. He was saying, “My sermon today is on humility, and in my opinion, it’s one of the finest pieces ever written.”
Being humble is a challenge to anyone. Any success at all becomes a potential temptation to take the credit for ourselves. When H. A. Ironside, a former pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, was a young Christian he said that he was convicted about his lack of humility. He went to an elder in his church who gave him a remedy. He advised him to march through the business district of Chicago at lunchtime wearing a sandwich board, shouting the Scripture verses written on the sandwich board for all to hear.
Dr. Ironside said that he did that and later that day lost the benefit of the experience. He thought to himself, “I’ll bet there’s not another man in Chicago who would have done that.”
This week I attended the United Pastors Network Conference that was held at Pastor Dale O’Shields’ church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Pastor O’Shields has established a great church there. Ten thousand individuals attend his services each week. He conducts five services each weekend in his immense facilities.
Each pastor who spoke led a church with no less than 5,000 in attendance. It was a setting in which most pastors would have been intimidated. We weren’t. Even though the speakers had churches far larger than those of most of the pastors in attendance, the preachers who spoke mingled with the other pastors and did everything they could do to put all of us in attendance at ease. We felt as if they were on our side as they shared principles that sustained their personal relationships with God that had led to the success of their ministries. None of their presentations focused on the mechanics of church-building. The pastors focused on the core values of their relationships with God and people. They honored the spiritual fathers who had shaped their lives and they honored God.
As we listened we learned about passion for God and passion for the people we serve. That is the remarkable thing—we didn’t just listen, we learned. The gentleness and humility of those pastors was noteworthy. The morning after the conference I woke up with a verse running through my head: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). The part of that verse that reverberated through my mind was “learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.” We learn from teachers who are gentle and humble.
The opposites of Jesus’ attitude are harshness that isn’t gentle and haughtiness that isn’t humble. Jesus wanted us to know that one reason we learn from Him is His gentleness and humility. That is still a winning combination.
Lawrence Richards, in his book of word studies, describes the Greek word translated “gentle.” He explains that it is the opposite of “an angry harshness that grows out of personal pride and a dominating selfishness.” Jesus is the most unselfish person who ever lived. Everything He did was in honor of His Father and for our good. He wanted us to know that His attitude was a key reason for our learning from Him.
A music lover met Johannes Brahms, the great composer. He asked him, “Would you write some music of a great masterpiece and sign it so I will always have a memory of this moment?” Brahms scribbled the first bars of “The Blue Danube” by Johann Strauss. He wrote under the music, “Unfortunately not by me.”
A truly humble man is hard to find, yet God delights to honor such selfless people. Booker T. Washington, the renowned black educator, was an outstanding example of this truth. Shortly after he took over the presidency of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, he was walking in an exclusive section of town when he was stopped by a wealthy white woman. Not knowing the famous Mr. Washington by sight, she asked if he would like to earn a few dollars by chopping wood for her.
Because he had no pressing business at the moment, Professor Washington smiled, rolled up his sleeves, and proceeded to do the humble chore she had requested. When he was finished, he carried the logs into the house and stacked them by the fireplace.
A little girl recognized him and later revealed his identity to the lady. The next morning the embarrassed woman went to see Mr. Washington in his office at the Institute and apologized profusely.
“It’s perfectly all right, Madam,” he replied. “Occasionally I enjoy a little manual labor. Besides, it's always a delight to do something for a friend.” She shook his hand warmly and assured him that his meek and gracious attitude had endeared him and his work to her heart. Not long afterward she showed her admiration by persuading some wealthy acquaintances to join her in donating thousands of dollars to the Tuskegee Institute.
Each of us wants to influence others. There are many ways to do that, but the qualities that make others want to learn from us are the same qualities Jesus exhibited: gentleness and humility. At Pastor O’Shields’ conference we all learned because we saw in the speakers the same qualities we see in Jesus. And Jesus said it best, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.”
A cartoon in Leadership magazine pictured a pastor standing behind his pulpit. He was saying, “My sermon today is on humility, and in my opinion, it’s one of the finest pieces ever written.”
Being humble is a challenge to anyone. Any success at all becomes a potential temptation to take the credit for ourselves. When H. A. Ironside, a former pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, was a young Christian he said that he was convicted about his lack of humility. He went to an elder in his church who gave him a remedy. He advised him to march through the business district of Chicago at lunchtime wearing a sandwich board, shouting the Scripture verses written on the sandwich board for all to hear.
Dr. Ironside said that he did that and later that day lost the benefit of the experience. He thought to himself, “I’ll bet there’s not another man in Chicago who would have done that.”
This week I attended the United Pastors Network Conference that was held at Pastor Dale O’Shields’ church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Pastor O’Shields has established a great church there. Ten thousand individuals attend his services each week. He conducts five services each weekend in his immense facilities.
Each pastor who spoke led a church with no less than 5,000 in attendance. It was a setting in which most pastors would have been intimidated. We weren’t. Even though the speakers had churches far larger than those of most of the pastors in attendance, the preachers who spoke mingled with the other pastors and did everything they could do to put all of us in attendance at ease. We felt as if they were on our side as they shared principles that sustained their personal relationships with God that had led to the success of their ministries. None of their presentations focused on the mechanics of church-building. The pastors focused on the core values of their relationships with God and people. They honored the spiritual fathers who had shaped their lives and they honored God.
As we listened we learned about passion for God and passion for the people we serve. That is the remarkable thing—we didn’t just listen, we learned. The gentleness and humility of those pastors was noteworthy. The morning after the conference I woke up with a verse running through my head: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). The part of that verse that reverberated through my mind was “learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.” We learn from teachers who are gentle and humble.
The opposites of Jesus’ attitude are harshness that isn’t gentle and haughtiness that isn’t humble. Jesus wanted us to know that one reason we learn from Him is His gentleness and humility. That is still a winning combination.
Lawrence Richards, in his book of word studies, describes the Greek word translated “gentle.” He explains that it is the opposite of “an angry harshness that grows out of personal pride and a dominating selfishness.” Jesus is the most unselfish person who ever lived. Everything He did was in honor of His Father and for our good. He wanted us to know that His attitude was a key reason for our learning from Him.
A music lover met Johannes Brahms, the great composer. He asked him, “Would you write some music of a great masterpiece and sign it so I will always have a memory of this moment?” Brahms scribbled the first bars of “The Blue Danube” by Johann Strauss. He wrote under the music, “Unfortunately not by me.”
A truly humble man is hard to find, yet God delights to honor such selfless people. Booker T. Washington, the renowned black educator, was an outstanding example of this truth. Shortly after he took over the presidency of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, he was walking in an exclusive section of town when he was stopped by a wealthy white woman. Not knowing the famous Mr. Washington by sight, she asked if he would like to earn a few dollars by chopping wood for her.
Because he had no pressing business at the moment, Professor Washington smiled, rolled up his sleeves, and proceeded to do the humble chore she had requested. When he was finished, he carried the logs into the house and stacked them by the fireplace.
A little girl recognized him and later revealed his identity to the lady. The next morning the embarrassed woman went to see Mr. Washington in his office at the Institute and apologized profusely.
“It’s perfectly all right, Madam,” he replied. “Occasionally I enjoy a little manual labor. Besides, it's always a delight to do something for a friend.” She shook his hand warmly and assured him that his meek and gracious attitude had endeared him and his work to her heart. Not long afterward she showed her admiration by persuading some wealthy acquaintances to join her in donating thousands of dollars to the Tuskegee Institute.
Each of us wants to influence others. There are many ways to do that, but the qualities that make others want to learn from us are the same qualities Jesus exhibited: gentleness and humility. At Pastor O’Shields’ conference we all learned because we saw in the speakers the same qualities we see in Jesus. And Jesus said it best, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.”
May 14, 2009
Sowing and Reaping
A wealthy Texan was in the habit of giving his dad unique gifts on Father’s Day. One year it was lessons on hang-gliding. The year before that it was the entire record collection of Slim Whitman’s hits. But this past year he felt he had outdone himself. He purchased a rare kind of talking bird that could speak five languages and sing, “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” while standing on one foot. The talented bird cost ten thousand dollars, but he felt it was worth every penny. This would be a Father’s Day gift his dad would never forget. A week after Father’s Day he called his father. “Dad, how did you like the bird?” His father responded, “It was delicious!”
There are occasions when all of us want to give. I am encouraged by the fact that the Bible gives a promise to those who are willing to sow into the lives of others. The apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians: “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:6-8).
The principle of sowing and reaping is so certain that it works for even the slightest effort. “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.” I have been tempted to think, when I don’t have much to sow, that I will wait until I have a large amount to contribute. That kind of thinking will rob any of us of the joy of reaping. If we sow, the Bible says, we will reap.
Though Paul is talking about money, the principle extends far beyond our finances. If we sow friendliness we will reap friends. If we sow kindness we will reap kindness. It is the principle behind one of the Beatitudes in the fifth chapter of Matthew: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (5:7).
The traffic where we live, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, is extremely heavy in the summer. Seven million tourists visit us each year. If you happen to be turning onto our main thoroughfare between May and September, you can wait a long time if you don’t have a stoplight to break the traffic. I have watched my wife, Gwen, practice this principle. She lets people pull in front of her from a side street. Consequently, I have seen time and time again some motorist allow Gwen access from a side street. She openly confesses, when she lets a car cut in, “I’m sowing because I’ll need to reap sometime.”
If God has blessed us with large resources it makes it possible for our sowing to not only bless us, but bring great benefit to others. In June 1981 a 67-year-old man stood eyeball to eyeball in front of a graduating class of sixth-grade students in a poverty-stricken Harlem neighborhood. He struggled to maintain the interest and attention of the predominantly African-American and Latino audience. Historically, statistics showed the majority of these students would exit the education system long before they graduated from high school.
“You must dream,” he began. “Dream about how things could be...what you want your life to be. Don’t allow the ghetto to engulf your education and your thinking. Stay in school. Get your high school education, and I will...”
He paused, wondering what he would actually do. A sense of urgency struck this man who had attended this very school many years earlier. An exceptionally bright student, he had graduated from high school at age fourteen. Without the funds to attend college he had gone to work in a restaurant.
One night a man at one of his tables asked, “Why aren’t you in college?” The customer was a trustee at Swarthmore College. A meeting was arranged with the Dean of Students and the young man began his college education with a full scholarship.
Now a multi-millionaire, what could he say to these children that would make a difference in their lives? He made a quick decision as to what he would do. “Get your high school education, and I will...I will give you each a college scholarship!” Eugene Lang implanted hope in their lives, and decided to sow generously into the lives of these underprivileged young people. His “I Have a Dream” program has made it possible for kids to make their dreams come true. Out of that sixth grade class normally twenty-five percent of them would have graduated from high school and none would have gone to college. Because of Eugene Lang’s generosity 48 of 52 graduated from high school and 40 of them went to college.
It might be easy for us to think, “I’d be generous if I were a multimillionaire.” But, generosity doesn’t depend on our having huge resources. It is behavior that can mark our lives even when we’re young and have limited funds. It is an attitude more than it is an amount.
Many years ago, a 10-year-old boy walked up to the counter of a soda shop and climbed onto a stool. He caught the eye of the waitress and asked, “How much is an ice cream sundae?”
“Fifty cents,” the waitress replied.
The boy reached into his pockets, pulled out a handful of change, and began counting. The waitress frowned impatiently. After all, she had other customers to wait on. The boy squinted up at the waitress. “How much is a dish of plain ice cream?” he asked.
The waitress sighed and rolled her eyes. “Thirty-five cents,” she said with a note of irritation.
Again, the boy counted his coins. At last, he said, “I’ll have the plain ice cream, please.” He put a quarter and two nickels on the counter.
The waitress took the coins, brought the ice cream, and walked away. About ten minutes later, she returned and found the ice cream dish empty. The boy was gone. She picked up the empty dish—then swallowed hard. There on the counter, next to the wet spot where the dish had been, were two nickels and five pennies. The boy had had enough for a sundae, but he had ordered plain ice cream so he could leave a tip.
Whether we are multimillionaires who can influence the lives of hundreds with one gift, or have fifty cents in change in our pockets, we can be generous. That’s not throwing our money away. The Bible calls it sowing and promises that if we sow we will also reap.
A wealthy Texan was in the habit of giving his dad unique gifts on Father’s Day. One year it was lessons on hang-gliding. The year before that it was the entire record collection of Slim Whitman’s hits. But this past year he felt he had outdone himself. He purchased a rare kind of talking bird that could speak five languages and sing, “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” while standing on one foot. The talented bird cost ten thousand dollars, but he felt it was worth every penny. This would be a Father’s Day gift his dad would never forget. A week after Father’s Day he called his father. “Dad, how did you like the bird?” His father responded, “It was delicious!”
There are occasions when all of us want to give. I am encouraged by the fact that the Bible gives a promise to those who are willing to sow into the lives of others. The apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians: “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:6-8).
The principle of sowing and reaping is so certain that it works for even the slightest effort. “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.” I have been tempted to think, when I don’t have much to sow, that I will wait until I have a large amount to contribute. That kind of thinking will rob any of us of the joy of reaping. If we sow, the Bible says, we will reap.
Though Paul is talking about money, the principle extends far beyond our finances. If we sow friendliness we will reap friends. If we sow kindness we will reap kindness. It is the principle behind one of the Beatitudes in the fifth chapter of Matthew: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (5:7).
The traffic where we live, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, is extremely heavy in the summer. Seven million tourists visit us each year. If you happen to be turning onto our main thoroughfare between May and September, you can wait a long time if you don’t have a stoplight to break the traffic. I have watched my wife, Gwen, practice this principle. She lets people pull in front of her from a side street. Consequently, I have seen time and time again some motorist allow Gwen access from a side street. She openly confesses, when she lets a car cut in, “I’m sowing because I’ll need to reap sometime.”
If God has blessed us with large resources it makes it possible for our sowing to not only bless us, but bring great benefit to others. In June 1981 a 67-year-old man stood eyeball to eyeball in front of a graduating class of sixth-grade students in a poverty-stricken Harlem neighborhood. He struggled to maintain the interest and attention of the predominantly African-American and Latino audience. Historically, statistics showed the majority of these students would exit the education system long before they graduated from high school.
“You must dream,” he began. “Dream about how things could be...what you want your life to be. Don’t allow the ghetto to engulf your education and your thinking. Stay in school. Get your high school education, and I will...”
He paused, wondering what he would actually do. A sense of urgency struck this man who had attended this very school many years earlier. An exceptionally bright student, he had graduated from high school at age fourteen. Without the funds to attend college he had gone to work in a restaurant.
One night a man at one of his tables asked, “Why aren’t you in college?” The customer was a trustee at Swarthmore College. A meeting was arranged with the Dean of Students and the young man began his college education with a full scholarship.
Now a multi-millionaire, what could he say to these children that would make a difference in their lives? He made a quick decision as to what he would do. “Get your high school education, and I will...I will give you each a college scholarship!” Eugene Lang implanted hope in their lives, and decided to sow generously into the lives of these underprivileged young people. His “I Have a Dream” program has made it possible for kids to make their dreams come true. Out of that sixth grade class normally twenty-five percent of them would have graduated from high school and none would have gone to college. Because of Eugene Lang’s generosity 48 of 52 graduated from high school and 40 of them went to college.
It might be easy for us to think, “I’d be generous if I were a multimillionaire.” But, generosity doesn’t depend on our having huge resources. It is behavior that can mark our lives even when we’re young and have limited funds. It is an attitude more than it is an amount.
Many years ago, a 10-year-old boy walked up to the counter of a soda shop and climbed onto a stool. He caught the eye of the waitress and asked, “How much is an ice cream sundae?”
“Fifty cents,” the waitress replied.
The boy reached into his pockets, pulled out a handful of change, and began counting. The waitress frowned impatiently. After all, she had other customers to wait on. The boy squinted up at the waitress. “How much is a dish of plain ice cream?” he asked.
The waitress sighed and rolled her eyes. “Thirty-five cents,” she said with a note of irritation.
Again, the boy counted his coins. At last, he said, “I’ll have the plain ice cream, please.” He put a quarter and two nickels on the counter.
The waitress took the coins, brought the ice cream, and walked away. About ten minutes later, she returned and found the ice cream dish empty. The boy was gone. She picked up the empty dish—then swallowed hard. There on the counter, next to the wet spot where the dish had been, were two nickels and five pennies. The boy had had enough for a sundae, but he had ordered plain ice cream so he could leave a tip.
Whether we are multimillionaires who can influence the lives of hundreds with one gift, or have fifty cents in change in our pockets, we can be generous. That’s not throwing our money away. The Bible calls it sowing and promises that if we sow we will also reap.
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