Living On The

Thin Edge

Enjoying Life Out On the Thin Edge

Jerry Selvidge

Front Cover – Jake McDermitt

Jerry Selvidge

Living On The Thin Edge

Editor Judy Shannon

Contents

Difficult Times              4

1              Living on the Thin Edge              15

2              The Sea Gull              31

3              The Power of a Positive Confession              42

4              I Can Sleep When the Wind Blows              58

5              He Failed to Restrain Them               75

6              A Letter from a Gambler              92

7               Jesus Adds Life—Pass it On!               98

8              PLAN              109

9              Champions Are Born Again              120

10              Two is Better Than One              134

11              The Love Trailer              146

12              Knocked Down-Not Knocked Out              151

Difficult Times

These are “difficult times “as described by Paul in 2 Timothy 3:1-6 for all the reasons he listed. For most of us, however, difficult times are only a matter of perspective. For example, my folks lived through the Great Depression. I once asked Dad what it was like, providing for a family during such hard times. He and my Mother raised strawberries around the Stevens Creek area in Central Arkansas. Like many farmers, caught in the jaws of a sluggish economy and the crushing effect of years without sufficient rainfall, they were forced to mortgage their mules in order to make a crop. When their crops failed, their mule team was taken, leaving them with no means to cultivate their farm. Dad’s response to my question surprised me.”Son, I didn’t really know when the depression started or when it ended. It all seemed the same to me.”

Life was just as hard before the depression as it was during. They learned how to live during hard times, not just exist. They knew how to “live on the thin edge” and enjoy it. A lot of people are living on the thin edge, but few enjoy it. Christian families have been promised the “abundant life” Jo. 10:10,) but have never discovered the joy of the abundance we have in Christ Jesus that goes beyond material blessings.

In my many years preaching and counseling, I have seen families who had little in terms of this worlds goods, but who had learned the secret of being content. Generally, they are generous givers, men and women of faith and prayer warriors, trusting God for everything in life. They are also people who have learned to live within their means, who avoid credit

spending, and who are content with what they have.  These are people who enjoy the simple things of life.

We have often lived either on the thin edge of life or within a stone’s throw of breaking through and tumbling in to the water. It is a life-style inherited from my folks, and after 71 years, I do not regret the times we have spent living on the thin edge.

I remember several little sayings and quips popular in my child hood. For example, when Dad was asked how he was feeling, he would often say, “Like a million dollars.”I have borrowed his reply and added my own commentary. My response in these latter years has been, “Like a million dollars, mostly spent,” because of two realities that have become a part of my thinking. First, at the very best, most of my life has already been lived. In addition, averaging out what I have earned over the years, I am sure I have earned close to a million dollars, and it is mostly spent! It really isn’t how much we have earned; it is how we have used what God has given to us. There are some key truths that define our lives, determining the paths we travel and the amount of joy we experience while on those paths. Words like faith, vision courage, joy, contentment, relationship and love for just a few.

That is why I wrote this book, first in 1978, during a time of great financial reversal in our lives, and now some 36 years later, at a time when I can look back with introspection at what God brought us through. Let me give just a short explanation.

The church where I preached had an encounter with God in which we saw hundreds brought to salvation and many hundreds of Christians revived through repentance. That ministry is still having impact

on people 39 years later. It was a time of great joy as passionate Christians worked together to carry the Gospel to our tri-county area in South Haven, Michigan. God used one of our families, Steve and Judy Shannon, to bring this revival to our church..

As we grew numerically, so did my greed to see greater numbers accompanied by feelings of inadequacy as we faced challenges in helping people grow that seemed much bigger than we were equipped to handle.

I heard a person preach about blowing up a church like a hot balloon with little but hot air on the inside. Our balloon was growing bigger and bigger leading me to wonder how long it would take for the balloon to burst. Sunday was always the day of accountability and Monday morning the day of reckoning where we examined successes of the past week and pleaded with God to bring greater success the next week. Numbers became an addiction we fed every week. As I examined the growth charts on my office wall for each bus route as well as non-bus ministry, I became increasingly aware that more people were going out the back door than coming through the front.

On one Monday morning, there was a war going on in my spirit. A mixture of gratefulness for souls saved on Sunday and deep frustration over how to reach even more, consumed my thinking. I wanted to help people grow spiritually and close the revolving back door through which so many were exiting. I cried out to God in prayer. James teaches that a man who lacks wisdom can ask God who gives graciously to all without finding fault. He does not tell us how God

goes about providing the answer to our prayers. I wanted to bless people, but felt inadequate to properly minister to a growing church.

I prayed a simple prayer, fashioned after an encounter King Solomon had with God. God appeared to Solomon and said, “Ask what I shall give to you.” (2 Chron. 1:7ESV) Solomon could have asked for anything, but he asked for wisdom and knowledge to govern or lead God’s people. He could have asked for riches, but he asked for wisdom. God’s response to Solomon was very powerful. “Because this was in your heart, and you have not even asked for possessions, wealth, honor, or the life of those who hate you, and have not even asked long life, but have asked wisdom and knowledge,…I will also give you riches, possessions, and honor.”

God, who sees into our hearts, gave to Solomon according to what He saw. Not that I saw myself as a modern day Solomon at all, but my thinking was that if it worked for him, maybe it would work for me. I offered up an exchange prayer that day that has greatly affected the rest of my life. Having a big church or wisdom seemed to be a safe choice. After all, I was sure God wanted our church to grow and be big, and I knew He wanted me to be a wise man.

God took me at my word and started us down a road that would not only bring opportunities to grow in wisdom, but it would come at the expense of my dream to build a big church. I had hoped that God would see my heart and give me both. What I did not think was that God would indeed see my heart and determine that character development was His most important goal.

I learned a very important principle during that

period of time that has been the backbone of our ministry ever since. That is, if we will cooperate with God as He deepens our message, He will also broaden our ministry. His goal is character development. Ministry flows from a heart that has been broken by the hand of our loving, compassionate, Heavenly Father.

That was about 36 years ago. God took us through boot camp for the next few years, which would affect the rest of our lives. As I look back, I would not trade what God did for anything else in this world, even though the next few days would see our church numbers plummeting and our means of livelihood shrinking to the point that we could no longer draw a salary. It happened so fast that I was unable to see God’s hand in any of it, thinking that we were in a momentary tailspin that would eventually work its way out, with our numbers picking up and finances coming back together. That did not happen. Eventually all four of us on staff had not just to take salary cuts, but had to go off salary completely. The other preachers and staff moved on, but I suspect because of my prayer, God had other plans for my family.

Up until that time, we had always received job offers from other churches, but for some reason those job offers dried up. God was making it very clear that He wanted us to stay. In addition, I applied for many jobs in our community but was unable to get a job. We sold Bibles, Amway, and just about every product we could imagine, but none of them proved successful.

Living on the thin edge became more than the title of a book or the theme of a sermon. It became reality for me and my family. We were on the thin edge and we could sense the ice giving way under our feet.

In my book entitled Days of Elijah, I explain in detail what happened during the next two plus years which remain the most significant time period of our lives. God brought us face to face with principles we had broken, deepened our fellowship in the church and held our feet to the fire until all the bills were paid. While God worked on our character, He began teaching us truths that would become the basis for ministry for the rest of our lives (Ro. 8:29-30.) He powerfully delivered us, but at the time, we waited patiently to see if we would even survive.

It was a time of great challenge, when JoAnn and I experienced the provision of God in ways we never believed possible, theologically or experientially. God is much bigger than even our greatest crisis. Our family grew in faith and learned to trust in God for every provision. We also had our eyes opened to the work of the Holy Spirit. I tell these experiences in Days of Elijah. God has given us the privilege to work with hundreds, maybe even thousands of people, testifying God has a solution for every problem in our lives, directing them back to His Word and the book of the One who created us. If we cry out for wisdom, he will give it.

I published this book, Living on the Thin Edge in 1979 while we were still being fed from God’s hand to our mouths. The original book would have been more powerful if I had been more personal with what God was doing in our lives, but my pride would not allow me to admit failure. Even while I was writing Living on the Thin Edge, I lived in hope that God would restore our fast growing ministry. However, that apparently was not God’s plan.

I decided to revise Living on the Thin Edge in part to correct any wrong impressions I may have left in the first book. In addition, I have an intense desire to see Christians who are living on the thin edge, to live there by vision, by faith, courageously stepping out and enjoying life on the thin edge.

I remember a lot of detail surrounding the events in this book as if they happened just yesterday. When I was coaching, I always despised Monday morning quarterbacks who could correct every mistake you made Friday night. The older I get, the more I can see the wisdom in looking back in order to see the hand of God. Looking back helps look further down the road. I kept detailed journals which have helped me piece the story together. Though timelines are sometimes fuzzy, the journals have helped me reconstruct the relative events during the time we ministered to the church in South Haven.

For those who read the original book, it is my prayer that this revision will add to the glory of God as He has demonstrated in our lives that He “works all things together for the good” for the purposes of developing our character (Ro. 8:28.) My life has been like a seminary and there are too many “professors” for me to give credit to all of them.  Some of their names will appear in this book, but most will go largely unnoticed until that day when we stand before our Maker and hear Him say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Mt. 25

Living on the thin edge is a spiritual adventure that requires faith, vision, hard work, strong relationships and self-control. Paul puts it like this, “…We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know

know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 5:3-5)

In our Father’s woodshed, we learn to persevere as his loving hands whittle us down and carve us into the image of Christ.

May 8, 2014

Jerry Selvidge

Dedication

This is my third book. The time commitment for a project of this nature is much bigger than I ever considered. It would not have been possible were it not for the sacrifices of a lot of friends. Mike and Theresa Blaes, a blind couple who are members of our church, helped immensely with the final project upload to the publisher.

My Grandson, Jacob McDermitt did the art work for Living on the Thin Edge as well as investing hours uploading to our publisher. His father, Steve, was helpful when I ran into formatting problems.

Finally, my editor, Judy Shannon, spent many long hours editing the original book and now, the final revision. She has made it possible to put my thoughts into print.

I appreciate the wonderful people in South Haven for allowing me to use our experiences there as a backdrop for this book. We love you dearly!

My greatest appreciation goes to my wife JoAnn, who has labored with me on the thin edge for almost 50 years. Though she never wanted to be the wife of a preacher, she has been a good one. I love you, JoAnn. I once hitch hiked from Searcy, Arkansas to Poland Springs, Maine just to be with her.  Recently, she asked if I would do it again. This is my response.

I would walk 500 miles

And I would walk 500 more

Just to be the man who walked a 1000 miles

To fall down at your door.

(The Proclaimers)

I have not failed; I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.

Thomas Edison

1

Living on the Thin Edge

Looking back over the years, the many lakes, rivers and ponds of our childhood were the centerpiece for the games we played. While many of our friends were dragging their ice shanties on to the lakes, we never got interested in sitting in a shed during freezing weather. Maybe part of the reason was that we could not afford a shed. We were more motivated by more active sports in the winter time, such as pulling a sled behind a car on the icy country roads, tobogganing on the sand dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan or hunting rabbits, deer and other critters in the woods surrounding our home.

Our favorite pastime was a crude form of ice hockey, which was more like a combination of golf, baseball, football, boxing and wrestling. We had very few rules except the unwritten rule of no whining when you were clobbered really hard while heading for the goal line. Our farm in Covert sloped gradually toward a low place in the woods where water would pond and freeze during the cold Michigan winters. Unfortunately, our ice rink was studded with trees and tree trunks, barely above the surface of the ice. The trees became the extra men on the rink, providing protection from a passionate swing at the ice puck. We had our own brand of "icing” that led to war on the ice.

This crude game of hockey was fought for hours until exhausted, we would limp home to nurse our wounds and get something to eat. We were usually soaked because we had skated out on the thin edge of the ice where we broke through.

The greatest danger was out on the thin ice on the edge of the lakes or ponds where the ice was the weakest. Even during the coldest part of the winter, air pockets, warm water springs or the thin edge produced weak spots that could suddenly give way, tumbling the unsuspecting skater into the cold, icy water. We were often warned to stay away from the thin edge nearest open water because that ice was the thinnest and most dangerous. Being boys and perhaps a little slow in learning, we were drawn to the challenge of the thin ice, daring us to walk out as close to the edge as possible without falling in. We considered getting wet as just a part of the price we had to pay. A good soaking in frigid water gets your attention in a hurry, but somehow we managed to escape without any serious injuries and no one died of overexposure. God does look after the ignorant.

Our family lived on the thin edge of life. Mom and dad worked hard to take care of a family of five hungry boys, but rarely ever seemed to have money left over beyond the necessities of life. Our home in Riverside was my earliest memory of living out on the thin edge. Our house was a two-room house that had been converted into a three-room house by attaching a chicken house brought from the farm on the hill above our farm. We had no running water. Instead, we pumped our water from a well a few yards down the path from our house. That same path led south about fifty yards to the outhouse. We were actually a two outhouse family because we also had an outhouse in the corner of the barn. Life on the farm was pretty laid back. It was simple way of life, lived on the thin edge leaving plenty great memories of a life of contentment.

I don’t recall Mom and Dad ever complaining. She took care of what she had, keeping our clothes clean and pressed. Though we had little, we lived big, not beyond our means, but we enjoyed life. We did things that cost little, providing hours of recreation together. Most people thought we had money, except those who knew us best. A friend of mine who raised Christmas trees brought us a nice tree off this farm when he saw the pathetic tree we had found on the side of the road that had fallen from a truck hauling trees. We grew up on the thin edge, just like many of our friends.

The home in Riverside had a farm road leading from the house down through an asparagus field, winding through an apple orchard down to the river where we caught huge toe sacks full of fish caught in traps strung up and down Paw Paw River. Every now and then, a critter or two would get caught in the traps, which my two older brothers skinned. Mother would cook the meat and we would stretch the hides on the walls of the sheds. Mom said she would cook anything we caught until one day we came in with a possum, which proves that even poor people have standards. Entertainment consisted of sitting around the floor model radio and listening to programs like The Lone Ranger and Inner Sanctum. The radio belonged to a friend of Dad’s, who went off to war and never returned.

Some of my fondest memories are of those hard times living on the thin edge. Our weeks always included worship, three times a week. Who can forget the wonderful singings in the old school house converted into a church building outside Watervliet, keeping rhythm with our feet on the hardwood floor?

Most people spend their lives looking for security. In America, we have Social Security, as if social could ever bring any form of security. We look for the job that will never fall through, the safe investment, bigger and better cars and houses, always living by sight and rarely ever by faith. Yet, contentment eludes us and the peace that accompanies contentment is just a distant dream.

While writing the original Living on the Thin Edge, my wife, JoAnn and our daughters, Renate and Erin, lived through a real life experience of living on the thin edge. We went without a salary over two years and then partial salary for another year as a result of a prayer I prayed as a preacher, that God would give me wisdom. It was an exchange prayer, in which I asked for wisdom over a fast growing church. God told Solomon he could ask for anything, but all he asked for was wisdom. God honored his heart, giving him riches and honor as well as wisdom. God used my choice to give me wisdom, but He did not allow our church to continue to grow. Declining numbers plus a decline in giving equals no money for salaries. We were out there, on the thin edge once again. This book is a testimony to God’s goodness and the joy He gives to His people living on the thin edge.

Peter Walked on the Thin Edge

The disciples walked on the thin edge, following Jesus, to face hardship and persecution. They believed Him to be the Messiah and would follow Him to the ends of the earth, while their faith grew exponentially. They walked where Jesus led them, living rewarding lives.

His mission was to train a band of disciples, imparting wisdom and faith to carry the Gospel to the world. Training is never easy and the school in which they had enrolled was no exception. It is not easy for His disciples today either, as He builds perseverance, character and hope into our lives. One training encounter split the night with fear and trembling while out on the open water in the Sea of Galilee on the way to Bethsaida. Jesus had gone up into the mountains to pray, presumably for them and the struggle they would soon encounter. The Bible says, “He lives to make intercession for all the saints” Heb. 7:25.)

About the fourth watch of the night, between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., He noticed them struggling on the water. The ESV says, “He saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them” (Mk. 6:48 ESV.) The elements were against them and they were not making any progress. It reminds me of fishing one day off Fire Island in New York with my wife, JoAnn. We knew nothing about fishing where tides come and go, managing to row to the bridge where we could fish with ease. By the time we needed to head back, we noticed we were headed out to sea. With the wind in our faces and the tide pulling us along, we could not row hard enough to make any headway to the shore of Fire Island. We finally rowed with the wind to the far shore and pulled our boat along the shore for miles until we reached our destination! The spirit may be willing, but the body soon gives out. I have done enough of that to know what it looks like. Overwhelmed with fear, wracked with pain, we are forced to re-evaluate our position and make the necessary adjustments, before we go down.

Most of us have been there. The reality is this: Jesus was available the whole time. He knows when we are struggling and He watches with a heart filled with compassion as we needlessly struggle in the flesh before we humble ourselves and surrender (Heb. 4:14.) Jesus walked to them on the sea. It says, “He meant to pass them by.” This was a test of their faith and would teach them what to do any time they found themselves struggling against the elements. The account in Matthew 14 says they had been beaten by the waves. Jesus cried out, “It is I.  Do not be afraid.” He is speaking into your heart today. “Do not be afraid.”

Peter is the kind of person who enjoyed living on the thin edge. He saw Jesus out there on that water and He wanted to go out and meet Him. When you think about it, the safest place that night was not in the boat, but out on the water where Jesus was walking. Jesus encouraged Peter to step out of the boat and come to him and Peter walked on the water. Say what you wish about his impetuosity or his rash behavior, but what other mortal men do you know who walked on water? Peter was out there on the thin edge, where the only force available to keep his head above the water was produced by faith in the Son of God, who said simply, “Come.” With the wind raging, the waves tossing high, the depths of the dark cold water below him, and the safety of the boat behind him, Peter put his eye on Jesus and stepped out. He only began sinking when he took his eyes off Jesus and put them on the wind. But, even then, Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, asking, “Why did you doubt?”He was walking on water with His Savior, the safest place in the Universe, and he doubted. Why?

As a church, we saw Jesus out there on the water and wanted to be where he was. In fact, He beckoned us to come to Him. The sea was raging and the wind was blowing, but we stepped out, and though it was only for a moment, we walked on the water. We experienced the joy of knowing we were walking with our Savior. But, just like Peter, when the wind picked up to gale force and the water at our feet began to pile up, we started taking our eyes off Jesus and spent our time focused on the problems. We started thinking logically instead of walking by faith. What we had done was not logical. It defied reason. When that happens, as it inevitably will, we have to get our eyes back on Jesus, dry off, and get back out there on the water.

Safe in the Boat

I wonder how many dreams and ambitions have been dashed to pieces because of fear of stepping out of the boat. It is true, the boat is dry and its’ walls keep you from falling into the sea and will carry you safely to the other side. However, the disciples who remained in the boat missed the greatest adventure of all! To walk on the water, even for a moment, had to have had great impact on Peter’s faith. Perhaps, that is one reason he was chosen to preach to the multitude on the Day of Pentecost where 3000 souls were baptized. Maybe it is why he stood before people who wanted to take His life, refusing to stop preaching in the name of Jesus, or  sleeping in a jail, while his life was being threatened.“Who, me worry? I once walked on water.” Peter knew where the power was! We too, need to get

out of the comfort of the boat, out there on the water, in the deep, with the winds raging and waves piling high, out on the thin edge where we must keep our eyes on Jesus just to stay afloat.

Not Recklessness but Obedience

When I speak of living on the thin edge I am not recommending reckless living, although it may seem that way to some. We are never being reckless when it is Jesus who beckons to us, telling us to get out of the boat and walk with Him on the water. Rather than irresponsibility, it is obedience that God is after. It is a thin edge, but it is an edge supported by our Lord. He holds us up. Our lives are most blessed when we live them seeking for and in obedience to the Word of the Lord.

Elijah always waited on the Lord. He never moved on his own, waiting for the Word of the Lord that told him to move to the brook, then to the village of Zarephath after which He was led to Mt. Carmel. The only time we read of Elijah moving ahead impatiently was after his great victory on Mt. Carmel, when he became afraid of Jezebel and ran for his life. We have to train ourselves to wait on the Lord, even when we start getting antsy and feel the need to move on. Waiting on the Lord is what Christians do while God prepares our next step. To move ahead without Him is to invite certain disaster. On the other hand, when He beckons us to “come,” we must get out of the boat immediately and walk with Him. We wait upon the Lord until He speaks. After He has spoken, we should obey without hesitation.

The church in South Haven has lived on the thin edge from the day God started this church. The church started back there when the they first met in Charles Newell’s home, then later, moved by God,  bought the property on M-43 and met in that old condemned house back in the corner. He beckoned the church to step out on the water when its’ bond program failed because of greedy men who took the bond money. He beckoned the men to join with Him when they made a decision to construct the building on faith. They did not borrow extra money or float another bond issue, but looked steadfastly into the eyes of Jesus and began laying a foundation. It was faith that brought families from all over the country to help erect the building where the church still meets.

The bus ministry was built on faith as this church obeyed the Lord and grew to over 750 people in one year. His hand was on this church, holding it up, and He continues to bless it to this day and will do so until He returns. The church never had a surplus of money, rarely ever having more than two or three nickels to rub together at one time, but this church saw hundreds of souls come to salvation in just three short years, plucked from the very hands of Satan. God erected buildings here to His glory and paid the salaries of full-time people. Then He allowed the wind to blow and the seas to rage. Hard times develop character (Ro. 5:1-5.) He gets glory for both and will see us through all hard times. No, living on the thin edge is not reckless. You are out there because that is where He is, it is God honoring. Cycles of poverty and riches make us like Paul who said that he knew what it was to have plenty and also to be in need.

We Walk by Faith and Not by Sight

Peter walked on the water because Peter heard His Savior call to him, “Come to me.” I used to think Peter was an impetuous man, presuming upon God when he stepped out on the water. No, it was not really impetuosity driving Peter. Rather, it was faith that allowed him to fix his eyes on Jesus. He stepped out in obedience. Faith gave him the strength to go to Jesus and join in with the work that He was doing. Faith is more than a whim or a blind leap in the dark that people often call “blind faith.” Scripture never refers to our faith as being “blind.” Peter saw Jesus out there on the water. Paul went on missionary journeys after hearing from the Lord. Before the early church chose someone to take the place of Judas, they prayed and then “cast lots.” They went about watching for the movement of God, and then joined in with Him.

Faith like this moves the heart of God to move mountains on our behalf. The Hebrew writer said, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1.) Though not a complete definition of faith, it does give a picture of faith that is more than a “blind leap in the dark.” It is rock solid, sure and certain. In v. 6, he says that without this kind of faith, it is impossible to please God, because we must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him. Living on the thin edge then is living by faith, not by sight. It is not by what our minds can logically conceive, but through the power that is at work in us. Paul said it best, “Now unto him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine…to Him be glory…throughout all generations” (Eph. 3:20-21.)

In many ways we will never grow spiritually beyond where we are today unless we are willing to bring all of our traditions and past experiences to the Word of God.

That is what happened to us at South Haven church of Christ. God had to examine thoroughly our motives and to extract every ounce of pride from our character. Methods had to be reexamined because the ends do not always justify the means, especially when the means may be contrary to scripture. We even had to examine our doctrines in the light of the Word of God, not in judgment of denominations, but in the clear inspection of the Word of God, and when we found ourselves at odds with God, we had to repent and turn to our only source of truth. That is why God sends us through trials; they perfect our faith and grow our character. We know that God has promised to “supply all of our needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus” (Php. 4:19.) We know that we “can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens us.” We are not without divine help, but we must learn to live in divine light. Brethren, in a time like this, we who have stepped out of the boat and walked on the thin edge will surely see Jesus reach out and touch us and help place us inside the dry boat.

Will We Ever Sink?

Will we ever sink? Yes, we will, not because we have to, but because we are human, weak, and our faith grows dim. We might from time to time get a good soaking. Not every venture will stay afloat because God is able to teach us valuable lessons when we are going under. It’s all okay, though. Jesus is in the water.

When we sink, He will still be there, reaching out His hand and beckoning us to go with Him. I want to close with four suggestions to help us when we hear Jesus calling to us. The worst thing we can do is nothing. We have to respond to God.

How to Walk on Water

First, leave the perceived security of the boat and step out to meet Jesus who is calling you out of the boat. That is often the biggest step and requires the greatest amount of courage. I was once dared to dive off a twenty-foot tower into deep water that was so clear that you could see all the way to the bottom. What was, in reality, twenty feet appeared to be more than forty. Watching Dewayne and Floyd, my two older brothers, jump did not make it easy for me. In fact, they jumped off the highest tower, thirty or forty feet high. The pressure was on. I still remember the moment I stepped out on the edge of that diving platform, heart pounding and body shaking, only to run back off the platform until I got my courage up again. It seemed as if an entire lifetime flashed in front of me as I contemplated letting go and jumping in. Finally, I quit thinking about the pros and cons and in one triumphant moment, hurled myself off the platform into the air. What a relief, knowing I had finally let go! However, that moment of euphoria lasted only until I hit the water some twenty feet below me. Sometimes, we just need to step away from our place of security and let Jesus hold us up. The boat can become a barrier to the great things God wants to give us a chance to experience. I am not sorry we stepped out on the water.

Second, realize the winds will blow and the waves will toss us about! That is really how God grows us. If you will remember your biology classes, you will be able to remember the changes that take place in a cocoon or an egg as the embryo life begins to develop. Every stage is a struggle because God intended it that way. The small embryo must struggle and fight for its very existence. After a long hard struggle, it emerges from the egg, wet and tired, but stronger because of the fight. If we were to remove the embryo from the shell without the struggle, it would not be able to live. In Jesus’ priestly prayer for His disciples, He said He did not wish to take them out of the world, but asked God to protect them in the world (Jn. 17 NIV.) We have to experience hardships that accompany heartache. As we do so, we grow, and emerge as a beautiful butterfly, strong and ready to meet the challenges of life. James said, “Count it all joy.” In fact, He called it pure joy, the kind of joy that cannot be taken from you or is it dependent on any other circumstance than that of Jesus’ arms.

Third, we must remember to keep our eyes on Jesus. Peter did not sink until he saw the waves and felt the wind. Can you imagine how frightening that must have been? He had just left the security of the boat, stepped out on faith, only to have the waves pummel him. Many of us have experienced the strength of the elements all around us. We become afraid and fall right into the hands of the evil one. His greatest tactic is deception and the emotion resulting from deception is fear. Fear can paralyze you, take away your initiative and render you powerless. He uses a mindset of fear to take hold of our lives. Paul calls them strongholds and

the only weapon against those strongholds is the Word of God. It has “divine power to tear arguments and every

pretension that set themselves up against the knowledge of God” (2 Co. 10:3-4 NIV.)

Just for a moment, Peter took his eyes off Jesus. When sickness comes, look to Jesus. When bills pile up, keep your eye on the only One who can hold you up. When you are being tempted in a way that seems unbearable, remember He said He would never allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. In addition, He promised to provide a way of escape. Get busy looking for the escape hatch of grace (1 Co. 10:11-13 NIV.) Listen to me, Christian fellow laborer, when it appears all is or was for naught, keep your eye on Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:1-2 KJV.) Peter would never have sunk if he had kept his eyes on Jesus.

Faith is vital to every Christian who wants to walk on water. Abraham was looking for a city without foundations whose builder and maker was God (Heb. 11.) He was sent to a strange country, as a foreigner without knowledge of the details of God’s plan for him. He took one step at a time and trusted God for the result. Our thinking is “I will obey when I understand.” However, Abraham saw it differently. “I will obey whether or not I ever understand.” God did not give him enough light to see all the way to the end of the path, but only enough light for one step at a time.

The Psalmist says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” To travel down a path at night in those days was very dangerous. There were no street lamps and flashlights had not been invented. So, the traveler wore a tiny oil lamp on each foot. Walking

down the road at night, the tiny lamp would give him enough light to take just one more step. That is how God leads us, one step at a time. Don’t ask to understand, just ask for grace to obey.

Fourth and finally, remember what to do if you start sinking. Quickly, get your eyes back on Jesus and cry out as Peter did, “Lord, save me!” Do it aloud. I don’t think Peter was whispering. God responds to our cries. Read the Psalms for proof. Cry out to God. Jesus is willing and ready to carry our burdens. He said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28 KJV.) He is in the burden bearing business. In 1 Peter 5:7, Peter admonishes us to “cast all anxieties on him because he cares for you.” He is actually saying, “Casting,” a reference to continually humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Nothing humbles a person faster than crying aloud for help.

The Christian life is an adventure! This book is written by a man who has done his share of living on the thin edge of life, and is dedicated to people who want to live for God, living in the abundance of His provision and enjoying every precious minute of it (Jn. 10:10.) These are the people who pray “powerful and effectual prayers” for the glory of God, who see life as an adventure, who cry with Caleb when he was eighty years old, “Lord, give me a mountain.”

Was it wrong for us to step out on the water? I do not think so. We saw Jesus out there on the water. He was beckoning us to come to Him and we went. What was wrong was expanding without funds. It was reckless to push forward by borrowing money. We took our eyes off Jesus and put them on other churches and copied what they were doing without knowing the

will of God. We were wrong not to examine our own motives. But, it is all good because He says that He “works everything together for the good for those he loves and have been called according to his purposes” (Ro. 8:28 NIV.) He does it to transform us to the image of Christ.

Hallelujah! Can that be bad?

2

The Sea Gull

When we step out of the boat onto the water, we instinctively know that there are certain risks built into our adventure.

When the prophet Elijah announced to Ahab that it was not going to rain again until he said so, he had to know making such a prophecy would not make him popular. Right away, the word of the Lord came to Elijah warning him to go to the Brook Kerith where God himself would feed him by ravens and provide plenty of water from the brook. When the brook dried up, the Word of the Lord came once again, signaling another stage in the man of God’s training. This time he would live in Zarephath. The brook Kerith means place of “cutting down,” whereas Zarephath was a refinery town where Elijah would be refined. The names of the places where the Word of the Lord sent Elijah were not coincidental. God has carefully chosen the schools where our prophet would be trained and his character developed.

In both cases, Elijah’s life changed dramatically. He was a prophet from Tishbe, a man like John the Baptist in his ruggedness. Now, he is hiding out from the king and his wicked wife, Jezebel. The powerful and effectual prayer of a righteous man set the course for the next three plus years of his life. We should be careful how we pray. When God answers we may be taken down roads we had never considered traveling, roads that lead us in directions we would never have planned on our own. That is living on the thin edge, when we have yielded the control of our lives to God.

The first road Elijah traveled led him to the palace of King Ahab, arguably the most wicked man that ever sat on the throne in Israel. He presented himself before the king with the declaration that there would be neither dew nor rain until God’s purposes are finished. Just as quickly, the Word of the Lord comes to Elijah and he is sent away, into seclusion and out of public ministry. After his initial break into the limelight, it must have been a shock to go into seclusion for the next three years or so of his life.  That is how God works to prepare us for his purposes. We may not understand, but God knows what he is all about. There is a poem that describes the purposes and methods God uses to prepare his servants for greater service.

When God wants to drill a man, skill a man, thrill a man, when God wants to mold a man

To play the noblest part:

When He yearns with all his heart to create so great and bold a man that all the world shall be amazed,

Watch God’s methods-watch His ways.

How He ruthlessly perfects whom He royally elects-

How He hammers and hurts him and with mighty blows converts him into trial shapes of clay

Which only God understands.

While his tortured heart is crying and

He lifts beseeching hands,

How God bends, but never breaks when his good he undertakes, how he uses whom

He chooses and with every purpose

Fuses him by every act induces him to try

His splendor out.

God knows what He is all about.

Anonymous

Paul says we are “letters written on men’s hearts.” Some letters go to kings and presidents, others to the downtrodden of life. But, they are all letters written by God on our hearts (2 Co. 3.) God is writing a book. The first chapter is how He saved us from our sin through the wonderful, finished, redemptive work of Christ on the cross. The second chapter is how He sanctifies us and prepares us for use in His Kingdom. The third chapter is a chapter on our failure. By the time we get to the fourth chapter, our hearts are broken over our sin and He writes the fourth chapter on how our cold hearts were softened by the trials of life. The fifth chapter is how God deepens our message so that the letter he has written on our hearts impacts the people he brings into our lives. The next chapter describes how God expands our ministry and uses our testimony to bring even greater glory and honor to His name. The final chapter is about receiving our reward in heaven. All the chapters with the exception of the first and last one are repeated several times in our lifetime. It is a cyclical training process. God is writing a book about every one of us. That is how we get out on the thin edge, following our Savior.

All of this requires endurance. It is so much easier to start a job than it is to finish it. Yet, real satisfaction comes by knowing we have successfully brought to fruition the vision that God has planted in our hearts. God gave us the ability to dream and to plan. It’s only when those dreams coincide with his plans that we find success in life. We have to search our hearts to find out whether what we have dreamed is from God or whether a product of our imagination. In the Bible, we see it clearly, “Where there is no vision, the

people perish (Pro. 29:18 KJV.) Vision is necessary for survival and God will fill us with vision.

It appears that the tower of Babel was conceived in the hearts of wicked men who wanted to reach God by building a tower into the heavens. Even wicked people have visions. Their visions do not honor or glorify God. I praise God for the vision we were given to reach people to bring them to God and help them share in the heavenly calling. It was an exciting adventure. It had to be set aside, at least momentarily, for the vital task of building letters in our hearts.

Often, our visions are interrupted by the work of God as he perfects our character. I am told that a goldsmith purifies gold and drives out the dross by turning up the heat of the piece of gold ore, a little bit at a time so that it does not vaporize. His skilled hand knows what he is all about and works tirelessly to drive out all the impurities until he is able to see his image clearly in the glassy finish of the purified gold. That, too, is how God works. He uses many different tools to perfect us including the hand of Satan whose agenda is not to perfect, but rather to steal, kill and destroy (Jn. 14.) Did not Paul say God sent a messenger who was a tormentor to perfect his character in 2 Co. 12? Satan uses every trick he can dream up to put a damper on our ambitions for God, an angry church member who feels overlooked, finances that never seem to be sufficient, dead ends taken by ignoring the scriptural admonition to take only firm paths.

Our number one enemy stares back at us when we look into a. mirror. That is because we allow the evil one to gain access into our thinking and plant seeds of doubt in our hearts that produce a harvest of unbelief.

We avoid the harvest by preventing the seeds of doubt from germinating in our hearts, by “taking captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Or. 10:3-4). Taking seeds of doubt captive has to be done as soon as they emerge. Don’t let them grow roots or they will lead to disobedience through unbelief. It is great to know that “greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world” (1 Jn. 4:3-5 KJV) and God will never allow us to be tried above that which we are able to bear (1 Co. 10:13.) God will always provide a way of escape through His grace. We just have to believe the way of escape is there and look for it.

My Trysting Place

Back during the days of our hardship in South Haven, I drove to my favorite prayer place on the shore of Lake Michigan. It is a secluded area on a bluff about 1000 feet or so above the lake. When the conditions are right, a person can see the lights of Chicago on the far shore. It was a perfect place to get alone with God to talk and listen to Him, away from the phone and busyness of life that seems to choke out vision. I called it my trysting place, the place where I agreed to meet with God, where I would take time to wait for Him to show up. I was there on that day, looking for a way out. I had hammered into the heads of our congregation to never quit, yet, here I was, ready to quit, wondering how I could spin my quitting in such a way that I would not look like a quitter. To be a hypocrite in my heart, where no one could see it was one thing. But, to wear it out there for everyone to see was not my choice. I needed a word from the Lord.

Everything was going wrong after I prayed my exchange prayer. (Dedication, p. 4) I was out there on the thin edge. I was looking at open water and the ice was cracking all around me. We were in danger of breaking through and sinking. I am sure Peter experienced something similar to that when he took his eyes off Jesus and started looking at the wind and the waves and began to sink. Admittedly, at that point in our ministry, I was in over my head. God was answering my exchange prayer and finances were getting tighter than tight. They were non-existent. Even selling books was not sufficient to pay the bills. I knew God was taking me to the bottom of my self reliance and stripping me of all my pride. It was a painful, but, necessary work. We were headed toward the bottom of the barrel. I just did not know how far it was to the bottom.

I am sure things were not as bad as I thought. I had not “yet resisted to the point of the shedding of my blood,” as the Hebrew writer put it. No one had lowered me into a miry pit as they did Jeremiah or thrown me into jail as were Paul and Silas. But, my great imagination had been working overtime. I am sure that never happens to you. I had come to my favorite prayer spot, my trysting place, where I could talk with my Father and feel His presence as I poured out my heart. The Psalmist said, “Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you” (Ps. 43:5-6 NIV.)

There, on that bluff, I never felt more alone. It was time to test the sincerity of my own faith. Did I really believe the things I had preached, or was my faith non-existent. It was a difficult moment for me.

We have to put our hope in God and remember Him and His mighty deeds. A lot of times I find that prayer alone without any answer from God is sufficient to help me gain perspective as Jesus takes our prayer requests and lays them at the feet of God. Our problem is not so much in lack of abilities, or energy, or resources but rather in our unwillingness to humble ourselves and call upon the name of the Lord (2 Ch. 7:14.) God is real! He rules over every problem, much as He rules over the universe. He does answer our prayers. That is why I went to my favorite bluff overlooking the lake.

Don’t Quit

As I poured out my heart to God, I remembered why I couldn’t quit. It had nothing to do with what others would think. They did not call me into the ministry. I was in the middle of what God had called me to do. This was my calling in life. It would be years before I came to a fuller understanding of God’s call to suffering, but I was beginning to sense that this struggle would not be over until He called it done. I am reminded of the words of Paul, “But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God” (2 Cor. 1:9.) Prior to this time we had job offers from all over the state. Now, all of a sudden, they all dried up. No calls. No invitations to preach. No churches looking for a preacher. I couldn’t quit if I wanted to. God had me right where he wanted, hemmed in from all sides, nowhere to look except up.

The most powerful sermons I have ever heard preached on perseverance were preached by the preacher for the Williamstown church of Christ, David Powers. If I made a survey of other church of Christ preachers, I have no doubt that the sermon “Don’t Quit” would be on their list of the top ten sermons they have ever heard. I can still feel the excitement that burned in my breast as David preached that sermon. That night, I got fire in my belly to preach the Word that has never burned out. It was almost as if God was allowing me to experience the burning that Jeremiah had when he wanted to stop preaching but the burning in his heart would not allow it. David reminded us of the sacrifices that men of God have made through the ages, men and women who never quit, but persevered through circumstances far worse than mine. Men and women who gave their very lives for the Gospel and who never complained. These are the true heroes. They labored for their Master, and they never quit!

He said, “If Paul didn’t quit, you do not have to quit!” Those words echoed throughout the giant field house where thousands of us had gathered to worship our God. They are still ringing in my ears to this very day, and, that morning, as I stood on my prayer spot overlooking Lake Michigan, it continued to ring. The word coming from the Lord was simple; If they did not quit what excuse do I have for quitting? I could not quit because they did not quit. They did not quit because God called them to do what they did! I preach because God commissioned me to preach. I must not quit!

As I raised my head and looked out over the lake and continued to pray, one of the most exciting true life dramas unfolded before my very eyes. Floating near the shore of the lake was a huge steelhead maybe 20 to 30 pounds. Overhead, a large, determined sea gull, (much like many bus captains and preachers I have known), spotted what must have appeared to him to be at least a year’s supply of fish for his entire family. (I say that facetiously, because I really don’t know what sea-gulls think.)Having taken note of the opportunity for success and catching the vision of the large steelhead that was his for the taking, he zeroed in, feet outstretched and came crashing down on the huge steelhead. Upon striking his prey he quickly lost his balance, toppled over and landed “ker-plop,” on the sandy beach. Being a great man of faith, I expected to see a much discouraged, sandy sea gull fly away in search of an easier prey. However, this sea gull was not about to quit!

He raised his wings, shook off the sand, raised his sandy wings to the sky, and, gathering momentum, crashed toward the giant fish like a kamikaze pilot in his death dive. He landed with both feet on the salmon, then, “Ker-plop” and once again, momentary failure. But, he just would not quit! I watched his relentless assault on a fish that dwarfed him in size, until both the fish and the sea gull drifted out of sight. It was painful to see him floundering in the sand, shaking the sand off his wings and climb high in the sky, trying again. It was also inspiring. One of God’s creatures who would not quit reinforced the sermon on perseverance. It was a lesson from God sent to remind me that God’s children ought not to quit! God gave me hope.

I have told this story exactly how it happened as I recorded it in my journal. What were the chances that God arranged the entire encounter? What were the odds that I would have been on that cliff at the very moment the big fish drifted by and the relentless sea gull began his assault on the huge salmon? His intense effort to bring the steelhead in for a meal could not have been an accident. God calls us to salmon-sized tasks and gives us the resources to do what he has called us to do. We need to examine our hearts and let God cleanse us of all impure motives, including motivations that require us to work in the flesh rather than the Spirit. I have become convinced that God indeed does work through some men to build big churches. But He is the one doing the building. It is our job to work and pray for a holy church and His job to build the church. Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build my church” (Mt. 16:18.)

When God builds Hs church, even the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Momentary setbacks are inevitable. Hard times will come. Churches will go through cycles of poverty and riches to test their faith. The end result will always be the glory of God, if we persevere, making whatever adjustments God calls on us to make, letting him purify our hearts. As I write this, I remember the words of the Apostle Paul which have lifted my spirits on too many occasions to count, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  It is a good work to which we had put our hands. Jesus said we must put our hand to the plow and not look back. Looking back makes a man unfit for the kingdom. Persistence in the face of adversity, when it seems that every arrow that Satan can hurl has been launched, is the attribute of a great man. Projects are tough; few persevere until the project is finished. We started a great project in South Haven, a project that required us to get out of the boat and walk on water, which we did. Now, we needed to fix our eyes on Jesus, reach out to him, and walk by his side. Don’t quit!

I sometimes have visions that somewhere along the shores of Lake Michigan, you will see a sandy sea gull with a grin from ear to ear, and an expression of great satisfaction with a thirty pound steelhead attached to his talons! I used to own a little sign that I kept on the wall of my office right across from my desk so I could look at it every time I looked up. The same words continue to encourage me today, as the placard sits on my desk here in Phoenix where I can look at it every time I need to. The words of that little poem seem appropriate to complete these thoughts. I have no idea who wrote it or where it came from.

Don’t Quit!

Success is failure turned inside out-

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt-And you can never tell how close you are.

It may be nearer when it seems afar

So, stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit-

It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.

Anonymous

That sums it all up. No matter how dark it may get, the light of God’s love will break through. It may appear as only a pin light on the horizon, but before God is finished, it will light your whole world. Selah.

“The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day” (Pr. 4:18.)

3

The Power of a Positive Confession

Living on the thin edge is not easy for several reasons. To begin with, it is not always comfortable out there where the ice could easily break and you could go in for a quick icy dunking in cold water. That possibility keeps most people huddled near the shore where there is relative safety. If comfort is what we are seeking, it makes sense to stay away from the thin edges. Some seem to have been born with another reason for refusing to launch out into the deep, a negative mind-set about life. “Stay in the security of the well-worn trails of life where the masses walk and where challenges are few” our hearts whisper to us when we are faced with opportunities that require us to step out beyond the security of the shore. The greatest inhibition for any of us is fear, keeping us near the shore because of what we fear might be out there. Fear keeps us from enjoying everything God has planned for us because we are fearful of moving out to the edge of life. We argue God wants me to be secure, thus encouraging a mindset that keeps us away from the places where God is at work, where He wants us to be.

I used to place a great deal of emphasis on what we called positive thinking and positive mental attitudes. Our locker room walls were covered with positive statements to encourage my basketball team to believe in themselves. The problem with P.M.A. is that it was often too humanistic in the way it presented itself, though not in its concept. Today, I would rather think of P.M.A as living a God-centered life where thoughts are permeated with great truths found in the Bible. People are hungry for a better way of approaching their daily problems. They are tired of living negative, unfulfilled lives devoid of joy and filled with frustration and guilt. A Biblical viewpoint provides a positive way of thinking, reacting, and responding to everyday problems with the powerful Word of God, because the word in us gives God the opportunity to build faith into our lives. Paul said, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing from the word of God” (Ro. 10:10.)

People take drugs, attend seminars, and swallow every philosophy out there that will provide some reprieve from the pain of everyday life. In my counseling, I have found people on the verge of emotional collapse whose lives have been ruined, who have found freedom in our Lord Jesus Christ without drugs or any other man made self-help program that avoids tackling the real problem, a man’s spiritual needs.

Christians ought to be more victorious and have a more positive mental attitude than any other group of people on the face of the earth. In fact, living by the promises of God is the greatest medication any person could take to fight depression and other emotional issues that rob Christians of the abundant life (Jn. 10:10.) We serve a powerful, dynamically positive God who gave us positive minds and the ability to think, respond, create, and accomplish to bring glory and honor to His great name!

A Great Big God

God began with a great big vision, creating a great big world out of nothing in just six days, taking time off for a big refreshing rest on the seventh day! He made a big plan when He created Adam and Eve and put them in charge of a big world. When Adam and Eve committed the big sin, God sent His big Son to die a big death and be resurrected in a big victory over sin and death! On the day of Pentecost a big crowd gathered to hear a big sermon that was followed by three thousand people being baptized to confirm their faith in a great big God and His Son (Ac. 2:37-41.) We serve a big God who has a big plan for you and for me (Eph. 2:10.) Serving our great big God is a privilege and joy, wouldn’t you agree?

The Son is just like His Father. Who ever heard of feeding a multitude with only five loaves and two fishes, or walking on the water, or raising the dead, or causing the lame to walk, the blind to see and the deaf to hear? Jesus did all of these things and so many more that John was led to remark that if all He did was written down, there would not be enough books in all the world to contain the record of His deeds. He did all this to prove that He was indeed the Son of God and to demonstrate his compassion and His power to an unbelieving world that had grown cynical in unbelief and weary of religion devoid of spiritual power.

He trained twelve disciples to carry this big message to a lost world and charged them with a great big commission to go into the entire world and preach the Gospel to every creature (Mt. 28:19-21.) They did exactly that, first to Jerusalem, then to Judea and finally to the uttermost parts of the earth. He did not give that commission without authority as He said, “All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth,” and He gave that big authority to His disciples. You see, God never gives a command without giving the power to obey that command! Many of us have staked our lives on that command. We heard the calling to preach the Gospel and we do that with His power and through His divine authority. Whatever happens as a result of what we do is to the glory of our great big God! Hallelujah

Grasshopper Thinking

This causes me to think. We ought to be possibility thinkers and be filled with the knowledge that “we can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens us” (Php. 4:13.) “I can” ought to permeate every fiber of our being and fill every project we undertake, not because we can, but because we can through Him who strengthens us. Every Christian’s life should be overflowing with this promise, from the butcher shop to the office, from the pulpit to the pew, from the classroom to the home, every husband, every wife, and every child. The Bible is a manual for positive Christian living. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (Jn. 10:10 ESV.) It is the offer of God for us to live abundantly, but we must choose abundance over mediocrity.

We see this in every story we read in the Bible. Joshua and Caleb chose the abundant life when they came back from the Promised Land where they had been building a strategy to possess the land God had already given to them. Their counterparts, the ten spies, saw the land in a very different way. It was a land filled with opportunity, but the price they had to pay was just too great. There were giants in the land! They had an exaggerated view of the enemy and a non-biblical view of who they were. They did not realize that “they that are in us are greater than they that are in the world.” But, they should have. They saw God at work every day of their lives in both small and big things. In fact, they underestimated their own strength when they said, “We are only grasshoppers.” Can you imagine that? God’s people saw themselves as only grasshoppers (Nu. 13:13.)

Joshua and Caleb had a different mindset than the other spies who came back with a negative report. Ps. 95 described the attitude of the “unbelieving” spies. They had seen the miracles of God and His preserving hand all those years in the wilderness but the Psalmist said they did not consider what they had seen God do. They saw the handiwork of God, but somehow, what God did yesterday did not affect their thinking about what He would do tomorrow. The report delivered by Joshua and Caleb was like hearing the account of two entirely different missions. They remembered what God had done at the Red Sea, how they were pressed on one side by the sea and the other side by Pharaoh’s armies with no place to hide. They remembered how Moses extended his rod out over the sea and God opened the water, making a dry road right down the middle of that body of water. They could see in their mind’s eye, walls of water on each side of the road, held back by the mighty hand of God and the same walls collapsing on top of Pharaoh’s armies, swallowing them instantly. How could they forget the road God forged for them in the wilderness, or the miraculous provision of manna from heaven, the bread of angels, and water flowing out of rocks to water a dry and thirsty multitude of people?

Instead of focusing on the challenges at Kadesh-Barnea, or giants in the land, they instead focused on a great big God who had proven Himself faithful in every way imaginable. Why should He stop being faithful now? The picture of their feet being covered by shoes that never wore out prompted them to cry out, “Let us go up at once and possess the land for we are well able” (Nu. 13.) Oh, the difference between belief and unbelief, one leading to disobedience, rebellion and wandering in the wilderness, while the other brought God honoring obedience. When Caleb was eighty years old, he continued this same magnificent attitude when he asked Joshua to “give me a mountain.” Caleb wasn’t even a pure Jew, probably joining them while in Egypt. You can’t say “no” to God and have the abundant life! You can’t stay in the boat and walk on water. You can’t see the power of God by denying the power of God. We say, “But Lord, my faith is so weak.” He replies, “That doesn’t matter. The problem is not small faith. The problem is small obedience.”

We become overwhelmed by an “I can’t” spirit! Homemakers need to clean their houses but are depressed and unable to function. Executives need to get started on a new job but find themselves paralyzed with fear and an “I can’t!” spirit.  This same spirit overcomes people who really want to serve and be a blessing. It leads to lethargy and indifference and often results in serious sin, discouragement, or even worse, depression. Faith, energized by the powerful Holy Spirit, drives positive thinking. Paul said, the “kingdom is not a matter of talk, but power” (1 Co. 4:20.) God has called us to live fruitful productive lives which cannot be done without faith.

Our usual response when we are down, and the count is against us is, “I can’t,” said in the face of overwhelming evidence that betrays our confidence in a great big God who is able!  We need to get smart and realize that is the devil’s trick to keep us down; He wants us to believe we are finished and there is nothing we can do but accept our fate, convincing us to say “I can’t.” He will rob us of joy and ability to produce, and God will lose an effective servant. We should be convicted by the words of Paul. “We live by faith and not by sight” (2 Co. 5:7.) God has placed the treasure of the Gospel in jars of clay “to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Co. 4:7.) Paul goes on to describe what God allows to happen to these jars of clay.  We are “hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”  Church, how can we survive with all this pressure?  What is the key to our survival?  He tells us in v. 16 day by day renewal on the inside keeps us from losing heart and walking away. “Because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal (2 Co. 4:18 NRS

What is going on around us is what God has planned for us. However, we must not fix our eyes on the water, or the waves or the wind. These trials are only temporary. We must fix our eyes on that which is eternal. These trials are light and they are momentary. Besides, they are achieving for us a glory that far outweighs them all! Praise God! We have to learn how to walk by faith and not by sight. Six centuries before Jesus set foot on planet earth as the Son of Man, the prophet Habakkuk wrestled with negative thoughts about God, crying out in doubt over what he perceived as God’s failure to address the sins of His own people. God responded by citing what He was doing, punctuating His statement by saying, “The just shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4.)

“Faith the Size of a Mustard Seed”

The disciples wanted to walk by faith and not by sight, but they found themselves continually failing. Was that because they “couldn’t” do it or was it for another reason?  They tried to cast out demons, but were unable. The people who sought their help reinforced the disciples’ failure confirming their ineptitude. When they got alone with Jesus away from critical eyes and ears, they quickly asked Him why they had failed. After all, they had used the same formula they had used before and it worked then. Nevertheless, prayer was not working in the present set of circumstances and it stumped them. Jesus replied by telling them they had little faith. Our interpretation of little faith causes some trouble in praying big prayers to our big God. Not sensing the power of God in our praying we try to muster up faith by using phrases that have worked before, raising our voices or even conjuring up tears. I am not opposed to any of these behaviors if they are done in faith, not as a magic ritual.

Prayer is not magic nor is its effectiveness based on formulas. What did Jesus mean by little faith?  It is important to understand what this little faith really means. It comes from a Greek word “oligopistia” which does not refer to the size of our faith as much as to poverty of faith. He was not upbraiding the disciples because their faith was small, but because they demonstrated no faith. When the disciples failed, He usually used this word to describe the reason for their ineffective prayers. “Oligopistia” refers to faith that is of poor quality. We talked about Peter walking on water in chapter 2, but he failed when he started looking at the elements and took his eyes off Jesus. He quickly sank because his faith turned to no faith, or as Jesus put it, “little faith.”

Strangely, Jesus follows the accusation with a promise about faith that would move mountains. He said the amount of faith to say to a mountain, “be thou removed and cast into the sea,” was so incredibly small that he compares it to a mustard seed, the smallest seed known to man. He did not say faith the size of an avocado seed, or the size of even an apple seed, but the size of the smallest seed of all, the mustard seed. I have been guilty of trying to rouse up enough faith to get a prayer answered when what I really needed was a little bit of faith that was really faith and not belief in some sort of magic ritual. Jesus promised when He said, “Ask whatever you wish and you will receive it.” However, James qualified this promise by two things, asking according to His will and asking according to His desires (Jas. 4.) That is when prayer becomes powerful. Elisha could pray a powerful, effectual prayer because he knew the will of God (Jas. 5.) Authority drives our faith.

Take for example the story of the centurion who came to Jesus asking Him to heal his servant who was home paralyzed and in a great deal of pain. When Jesus offered to go to his home and heal him, the centurion humbled himself and suggested to the healer to “just say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Mt. 8:9.) He explained by describing his relationship to authority and to his soldiers under his authority, describing a chain of command. He understood authority and he knew that all Jesus had to do was speak the Word and his servant would be healed. The Words of Jesus link faith to being under authority, by saying, “I have not found such faith in all of Israel” (v.10.) Faith is activated by being under authority and trusting God to work according to what He has said.

James tells us to call the elders of the church to pray over us when we are sick but the prayer must be a prayer of faith to make the sick person well. Faith knows the will of God either from scripture or from God speaking into our hearts which never contradicts scripture. James called the prayer that made the sick person well, a prayer of faith. The prayer of faith is a prayer based on the will of God and requires the person who is sick to be both under the authority of the elders and directly under God’s authority. Find out what God desires and put yourself under His authority and ask the elders to pray over you and anoint you with oil symbolic of the Holy Spirit. That is faith, it is powerful and can move mountains, but it is not magic.

Developing An “I Can” Spirit

How can we change a negative unbelieving heart into a spirit of belief? For starters, we should repent of every negative thought that accompanies a heart of unbelief. Paul said, “I can do all things through Jesus Christ which strengthens me” (Php. 4:13.) That is a powerful confession, but it is preceded with some very important information that gives us the ability to make such a confession First, Paul says he has “learned to be content” (Php. 4:11 NIV.) Contentment is the opposite of covetousness and covetousness produces idolatry. When a brother complained to Jesus that his brother was cheating him out of his fair share of his inheritance, Jesus immediately discerned that this man was a greedy man. Focus on material things result in greed. Jesus said to the brother, “Watch out!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Lk. 12:15 NIV.) Lack of contentment leads a man to powerless Christian living. Contentment comes through trusting God for provision of all basic needs, everything we need “that pertains to life and godliness” (2 Pe. 1 NIV.) Covetousness is trusting people or possessions to do for us what only a great and mighty God is able to do.

Where do we find contentment? It is not part of the fruit of the Spirit and it does not come automatically just because we are Christians, nor is contentment a result of hard work. Paul said he “learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” Learning implies practicing, and in this case, practicing living by the truths of God’s Word. He sees the big picture while we struggle to clearly see and comprehend what is before our very eyes. We are always asking “Why me, O Lord?,” while God is looking at the big picture, knows our hearts and designs a program so we can begin to practice contentment.

Is that not where many of us find ourselves, struggling with debt and an overwhelming need to make things right with a hunger to see our church grow and prosper? But, should this make us discontent? Should this make us discontent just because we have failed and are experiencing the heavy hand of the Lord, not because He is angry with us, but because He intensely loves us? The Hebrew writer said that is the motivation for God’s discipline, His intense love. Where is the future in such behavior? Shouldn’t we, instead of self-pity, be learning gratefulness? Is this not a cry for our hearts to become content with what has happened?

Notice, I said content and not complacent. There is a world of difference. Complacency is the same as indifference. We should never be indifferent to our circumstances. That is the same as being lukewarm (Rev. 3 NIV.) We know what Jesus thinks about that. He says it makes him sick! Paul said he “learned” contentment. We are learning to be content. Is it what we wanted? No. But, a wise man once said “God’s will is exactly what we would want if we knew everything God knows.” Second, this contentment is to be exercised in times of good as well as in times of scarcity. Martin Luther said, “Next to faith, this is the highest act: to be content in the calling in which God has placed you.” Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “Discontentment makes rich men poor while contentment makes poor men rich.” Learning to be content opens doors to gaining things of greater value. The treasures we are laying up in heaven are infinitely bigger than the messes we get ourselves in.  The “I can” spirit grows in the soil of contentment, learning how to rejoice in adversity (Jas. 1:3 NIV,) and surrendering to the rod of discipline God wields to shape and perfect our character, molding us into the image of Christ.

Finally, he says he could “Do everything through him who gives me strength” (Jas. 4:13 NIV.) “I” is you and it is me and it is us! I know that sounds horribly wrong, but it is Biblically accurate. In another place, Paul proclaims that God is “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that is at work in us.” This power is available to mere mortals who have been born again, who are alive with the Spirit of the Living God and who imagine and ask God for huge things! So, from contentment to power, Christians overcome the “I can’t” spirit. I am amazed at what God does through men and women willing to place their trust in our Almighty God. I watched the South Haven church overcome what appeared to be insurmountable odds to get the Gospel out into all the communities around them.

How could I not be impressed with their faith and diligent hard work? This church ran buses to the small towns around us on weekends when all the roads were blocked with snowdrifts and deep snow. They sent buses out into the cold night to rescue buses that did not make it. They also dealt with squabbles and a few fights among the bus riders. Captains, preachers, and drivers often had to step in and calm the restless students. People who do these things are doing “mighty exploits for God!” Through their efforts, hundreds were brought to salvation and baptized in the icy baptistery.  We “can” do everything, but we must remember the power of strength is from God. I think it was David Powers who quoted Paul when he bellowed “The Bible says you can. The next time you say, ‘I can’t,’ I hope all your teeth fall out.”If that prayer is answered, there are going to be many toothless people walking around. Let us make sure we are not one of them.

I traveled to Georgia a few years ago to hold a three week meeting for John Mills, a preacher I met at our Soul Saving Workshop. He asked me if I would come and I could not find a good reason to say, “No.” I asked him how long and he said, “I don’t see any sense in bringing you that far for a three day meeting, do you? Come on down for three weeks.” I said, “Okay.” He then added that they did not have any money to pay me, which was fine because I do not charge for the Gospel, just as long as someone will pick up my expenses. Without a salary, it is difficult enough to pay my own bills. Then his last foot fell hard. He said, “We cannot even pay for your plane ticket, but we know God will supply. I just heard you preach a sermon about faith that really inspired me. You do really believe that stuff don’t you?” I realized either this man was a great man of faith or the best salesman I have ever met. He has built a number of congregations in Georgia by his bus ministry of one bus. Did I mention that John has hemophilia? How could I say “I can’t?” I cannot say “I can’t.” I might say, “This is not the will of God,” but “I can’t say I can’t.”

Is God able to pull you out of your present struggle? Will you ever be out of debt? The answer is very clear, “Yes and a thousand times, yes.” He has proven He will not deliver us out of our present crisis, but rather, He will bring us through hard times. In the meantime, we can be sure He has purpose for our lives and our church. He has placed His hand on us to accomplish His purposes. Those purposes may not be what we originally thought, but one of His primary goals is to perfect our character so that we might become more and more like Jesus Christ. He certainly wants us to believe we can “do all things through Christ which strengthens us” and He wants us to know “He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask of think.” He wants us to bury the “I can’t” spirit somewhere on the other side of the Red Sea and follow Him as He leads us to the Promised Land. The old song goes, “I am bound for the Promised Land…O who will come and go with me?” Will you come and go with me?

There used to be a picture on my wall opposite my desk. It was a picture of two baby sea gulls in flight. The amazing part is, engineering experts say these baby sea gulls cannot fly. They are not engineered to fly. But, alas, someone failed to tell the baby sea gulls. The caption underneath the flying baby sea gulls says: “They can because they think they can.”You can’t say “I can’t.” It just does not fit the mindset of a Christian.

Whether you think you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.

Henry Ford

4

I Can Sleep When the Wind Blows

Preparing for Thin Ice

Thin ice in Michigan is often covered with snow, making it look solid and safe, that is until you put your full weight down upon the fractured edge. Then, it’s too late. A hasty retreat may spare you a good dunking in frigid waters. When we were kids, we enjoyed playing on Paw Paw Lake, always a favorite because there was usually a large expanse of frozen water on which we could skate. Anglers brought little shanties to protect them from the wind so they could spend hours fishing through a hole cut through the ice. However, the lake was a dangerous place to skate because you never could be sure where the ice was thin because of springs in the lake, or simply the leading edge of ice. Lake Michigan was especially treacherous because the surface of the ice was always moving, filled with air pockets created by the waves and moving water which then became covered with snow, making it impossible to know where solid ice gave way to a gaping hole ready to suck you in. We never played on the thin ice of Lake Michigan for that very reason.

So, living on the thin edge does require some wisdom and at least a little advance preparation. This is especially true when taking on projects that require us to move out on the thin edge. In fact, preparation for living on the thin edge is as important as our mental attitude. Sadly, I must confess that most of my life has been spent flying by the “seat of my pants” as the old saying goes and with disastrous results. I could say that God just did not give me the gift of planning. That is my story and I am sticking with it! Too often, I have found myself in the grips of self-created crisis requiring someone to bail me out. It could be due to impetuosity or more likely, a combination of zeal accompanied with an unwillingness to take time to think a given situation out.

One of those moments took place while living on the farm in Covert, Michigan before we moved to South Haven to be closer to the church.  We were both teachers in Watervliet, Renate and Erin babies, and JoAnn and I were trying to figure out what life was really all about. One night, a violent thunderstorm with high winds twisted the TV antenna off the roof, leaving it dangling over the north end of the gabled roof of our two-story farmhouse. The antenna was bent in such a way that it was beating against the north window of the upstairs bedroom, which also happened to be Renate’s bedroom. Hanging there precariously by the TV cable, the antenna made me nervous that it would eventually break loose and crash through her window. The next day, upon assessing the situation for a few seconds, I was motivated to jump up, grab a ladder and climb up on the peaked roof, secure the antenna, all before realizing I had to get back down off the roof. Being a little afraid of heights, actually, very afraid of heights, I realized the only way down was, well, down! I sat on that roof for a very long time, what seemed to be an eternity, before help arrived; I vowed to never do that again. JoAnn, realizing I had been gone for a long while, finally came outside where she discovered her bold and courageous husband clinging to the roof. She held the long extension ladder while I gingerly picked my way down the steps and off the roof. Not only was that embarrassing, she has never forgotten and finds humor in reminding me of my fear. Have you ever heard me say “embarrassment is a proud man being humbled?”

Another time, the front porch began to annoy me because it was in sad need of repair, so I picked up my hammer and axe, dismantling the porch board by board, finally moving to the three pillars that held the roof in place. The first two pillars came down quickly, leaving the third and final pillar holding the hip roof from tumbling to the ground. As I hit the third and final pillar, I realized at that exact moment, there was nothing to hold the roof from breaking loose from the house and come crashing to the ground.  Reaching for the roof with my arms outstretched, my body became the pillar that held the roof up for nearly an hour while I waited for JoAnn to come home and grab a 2x4 that could be jammed into place to secure the roof!  Lack of preparation has been the story of my life, but I came by this trait honestly.

Out On A Limb

One time my brothers wanted to build a man-sized tree house down on the banks of Paw Paw River. I say man-sized because it was going to be the biggest tree house that side of the Mississippi. (Dewayne never dreamed small dreams. When sent for a bunch of bananas one day, he came home with an entire stalk of bananas, about five feet tall. On another occasion, he went to the store for some peanuts but came home having bought the entire bag, fifty pounds of peanuts.) The tree house was an engineering marvel, with all the plans sketched somewhere between Dewayne and Floyd’s combined ears. Besides being gargantuan in size, building it took Herculean efforts, hauling lumber down to the river, cutting limbs that were in the way and preparing a platform on the largest limbs that they could access by climbing up the tree. It was located on the hill that descended to the river bottoms in a grove of large oaks and hard maples. It was a great project birthed from an exciting vision though somewhat sketchy in terms of preparation and planning. The tree limb that brought their plans crashing to the ground was a large limb which had to be cut back in order to make a flat platform upon which could be built the huge tree house. Floyd suggested they use a handsaw and an axe to cut back brush, finally getting down to the big limb itself. As I recall, cutting maple with a handsaw is a big project in itself. The limb finally began to give in to Dewayne’s relentless efforts, causing the outer part of the limb to pinch against the rest of the limb. Floyd, calling out instructions from the safest place he could find, told Dewayne to crawl out on the outer limb to relieve pressure from the cut. He did exactly that and continued to cut until Newton’s law of gravity kicked in, sending Brother Dewayne crashing downward through several levels of tree limbs, finally hitting the ground with an earth shuddering thud! The builders walked home, or I should say some walked home; Dewayne actually hobbled home with a broken arm and several serious cuts on different parts of his body. The tree limb had hit him in the face requiring several stitches. The tree house was never built. Lack of planning will get you every time. Preparation includes foresight.

Counting the Cost

Living on the thin edge will produce experiences we would never have had by playing it safe. The truth of life is that we are all going to have experiences out there on the thin edge of life. We will plan some and others God will plan; some are planned because of our lack of preparation. Jesus reminds us to “count the cost,” in this case, referring to following after him in becoming his disciples. As they were walking down a road, a potential disciple said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”  Instead of embracing this potential disciple, he looked into his heart and told him ministry would require self-sacrifice. Foxes and birds have a place to live, but the “Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Mt. 8:20.) He didn’t tell him not to come, but He did insist he carefully consider the price he would have to pay to be a disciple.

Our Lord actually personally invited the second man by saying simply, “Follow me.”  He counted the cost, but made a poor decision based on his personal priorities, “first let me go and bury my father” (Lk. 9:59.) His father was probably still living, but he would have postponed the gospel until his father was buried. The third man also gave an excuse. First, let me go back and say good-by to my family (Lk. 9:62.). Among all the great lessons taught in this story, one lesson stands out in stark relief to the others; count the cost before following Jesus! Jesus nailed the last nail into this spiritual lesson on counting the cost by saying, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Many kingdom members never serve effectively because they never counted the cost. (Luke 9:57-62 NIV)

Like many churches, we made preparation for our bus ministry by purchasing old buses headed for the junk pile, overhauling the engines, sanding down their bodies and applying a bright coat of yellow and blue paint on the exterior.  We even wrote JOY BUS on the front of our buses to distinguish them from school buses.  Sunday school teachers then prepared to teach on these giant Sunday schools on wheels and everyone did a magnificent job. Again, preparation is essential before beginning a lifetime of sacrifice for our Lord. However, even the best preparation will never prepare you for something unsuspected such as the night I stepped on an over-crowded bus, #4, to stop a fight. Proverbs warns against interfering with such a fight, but somehow I found myself in the middle with fists flying. I ducked just in time to miss one haymaker and lifted my head just as the fist was being thrown, landing on my nose. Broken nose and black eyes witnessed to the truthfulness of the Proverb.

God always has a few surprises waiting in the wings to make entrance onto the stage of our projects at times least expected. We even need to be ready for the unexpected things in life that we can never plan for, by how we handle such adversity. Peter is qualified to speak on the subject since he spent a fair amount of time flying by the seat of his pants. We have talked about his walk on water. Remember the time he denied Jesus just like Jesus said he would? Tradition has it that he was crucified upside down, this after Jesus prophesied that he would be taken where he did not want to go (Jn. 19.) He prepared for that one; it was no accident, and not the result of lack of preparation. God prepared Peter even for his death.(1 Pe. 5:6-7)

Our churches do not get free passes on the preparation requirement. First, we need to make sure the projects we undertake God has ordered. Too often, we see something working at another church and import the entire program into our own church. Did it originate in God’s heart before we picked up the idea? Did it originate in our hearts before we passed the idea on to God, expecting Him to fund and supply our dream? In addition, we must check our motives for doing what we do. Is it to honor God or are we trying to make a name for ourselves? The men in Genesis 11 set out to build a tower to heaven, presumably to get closer to God, but mostly to build a name for themselves. They found security in the completion of their tower. God confused their languages because He admitted there was nothing that could be denied them as long as they worked hard, united together in a common undertaking. Success does not mean it is right. We must examine our methods. God’s work built with non-biblical principles is a sure recipe for disaster.

One principle we have sorely neglected is biblical principles of finance. God never intends for us to build by presuming on His kindness or upon the future. According to Hudson Taylor, “God’s work done in God’s way will always bring God’s blessing.” I am sorry I did not read that before, though some of you warned me. We have a great God who owns all the cattle on a thousand hills. Is He not able to fund projects that originate at His desk? He probably gets tired of all requests we make of him to pay off bills for which he never received a single purchase order! Preparation required that we know the will of God. Knowing God’s will, help insure that our motives are in synch with God. Having right motives helps protect us from using wrong methods contrary to the principles of God found in the Bible.

Monument to Men

Churches need to examine all three areas: motive, method and the will of God. Effective service is service that glorifies God and service that glorifies God involves laying up treasures in heaven and building spiritual maturity in the lives of believers (Mt. 6:19-21.) We need to ask ourselves, “Are we building to glorify God or are we looking to build a monument to men?” E.M Bounds said, “Men are always looking for better methods, but God keeps looking for better men.” I wish I had a dime for every hour I have spent in church growth seminars or reading about how to grow a church. Most of my early effort has focused around machinery instead of training faithful men. Paul told Timothy to “train faithful men who would be able to train others.”

The five m’s of failed church growth focus on a Man who is charismatic enough to influence other Men to follow his plan, God centered or not. The Men who follow the Man are constantly looking for better Methods in order to further the vision of the Man. Better Methods often inspire Machinery for its smooth operation. The sad part is that all M’s lead to the final M, which is a Monument to a Man. We would do well to study the five M’s of church history. When ministry is focused around a Man, it becomes his role to communicate that goal to Men who in turn dream of bigger and better Methods which lead to the development of the Machine that leads to a Monument to a Man. Are we building monuments to man or are we glorifying God? That is an important question that cannot be overlooked.

Monuments to men lead men to work in the flesh to keep the vision of the leader. In Michigan, snowstorms are expected every winter, and we have seen some real northwesters blowing in off Lake Michigan. I remember as a child being out of school one year for three weeks because the roads were blocked with snow. We used to send our yellow Joy Buses out every week in the winter expecting snowdrifts or icy roads could be dangerous, so we made plans. That is not lack of faith that is good planning. They fight against us every mile of the way. They are cantankerous and about as stubborn as the old mules my Dad used for farming. During prayer meetings, they sit outside in that parking lot mocking us. They never worship God. Then on Sunday morning, they put up a howl. But, through preparations in advance, we make it through yet another Sunday. It is fun, but it takes preparation, and preparation is not easy.

Preparing in the Calm

Spiritually, we need to make preparations. We need to prepare in the calm for the storm, because the storms of life will come. In Lk. 8, Jesus and His disciples were caught in a storm while out on the water. Crossing the lake was not an unusual undertaking, so Jesus crawled into the bow of the boat and fell asleep. Squalls are not infrequent on the Sea of Galilee, developing quickly and hitting with great fury and without warning. Life often comes at us hard and fast without warning; if we are unprepared, it strikes with terror, overwhelming us with a sense of hopelessness. We all face them, and at times we, too, feel as if the curtain is being drawn. Jesus is asleep and He is not about to awaken. We can gain valuable insights from this short story.

First, we need always to prepare for the storm. In Lk. 6, Jesus relates a story of two men who built their houses before the storm hit. The wise man built his house on solid rock. When the winds and storms came and the floodwaters rose, his house remained firm. Nothing could move it. Why? He built on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. On what are we building our lives? The second man gave little attention to his foundation because it was not storming when he built his house. Jesus says he built on sand. Sand shifts during storms and becomes a very unstable place to build a house. Unlike the house built on solid rock, when the winds came, the rains fell and the waters rose, his foundation gave way and his house came down with a crash. We are all building a spiritual house and ought to give a lot of attention to the condition of our foundation. Paul said, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11 NIV.) Paul goes on to warn of the type of materials we are using to build on this foundation. Building on this foundation with “gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw” will be exposed for what it is. Fire will test the quality of our work. Our churches are having the quality of our work tested. If we build using spiritual stones, it will stand the test, not only now, but when that Great Day comes and fire tests the quality of every man’s work (1 Co. 3:12-15 NIV.) The most important part of preparation for the storm is how we build.

The second insight we gather from this short story is the presence of Jesus. He was in the hollow of the boat sleeping. Don’t ever step into the “boat” if Jesus is not going with you! Even the other boats were of no use to the disciples (Mk. 4:36.) The only one who counts is Jesus. He has the name that is above all names and He has given that name to us. He demonstrated power over sin and the grave and sits at the right hand of the throne of God. He speaks to demons and they flee. He has unmitigated power and authority over all the elements of life. When setting out on a journey ordered by Jesus, He will accompany you. Mark says He was sleeping in the stern of the boat when a huge wave broke over the boat and nearly swamped it. Jesus speaks to us in many ways. He spoke to Peter and beckoned him to walk on the water with Him. Do you think He did not know Peter’s faith would weaken and he would sink? Of course He did, just like He knew when He told the disciples to get into the boat, their faith would be tested by a violent and furious squall. However, He also knew He would be in the stern of the boat, waiting in the “wings” to step out into history and save these men from certain death.

The disciples responded just about the way we would respond. They recognized sure disaster and cried out to Jesus. “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” How can He lie asleep, as we sing in the old hymn, “peace be still.” He was waiting to be awakened. God is moved by our humble yet urgent prayers. He got up instantly, “rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’” The wind died down and “it was completely calm.” The third insight for the church is a reminder when the storms of life hit, not if, but when, let your emotions go and cry out in a loud voice to the one who is able to speak to the wind and calm the sea. He is with us. How do I know?  He said so. “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13 NIV.) They were terrified and wondered who this could be who has authority over even the wind and the waves. Terrified is not the same fear they experienced in the boat in the heart of the storm. Terrified people fear God and stand in wonder of His power. That is why He arranged for this little test. That is why he arranges for your tests and mine. God not only allows storms in our lives, but actually produces testing to motivate us to call out to Him so that we might witness His great power over storms that are raging in our souls.

God knows what is best for His children as He lovingly and purposefully rebukes us “because the Lord disciplines those he loves” (Heb. 12:6 NIV.) He disciplines us because we are His children and He loves His children (v. 7.) Fighting against the elements will only produce weariness and deeper fear. Our role is to submit to the “Father of our spirits and live!” (v .9.) The writer reminds us that “no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however it produces a harvest of righteousness for those who are trained by it” (v. 11.) Three truths emerge from this great passage. First, discipline is administered by our loving heavenly Father for our good. Then, He agrees that all discipline is painful and is therefore, unpleasant, to say the least. Finally, all discipline will be productive if we submit and allow Him to train us through the hardships of our souls. Sometimes, God calms the sea; other times he calms us while the storm continues to rage about us. In either case, “submit to the Father of our spirits and live.”

People we know are facing struggles of many kinds, testing the mettle of their faith and growing their character. We have walked with families down the valley of death and watched them remain steadfast, unmovable (1 Co. 15:58. ) We will never forget our dear sister in Christ who had a brain aneurism and lay at the gates of death for several hours before God lifted her up. The man who died of cancer shortly after crying out to God for salvation and being buried in the waters of baptism is a reminder of the love of God that drove him into the arms of Jesus. We were painfully reminded of the seriousness of God’s discipline when Dennis was executed by his crime boss because he walked away from drugs into the arms of Jesus. I was preaching in South Haven that Sunday night when the state police brought me the news. We walked with the family who lost their daughter to a single shot to the heart down in the Projects where bus #1 ran. The bullet, though meant for someone else, went through two walls and found her heart, killing her instantly. We held the funeral for Betty who lived in our home in Covert when she gave her life to Jesus. Upon moving to Benton Harbor, she was killed during an explosion while scraping up glue from the floor using gasoline. A spark from a clock ignited the vapors and she was sent into eternity. We wept together as we laid our brother Harry Minshall in the grave. Harry’s school bus was hit by a train as he was returning home somewhere south of Bangor. In the storms of life, we called out to Jesus and He heard our cry and answered our prayer. He is still in the stern of our boat today.

Jesus was Asleep

There was once a farmer who needed some help on his farm, so he put out a sign on the post by the gate near the entry to his farm.  It wasn’t long until a young boy came up to the farmer’s door and asked to be given the job as he felt he was well qualified. The farmer was not so sure about that, so he began to ask him a few questions about his experience and skill in working on a farm. “Can you make hay?” the farmer asked with the boy saying emphatically, “No!” The boy’s answer was strange for a young man looking for work on a farm, but the puzzled farmer asked him again, “Can you milk cows?” But the reply was still, “No.” Well, can you drive a tractor?” questioned the bewildered farmer. But, the answer was still, “No.” By this time the old farmer, who was at the end of his patience, ready to send the boy packing down the road, asked him one last question. “Just what can you do?” The young man said very simply, “I can sleep while the wind blows.” The farmer thought that was surely a strange qualification, but needed help so badly that he went ahead and hired the young man anyway.

After two or three days, a storm began to brew. Clouds formed from the west and the wind began to stir. Late that night, the storm hit the farm with full fury. Rain began beating on the old farm house, the windows began to rattle and the trees in the yard began to bend beneath the fury of the wind. Alarmed, the old farmer jumped out of bed and shook his young helper, but was unable to awaken him. He rushed outside to check the cows, fearful that they had been left out in the pasture, the hay left uncovered and the doors left unbolted. But, to his surprise, all the farm animals were safe in the barn, the hay was covered and all the barn doors were bolted and secured. Finally, he began to realize what the young man meant when he said, “I can sleep while the wind blows.” He had one lone qualification, but that was all that was necessary to enable him to rest peacefully when the storm was raging.              Jesus could sleep while the wind blew because He knew His life was in the hands of His Father, who “neither slumbers nor does He sleep.” All things had been cared for, he had drifted off to sleep with a clear conscience and his relationship with God was in order.

While the tempests outside the boat raged fearfully against the small hull of that boat, sleeping inside was the Son of God! What a wonderful lesson for us. How we need to prepare in the calm for the time of the storm. When I am called to the bedside of a dying man or woman who failed to prepare, it is very difficult to find words to say that bring any comfort. Years of wasted opportunities and neglected relationships weigh heavily on their hearts. We need to be in the preparing business. “Can you sleep while the winds blow? God has promised to complete His work in us (2 Pe. 1:3.) In Gal. 6:9 NRSV, Paul says that in due season, “we will reap if we do not give up.” The disciples were at least wise enough to awaken Jesus and cry for help. We need to remember to pray, not only during the storms, but in preparation for the storms.

Sometimes, we are like the two men out on a raft in the middle of a great storm. Their plane had crashed in the ocean, and they were able to salvage a raft big enough for two people. They drifted for several days, overcoming several obstacles, until they saw sharks swimming in the water around them. In addition to the sharks, a big storm blew up with the wind raging and the waves crashing over the side of the tiny raft.  The men began to get a little worried. One asked the other, “Can you pray?” The other man responded, “Well, I did once a few years ago, but I am not sure I can remember how.” After a little while, conditions began to worsen as the storm picked up in intensity, and sharks began circling the small craft looking for their next meal. Finally, one of the survivors said, “Maybe you had better try to pray now.” So, he began his plain prayer: “God, we are in a real pickle. I know I’ve not prayed to you in about ten years. Please help us this one time and I promise you I won’t bother You again for another ten years.” Unfortunately, that is not the way it works. Paul said we should pray without ceasing. Keep those prayer lines open all the time.

Where Is Your Faith?

After the disciples awakened Jesus, it took only a moment for the Lord to bring the crisis under control. He rebuked the wind, and it stopped blowing. He called out to the seas, and they laid back, smooth as silk. Even the winds and the water are under his control. That is a lesson we need to remember during the storm we are facing. God still sits on the throne and he is making intercession for all his saints. Jesus said, “Where is your faith?” They had all the power of the universe sleeping in the stern of their boat, the One who wears the name Jesus, which is the “name above all names,” the “Alpha and Omega.” By His name, demons flee, cripples walk and the blind see! He raised Lazarus from the tomb by simply crying, “Lazarus, get up.” We are limited only by faith and our willingness to humble ourselves and cry out to Him. Whether or not we can sleep while the wind blows is determined by the preparations we have made in the calm for the storm. Of course, the biggest preparation is to make sure He is in the boat with you.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

Henry Ford

5

He Failed to Restrain Them

The Toboggan Lesson

Somewhere in the remote areas of the vast empty unconquered space between my left and right ear, I am sure there must have been a voice whispering, “Don’t do it!” It was the weekend before district tournaments in Michigan and our basketball team had a good draw and was favored to win the first round. After practice, Coach Briskey warned our team to stay off the ice. Skating and trudging through snow took the spring out of our legs. He singled me out by saying, “Selvidge, stay off the toboggan,” since I was notorious for crashes. That was Friday. Sunday brought a huge snowstorm, with deep snow, perfect for tobogganing. After church, my brothers and many of our friends headed out to the dunes on Lake Michigan. Of course, I told my parents that I would stay off the sled. That was until we saw the huge collection of new snow accumulated on the dunes. Somehow, I found myself on the first toboggan headed down hill, with five passengers behind me.

Making a trail is the most difficult and exciting all at the same time because new snow flies into your face, while at the same, making it impossible to see clearly where you are going. My very first slide down the hill ended at the base of a five or six foot pine tree, splitting my lip, chipping my tooth and breaking my nose. Five stitches later, I faced my parents and the next morning, I had to say good morning to Coach who asked me, “What happened to you?” What could I say? His comment was less of a question than an accusation. The evidence was there, so there was no sense in denying it. Coach walked away and I thought, “I am too valuable a player to sit out tomorrow night’s game.”

Warm-ups came and went and still no retribution from Coach. I thought I made it but when Coach called out the starting line-up, my name was not there. No problem, I thought, he is saving me to come in later in the game. But, by the fourth quarter, it was pretty apparent I was destined to ride this one out on the pine. Besides, we won, even without me, their star guard, we won. In the car on the way home, it didn’t take long to voice my strong disapproval of coach leaving me on the bench. He said it was because I was injured, but I knew better than that. After ranting and raving about Coach, Mother broke into my tirade, announcing, “It was your Dad that kept you on the bench.” Finally, Dad spoke: “Son, it wasn’t the coach’s idea to keep you out of the game; that was my idea. You didn’t deserve to play because you did not obey your coach.” That really hurt, but, it was a lesson I have never forgotten.

Learning the Fear of the Lord

A good father knows that discipline and firm restraint are gateways to lifelong freedom for his children. On the other hand, failure to build self-government into a child’s life is a recipe for sure disaster. The wise man Solomon summed it all up like this. “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” (Pr. 22:6.) “Train” refers to bringing your children up to follow in your footsteps. That can be really scary. Maybe some of us need to examine our own lives in order to effectively train our children. Training also implies a plan rather than a haphazard method. Training them up in the way they should go refers to their “bents” or personalities and skills. If we are faithful in training our children, the promise are that when they are old, will not depart from it. “Old” refers to their early years beyond the age of twelve. There are two ideas we ought to bury; first, that teens will rebel. I do not even like the term “teens.” They do not, all of a sudden, turn into ravenous wolves.

Do not expect your children to fail. On the other hand, when they fail, be there to help them up without classifying them as teens going through a phase in their lives. The other mistake is to assume young people have to “sow their wild oats” getting their rebellion out of their hearts, then when they are “older,” they will be ready to settle down and be fruitful Christians. That is just not true. “When he is old” references this so called “teenager.” The wise man is saying if we train them according to the way they should go, they will not depart from the father’s teaching. I realize many will rebel and many families who read this book have experienced the heartache of a rebellious child. There are many factors at work here, but we should be careful not to make this scripture say something it does not say. That gives us hope! To believe they have to fail brings on despair.

Eli was a great priest to the Israelite nation but a poor father to his two sons. He was so busy doing the work of the Lord and ministering to the needs of people that he lost touch with his most valuable ministry, his two sons. He let them slip right between his fingers while doing the Lord’s work. Do you know how easy it is to let that happen, even when you know better? It becomes a daily struggle between our responsibilities at home and our job. We are forced to do a tight rope act while juggling several balls at the same time. I understand that because I have been there. But, besides his neglect of his family, somewhere between ministry and bed, Eli was packing away a few extra calories, because the Bible says he was a “very large man.”

Eli’s sons were wicked men who had no regard for the Lord because they had not been taught to “fear God.” The wise man says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” They misused the meat offerings brought to the Lord, and even required women to sleep with them at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, abusing their position of influence given because they were sons of the high priest. In 1 Samuel.. 2:25, Eli warned them about God’s power and the danger of the sins they were committing, but the sons. Phinehas and Hophni, refused to listen. They had no fear of God, and they had no fear of God because they were never taught self-government. They refused to restrain themselves. Consequently, judgment was brought upon Eli and his two wicked sons. In 1 Samuel. 3:12, Samuel revealed God’s intentions to bring judgment upon them and gave this numbing reason: “He failed to restrain them.

The results of unrestrained living are big and severe. It meant death for Eli, Phinehas and Hophni, as they all died on the same day. The two sons were killed in battle and their father upon hearing of the news fell out of his chair and died. The Holy Spirit opens a window here to help us understand the root of Eli’s problem. He says Eli was very heavy. He could not call his children to restraint because he did not live in self-restraint himself. America is feeling the effects of a generation of unrestrained living. We overeat, oversleep, and overindulge in alcohol and drugs because we have never learned the lesson of self-restraint. Overweight is a national problem. Better than 69% of our population is overweight. (35% of that number is obese.) We must develop a generation of people who have learned to say “No!” to themselves.

Self-Government

If I asked you to define government, most of your minds would think of Washington, D.C. or your own state capitols. It might surprise you to know that in 1828, the year that Webster published his first dictionary, he defined government as “self-government.” This definition in Webster’s newly released dictionary points us back to the Bible, the only source to properly understand our need for government and to get a balanced perspective of the role of government in our lives. Webster’s full definition is: regulation; government of our conduct; control; self-restraint; controlling temper and passion. As Christians, we give our hearts and our minds to God (1 Pe. 1:14-16) and exercise self-control over our minds (2 Co. 10:4-6) and the members of our bodies (1 Co. 9:26-27) as well as our actions.

The Bible definition of government is not an all powerful state, but the development of self-restraint in the hearts and lives of every individual through the family, church, and civil authorities, each regulated by the principle of self-government. Man was given responsibility in the garden to keep the garden and not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There was no civil government to enforce the laws, only self-government. The family is given the rod, the church is given preaching, teaching, love and church discipline. The state is given the sword (Ro. 13:3-4.) Failing to train our children to be self-governing leads to the necessity of bigger and stronger authorities to be raised up to produce self-control.

The Bible has a lot to say about self-government but refers to this form of government as self-control and tells us it is the fruit of the Spirit (Ga. 5:22.) In 2 Pe. 1:5-9, Peter lists several qualities that Christians ought to add to their faith. One of these virtues is self-control or self-government. In Paul’s letter to the evangelist Titus, he exhorted Titus five times to teach self-control to the people of Crete. In Titus.. 2:12, he especially emphasizes that the grace of God “teaches us to say ‘no’ to ungodliness and worldly passions” and to live “self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.”

Paul also told Timothy that we have not “been given a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and self-discipline.” Self-control and self-discipline are absolutely essential in living lives that are pleasing to God and a blessing to ourselves and those with whom we live. The wise man Solomon said the absence of self-restraint or self-government brings the necessity of more policemen and lawmakers. We can see the evidences all around us in the decay of morals and the exalting of sinful behavior. Children are not taught restraint, but are rather encouraged to exploit their parents. This was true for Eli and is true for us today. We must draw a line in the sand, begin practicing self-government, and train the generations to come to be self-governed. We have no choice!

In 2 Peter 1:6-8, Peter says if we have self-control, along with some other things, in increasing measure (an indication we never fully arrive) that they will keep us from being 1) ineffective, 2) blind, and 3) unproductive. That is what is wrong when we are unable to finish a project or even get started. As a preacher, I often visit in homes where it looks like a Sherman tank just rolled through, following an F7 tornado! Our garages reflect this same disdain for order and self-restraint. The housewife or business man who cannot seem to find enough hours in his day or the minister who is continually missing deadlines and appointments, the family who rarely ever pays its bills on time have not learned self-control and as a result, do not receive blessings from God.

Peter further explains that anyone who has not learned self-government has a vision problem. In the KJV, it says he is “blind and cannot see afar off.” That means he is unable to view life over a distance. His focus is on the immediate. Have you ever noticed how the unrestrained person lives for the moment, rarely giving thought or even refusing to give thought for the future? It is really quite funny to notice how we work so hard to fulfill a momentary need. Among other things, we are overweight because we cannot see afar off; those extra calories seem to beckon to us and we have very little will power to resist. After all, it’s only a few calories.

We live for the “pleasures of a season” rather than denying ourselves in exchange for a future reward. Yet, a principle of life that never fails is, “We shall reap what we sow.” As a young boy growing up on the farm, I learned a lesson about the efficiency of the harvest. If you sow it, you will reap it. Dumping extra seeds in each hole in the ground may have cut my workday today, but those pesky seeds came up in a few days. It doesn’t take an exceptionally bright boy to know that somewhere along the line, Dad would find out where all those extra seeds went. I learned you reap what you sow!

Self-control applies to all of us. We are all sowing seeds every day, seeds that will come up whether we like it or not. We just cannot afford to live in the moment, sowing seeds that dishonor God and produce harvests that shame us. Paul applies self-control to several groups of people: overseers, old men, old women, young women and young men. He also implies that is the job of the older generation to teach self-control to the next generation. Recently, we have been referring to this role for families as multi-generational faithfulness. It is not difficult to see the results of a generation who have not been trained to be self-governing, who have not learned to control their thinking, passions, appetites or tongues. But, how can we learn to be self-governed? Since self-control is part of the fruit of the Spirit, we know that true self-government begins with the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of Control

Paul numbers several results of the Holy Spirit living inside Christians (Ro. 8 NIV.) First, in vs. 1-4, we are told the “Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death...God condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us…”  Living by the Spirit of life provides freedom from the flesh. It is a choice we must make every day, to either live by the Spirit or listen to the gnawing of the flesh.

Second, Paul says “the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace” (vs. 5-6.) Our generation uses pills and drugs to find peace while many of us have the Prince of Peace living inside of us. The reason we do not surrender to the gracious Prince within us is that doing so would require us to give up control. We do not like being controlled by anyone, including God.

Third, in vs. 9-11, Paul confirms that Christians are controlled by the Spirit and not by the flesh. This is how we ought to live our lives, in surrender to his Holy Spirit. If we belong to Christ, He lives in us. Proof of our sonship is His Holy Spirit. In the next section, vs. 42-47, we find that this life controlled by the Holy Spirit brings life and defeats fear, giving us confidence that we are children of God. A Spirit-filled life is a life free from fear. When I counsel someone who has crippling fears I know they are being controlled by their flesh and not by the Holy Spirit. In fact, frequently people with obsessive fear have some level of demonic activity in their lives.

Finally, in vs. 26-27, Paul reveals a powerful truth that most Christians are either not aware of or have chosen not to take advantage of its liberating power. How many times have you heard someone say, “I have prayed till I don’t know what to pray anymore”? In the flesh, we run out of options and find ourselves pleading with God without really knowing how to pray. It is at those moments that the Holy Spirit wants to come to our side and help us pray. The life controlled by the Holy Spirit can take advantage of the helper, “the parakletos” to pray for us when we do not know how to pray. So, first, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit because He is the one who empowers us to be self-controlled.

Fix Your Eyes on Jesus

While Paul waited in jail to be executed, he admonished his readers to face hardships with the attitude of Jesus (Php. 2:5 NIV.) It is fruitless to try to act like Jesus if we do not think like He thinks. In the KJV, Paul said to have the mind of Jesus. Jesus had a mind to accept the suffering and agony of the cross with a humble obedient spirit. He had a mind of victory over Satan. He was tempted at the beginning of His ministry in the wilderness and finished his ministry with the temptation to have the cup of death taken away. In both cases, He surrendered to the will of His father. He quoted scripture in the face of temptation in Mt. 4 to the point that the devil left him “until a more opportune time” (Mt. 4 NIV.) This has to be our mind set as well, realizing there is no temptation that is too great for us to bear and through which God will provide a way to escape (1 Co. 10:13 NIV.) Don’t ever say the devil made you do it or that the trial is too difficult for you to bear.

In Heb. 12:1-2, we have another reminder to keep our eyes on Jesus. The writer reminds us to lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us so that we might run the race marked out for us with endurance. We must enter the race with determination to run it to completion. How is that possible? Coach always told us to keep our eyes on the finish line. In our case, Paul tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:1-4 KJV.) We cannot run our race with one eye fixed on Jesus and the other eye on the world around us. We will have a hard time finishing our race as long as we have our eyes focused on the things of this life. How can I keep my eyes on Jesus and on immorality at the same time? If my eyes are on Jesus, you will not see me in a bar or watching an X-rated movie or reading pornographic literature. Nor can we lie up and sleep half the day with a house that needs to be cleaned and dishes that need to be washed and put away. Self-control must begin by putting our eye on Jesus.

Develop and Practice Good Habits

Eli did not develop healthy habits in his own life, being much overweight, nor did he help his children practice self-restraint. Habits are funny creatures. They are hard to begin and even harder to stop! Habits reduce an otherwise strong, healthy man or woman to a begging, whining mass of unrestrained flesh. We have to be careful about what we poke into our mouths! We are a product of what we eat and what we think. The wise man Solomon, warned us to “guard your heart with all diligence for out of it flow the issues of life” (Pr. 4:23.) That is exactly why we have to guard what we watch on T.V., movies and what we say and to what we listen. We have three gates that must be guarded; the eye gate, the mouth gate and the ear gate. What goes in comes out. Zig Ziglar calls it GIGO, “garbage in equals garbage out!” We must learn to stop poking garbage into our gates while expecting to get quality words and actions expressed in our lives. We simply need to develop good habits!

A man sitting next to me on a plane was having nicotine fit. Have you ever seen a two hundred pound man reduced to a quivering mass of humanity over a tiny cigarette? I have watched people that I have tried to help overcome drugs reduced to animal behavior looking for another fix. Yet, in every case, somewhere along the line they had control, but they relinquished control to a substance. It is important to remember that Christ has set us free (Ro. 8:1-4 NIV) and to stop praying for freedom, but begin to live the spirit-filled life that represents freedom. God can use the formation and practice of good habits to help us live in freedom.

It would be great to point a crooked finger at all of you and preach about your problem with self-government, but that would not only be a lie, but the practice of hypocrisy. While holding a meeting in a Michigan town, the Lord brought this point home to me in a very humbling way. My hostess was a very sweet lady who had an obsession for making preachers fat. She tried hard to get me to eat everything in sight and I, being led like a lamb before the slaughter, just kept quiet and cooperated as best I knew how. Someone had told her that I loved pecan pie, which was true, and that pie became my final gasp for self-restraint. Going to bed at night with pecan pie in the refrigerator was just more than I thought I could bear.

During the watches of the night, when Kings go to war and preachers ought to be either praying or sleeping, all I could think about was pecan pie. Walking past the refrigerator, two or three times with a depraved look in my eyes, fed my lust for the sweet taste of pie. Lust would build, and then I would gain control and rush back to my bedroom, with only momentary success. All I could think of was pie. I was being drawn away and enticed by my own lusts (Jas. 1 NIV.) Soon this hulk of a strong man was reduced to a nervous wreck trying to withhold my passion. Well, the devil won, the pie disappeared, and I was the loser! Develop and practice good habits! One elderly lady once said she could understand why so many young people were on drugs because of what they see in the world around them. She said innocently, “Why, if it were not for tranquilizers, I would probably be on drugs myself!”

Illegal drugs are not the only problem. In fact, they represent a very small portion of the drugs consumed by the average American; pills to get us up, pills to get us back down, pills to lose weight, pills to gain weight, pills to sleep, and pills to wake us. Pills, pills, pills, pills! When will it stop? Gain self-control. Don’t be a pill zombie!

Learn How to Say “No”

Christians ought to live for God and for others! Jesus said before a man could be His disciple he had to love God more than any other; take up his cross daily (die to self) and deny himself (Lk. 14 NIV.) Satan will war against our souls, wanting to exert the power of temptation. He does not give up easily and will not lie down simply because we want him to do so. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” That is the power of the resurrection. Paul explains, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength which he exerted in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead” (Eph. 1:18-20 NIV.)

We are not without power. We do not have to be reduced to a quivering mass of excuses. We have resurrection power at work in us. We access that power by denying ourselves and letting Jesus Christ take over! Titus 2:10 says God gives us grace that “teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and live a self-controlled, upright and godly life.”

What Are You Thinking?

What are we thinking when we live unrestrained lives?  Php. 4:8 NIV says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”  Unrestrained living is created by unrestrained thinking. Unrestrained living and talking happens most often when our thinking is in the toilet. The next time you are tempted to think something that will not edify, run your thoughts by this list. “Are they true, or noble, or even right? Do they rise from pure motives? Are they admirable or excellent or praiseworthy?” Avoid people who are negative and are energy wasters. Do not watch movies or read stories that leave you in a worse state than before you began watching of reading. Concentrate on the beauties of God’s creation–snow, rain, trees, and flowers–and let your spirit soar as you meditate on the wonderful things God gave for His glory! Spend time alone with God; ask Him to create within you a new spirit (Ps. 51.) Fill your mind with the inspiring words of the Bible and meditate on them day and night (Ps. 1.) When you do this, you “will mount up with wings like eagles, you will run, and not be weary; and you will walk and not faint” (Isa. 40:31.)

Learn to Control Your Tongue

Finally, we must learn to control the tiny muscle attached to the back of our mouths. James hints that it is more difficult to tame than the most powerful beast in the jungle (Jas. 3.) A lion can be tamed, a tiger domesticated, bears can be taught to do tricks, but the human tongue is beyond our ability to tame. “When we put bits into the mouths of horses,…we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder” (Jas. 3:3-6 NIV.) James also says the tongue is a fire, comparing the tongue to a single spark that sets an entire forest on fire. Here in Arizona, we know the devastating effects of a little spark that sets forests on fire. This is where it gets interesting. First, it corrupts the whole person. Second, it sets the whole course of his life on fire. Finally, it is itself set on fire by hell. A man once said that perhaps the reason a dog is man’s best friend is because he has learned to wag his tail and not his tongue. Learn to control your tongue. Anger is a result of lack of self-restraint and manifests itself in a tongue that is out of control.

Stay Out of the Creek

Who knows what goes on in the mind of a five year old when he disobeys his teacher and sets out to prove he is old enough to make his own decisions. We walked to our country school, about two miles from our home in Riverside, Michigan, every day. To think of a five year old walking two miles to school scares me today; nonetheless, that is what we did. The school sat on a hill overlooking Mill Creek at the bottom of a gentle sloping hill. I am not sure, but it seems to me that the creek flowed into Paw Paw River which ran behind our house. The creek was not very deep, but was a pretty fast moving stream, making it dangerous for five year olds to play in it alone. It was a one room school, so the older kids were allowed to go to the creek at recess while those of us who were younger had tighter restraints. The teacher had just warned us to “stay away from the creek,” when my partner in crime, Jimmy, invited me to walk down to the creek with him. We had a great time, until he lured me near the bank and shoved me in! I was wet from head to toe.

Of course, I told the teacher it was not my fault, but to no avail. Besides getting a good spanking, public execution style with pants pulled down, I had to take all my clothes off and sit in front of the room in my long johns with a flap in the back. That experience taught me two lessons: never to trust Jimmy again and to make sure I wore long johns with a flap that had both buttons secured! It was not until much later in life, just the other day, when I started writing this story, that I realized my own culpability in the incident. Up till then, I carried a lifelong irritation for Jimmy. All of a sudden, it dawned on me that I was the one who disobeyed my teacher. Whatever the circumstances were, I deserved punishment, not for getting wet, but for playing in the creek! I chose to walk on the thin edge, and paid the price. Of course, I think the teacher erred on the side of judgment rather than mercy, don’t you?

Living on the thin edge requires discipline and self-government. Failure to live by the rules will bring disastrous consequences. There is a difference between living on the edge and living out of control.

6

A Letter from a Gambler

We bring many troubles into our lives as a result of lack of self-government or self-restraint. The wise man said, “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control” (Pr. 25:28 NIV.) The enemy looks for breaches in our walls and exploits them, bringing many to destruction. Many stories come to my mind of people whose lives are in shambles because they have failed to learn self-restraint, from drug addicts to morbidly obese people and everything in between. Unfortunately, I don’t have to look very far to find some sad examples, beginning with my own life.

To be sure, we know that there are many issues that contribute to our self-destructive habits, but at the heart of every addiction is a soul that refuses to exercise self-control, whatever the underlying issues. Every now and then, I bump into a person who is determined to turn his life around and wrestle with the issues of self-restraint. Then, we are able to deal with the roots of bitterness, temporal values or immorality. Some make it and some do not. What really makes the difference between the successful people and those who do not make it is a genuinely repentant heart and a complete willingness to let Jesus control his life. God can and God will empower us to overcome. I once met a man while I was holding a gospel meeting in Michigan who owned a real estate agency and apparently was very successful. I was immediately impressed by he and his wife. I could tell he had a story that needed to be told. Ralph had led a most undisciplined life as a gambler, beginning very small and graduating to gambling on a

large scale. His habit took such a hold on his life that it brought destruction to every part of his life, including his own self-image. God brought Ralph face to face with the Gospel and his life changed forever. He embraced Jesus as His Lord and the rest is history. Let us let him tell his story. It’s much better than I could relate.

Ralph’s Story

Dear Jerry,

Thank you for the opportunity to tell my story, and I can’t leave my loving wife out either; without her, I don’t believe I would have had the opportunity to change my ways. But the greatest credit I can give, without a doubt, is Jesus Christ. He was with me through thick and thin. About the age of twenty two, I began to frequent the race track; at that particular time, I would go with friends of my parents. I should mention that all these people were very concerned that I would not go overboard. Well, anyway, they were in quite thick with harness drivers, and did the betting for several drivers, in many cases, the same race. I was a two dollar bettor. A single man, without a very good income, I worked as a route helper for a beverage company. As I continued to go more often to the track, the love and excitement grew stronger. I was making more in one or two days at the track than I made all week on my job. I was getting pretty good information, usually involving only one or two races per night. I I would place bets on my own on the other races, sometimes being very successful. As an example, one night, I bet nine races and had eight winners. That was

Satan’s hook. I started seeing myself as an expert and greed began to set in because the small bets were not good enough. It was time to move on to bigger things.

On Saturdays, I would play golf with friends. After playing a round, we usually ended up with a paper, checking the race entries. My first experience with the runners resulted in five winners paying much more than the trotters. I was hooked into big time gambling. I worked long hours, leaving Saturday as the only day to make it to the track. One day, late in the afternoon, as I walked around seeking a good vantage point to watch the races, I saw a man who looked like my Dad from the back. Making my way around the crowd to get a better look, I could see it was him. I knew when he was younger he gambled, but I thought he had quit.  Seeing my Dad brought several provoking thoughts. One in particular was that Mom used to hide money, and I often wondered why!

A few years later, I met my wife who was a Christian and member of the church of Christ. We had a short courtship and decided to marry on the condition of my becoming a Christian. Within a year, I was back at the race track. The track was only five miles from where I worked, making it easy to hide from my wife. Most people are not impressed with a gambler, so you learn not to talk about it even when you win big. However, there were several guys I worked with who were also gamblers. By this time I had graduated from a two dollar bettor to a five dollar bettor. I frequently ran into my Dad and he made it very clear that neither one of us belonged there. He would say, “Look around you at these people, they are all hooked.” But, then we would both get back to the work

at hand, staying together for the remaining races. He was not a Christian nor can I remember him ever going to church, other than some special event. Once a horse paid off big time for me and I told Dad that I had prayed for that horse to win. My Dad looked me straight in the eye and said, “Ralph, don’t think for a moment that God is going to be part of a prayer like that.

It was not long after that Dad discovered he had lung cancer. While he was taking treatment, he started asking me a lot of questions about church. He was a very stubborn man, but he was concerned about his soul. When my uncles visited and talked about the races, Dad would cut them short and ask them to leave if that was all they had to talk about. One of the elders in our church gained Dad’s respect, but Dad would never make the commitment. Before he died, he told my mother what a fool he had been. Later, my wife and I had a car accident. She was in the hospital for two weeks, had lost a finger and had internal injuries. The accident also shook me up, but within a few days, I was back to work as a real estate salesman. The first six months were a struggle with bills piling up. I got things going pretty good and didn’t have too much time to get to the track. I am sharing these details to show you the pattern. Up to this point I was still the five dollar bettor with an occasional ten or twenty dollar bet. We were going pretty well. The bills were paid about the time we received our accident settlement. I say, “Ours,” but I believe I thought of it as mine shortly after we received it. It was a considerable amount of money, enough to buy another house in a nice subdivision and deposit another $5000 in savings. Something began to happen to me. I saw myself as an expert as a good handicapper;

also I now owned two houses and rented one which covered our new mortgage payments. Now I could take an entirely new approach. In the past, when I needed something, I was off to the track, but sometimes I was a little too lucky to believe. For example, I would lose the first seven races, then parlay the last two and win $400 when thirty minutes earlier, it looked like doomsday. So, now I was in a position to stack the odds to my advantage. One thing I was certain was that I had to work, and too many visits to the track didn’t help my job. My solution was to bet more money so I could win bigger, and then trust myself to leave when I had achieved my goal for the day. (Jerry, I want you to know this brings back a lot of bad memories.) Of course, it worked just as planned at the beginning. But, my production at work was falling and my boss was baffled as to the reasons. The only thing that saved me was that I was a pretty good salesman. Most listing appointments were in the evening. I worked hard to set up appointments in the morning so I could be at the track by 7:00 p.m. My wife would frequently call the office at 2:30 in the afternoon and I wouldn’t get home until 9:30 or later. Calling back to the office would require me to leave the track and pay another track fee. One time when I called the office, I had to lie and tell the other salesman that I was “prospecting.” He then informed me I had clients sitting at my desk waiting for me, an appointment that had slipped my mind. Needless to say, I was obsessed by the track, an obsession that lasted over seven years. Eventually, I had to convince my loving, trusting wife that we needed to sell one of our houses in order to make ends meet since we were having our third child. She was not

gullible, but to my shame, always trusted me. I knew how to cover my tracks and did so better than a safe cracker. It is sad the lengths I would go to just to get another day at the track. If I won money, I would use it to pay a few bills. If I won big, I would save part of my winnings for my next trip to the races. Eventually, my house of cards fell down and I put my family through a lot of needless hardships because of my lack of self-control.

Just about every gambler feels one day luck will be on his side and he will hit it big. It just does not work that way. Something happens to a man’s character the longer he stays in. He will eventually hit the bottom and get out, or he will stay in and things will get worse. I am grateful to God for his power in delivering me from the bondage of my own sin. With God’s grace, I will never go back. I am motivated to take better care of my family. God has given me that opportunity. It is sad to note, but in this great land, we are conditioned to believe we can get something for nothing. It is just not true.

Jerry, this has been difficult to write, brother, but if it helps one person, it is worth it!

Ralph

It is so exciting to be a child of the King and to live in such a country as America! However, the richest of blessings will never be ours as long as we have not learned self-restraint.

7

Jesus Adds Life—Pass It On!

Most people are looking for something to make them happy, take away depression or headache, or help them forget what they did wrong yesterday, if only for a few minutes. On the other hand, have you noticed the contagious joy of living on the thin edge? You cannot miss all the commercials centered on the theme of pleasure or happiness. You can buy toothpaste to brighten your smile, a truck to haul your toys, beer in order to have a party, and drugs for just about everything you can imagine. Marketing experts capitalize on a basic desire of every human being, the drive for happiness. What makes this technique so successful? Look around you at the people you see. Their faces are worried, frustrated, joyless expressions of men and women who are searching for the real thing. We turn to just about anything we can imagine to relieve the boredom and fear permeating our lives.

While returning from preaching in the Mid-West, I was forced to spend an entire night and morning in an airport, while runway conditions improved enough to get a flight out to my hometown. Most hotels were full and those that were not required a lot more money than I had, so I spent the time cat-napping. Sitting in a public place where a lot of people were passing by, I could not help but notice how rare it was to see joy on a person’s face. It is sad! So, I smiled all night, while people stared at me wondering if I were drunk, planning some sort of mischief, dreaming of a better day, or just simply a few bricks short of a full load. Marketing picturing happy people works because

we are a nation of people looking for happiness and we are willing to pay whatever it costs to get some of it, even if it only lasts for a short time.

There used to be a commercial that grabbed your attention and said, “Come go with me!” Excited, happy farmers, contractors, and businessmen were smiling and having a grand old time passing around a bottle of Coca-Cola. All of a sudden, everyone seemed to find purpose in living; “Just pass me a Coke and my worries will all pass away, because Coca-Cola adds life…pass it on! That is the way God’s people ought to be. We should be the ones’ singing, “Jesus adds life…pass it on!”

Passing It On!

Jesus does add life. In fact, He said He came to give us not only life, but abundant life (Jn. 10:10.) Can you imagine the buzz of excitement as Jesus went from village to village preaching the Good News? Everywhere He went, there was joy, and He passed it on to others. The presence of a man who really cared, whose life was lived for others, whose words were spoken with authority, pulled multitudes together to listen. Jesus touched the lives of hurting, miserable people even as He passed by them, healing the lame, opening the eyes of the blind, bringing sound to the ears of the deaf and bringing hope to a world that had no hope. All around Jesus was life, real life, and Jesus was passing it on! What is the Gospel anyway? It is much more than a formula to escape hell. Paul said it is the “Power of God.” He begins this great letter with the Gospel and He finishes it with the Gospel.

In addition, the Gospel is woven throughout

this book of theology for practical Christian living. In Jn. 16:27, John says “God is able to strengthen us through the Gospel.” The Gospel has power to redeem us and the same Gospel has power to deliver us. In 2 Co. 4:7, Paul says this treasure (the Gospel) is in jars of clay. We are not the treasure. The treasure lies within, but we are made beautiful by the proclamation of the Gospel. “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel.” Preaching of the Gospel brings joy. Passing on what we have had passed to us is satisfying.

In Jn. 1:35-42, Andrew had an encounter of the spiritual kind with Jesus. Andrew was so moved that he spent the entire day walking and talking with Jesus. The first thing he did, when he left Jesus, was to pass this good news on to his brother Simon, who became one of the greatest gospel preachers ever known among men. This happened because his brother had a passion for the Gospel passed on to him. We need to pass it on.  Look at all the people Jesus healed! He told them not to tell others, but they were so touched by Jesus that they could not hold it in. They spread the good news all over the entire region.

In Lk. 8:38, the story is told of a man from whom Jesus cast out demons. The demon-liberated man was so excited about Jesus that he begged to go with him. However, Jesus had a greater plan for a passionate man who was now a possessor of truth. Jesus said, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” The liberated believer obeyed Jesus and went all over town passing on the good news about his new found Savior. He did this because he found life. He could not help it. He had fire in his belly! Jesus added life and he had to pass it on.

Philip obeyed an angel of the Lord who sent him to the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. On his way, he met an Ethiopian eunuch who was reading from the book of Isaiah. He had been to Jerusalem to worship. Philip told him the Gospel about Jesus Christ, and there on that stretch of road, they came to some water and Philip baptized the eunuch. Philip was passing it on (Acts 8:39.) When the eunuch came up out of the water, Philip was taken away by the Spirit and the eunuch went on his way rejoicing. Why? Jesus adds life! He was passing it on.

Ananias passed the good news to Saul in Acts 22:15, and admonished him to “rise and be baptized, calling on the name of the Lord.” Saul became the great Apostle Paul because a Gospel messenger passed it on and many Gentiles heard the Gospel call because Ananias obeyed the prompting of the Holy Spirit. He passed it on!

In Acts 4, the apostles were arrested and brought before members of the ruling council. When questioned about their faith, they replied by saying, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we can be saved.” The courage of these men moved their accusers and “they took note that they had been with Jesus.” The Sanhedrin conferred together and warned them not pass it on to anyone else. Their reply still moves hearts of believers today. “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” That scripture has rallied preachers of the Gospel from one end of the earth to the other, in the face of persecution and even death, to continue to pass it on. They refuse to stop passing it on.

There is always a sense of excitement where Jesus is at work and an intense desire for those who have knowledge of the truth to “pass it on!” So, pass it on, up and down the streets, yell it from the housetops, preach it from the mountain tops, and proclaim the fullness of the Gospel from the pulpit. By all means possible, pass it on. Jesus adds life. Pass it on!

Prophecy to the Breath!

Ezekiel 37 is an interesting chapter that refers to the rebirth of the Jewish nation, which is still a future event. Yet, there is a great message for all of us about the power of preaching the Word of God. The setting is the valley of dry bones. God asks this worn, yet powerful preacher: “Can these bones live?” Ezekiel responded with the confidence of a man of God, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” God instructed Ezekiel to preach to the dry bones, and the bones came together, without life. There was a lot of noise, but no life. There can be no life without Jesus. There was no breath in them. Israel is coming back as a nation without life, without Jesus. Tendons began to appear, flesh took shape, and skin covered the flesh, and yet there was no breath in them. God again commanded Ezekiel to preach and as he proclaimed the word, this time he was told to preach to the breath, to the four corners. As he proclaimed the word of God, breath began to enter the lifeless forms and “suddenly they came life and stood up on their feet – a vast army” (Eze.37:10) There is no life without Jesus. The prophets heard it generations before Jesus came to the earth and they faithfully passed it on.

The Salt of the Earth

What a thrilling example for God’s people today! God chose the foolishness of preaching to save men’s souls. There is power in the Gospel to bring life to a nation that is sick with sin and rebellion. We saw in 2 Co. 4 that we are jars of clay. God has poured His power, the power of the Gospel into these vessels. Jesus called us the “salt of the earth” (Mt. 5:13.) I will never forget my experience with salted pork when we were kids. During the fall, my father would butcher a hog or two and lay them up for the winter.

When the first chill of winter was felt, it would be time to slaughter the hogs. Dad would then prepare the meat for the winter by salting it and then putting it in one of the back rooms of the old farmhouse. The meat was always salty. Some of you know exactly what I am talking about because you have had the same experience. The back room was plenty cold in the winter, but the meat had to be salted to preserve it from spoiling.

Salt is a preservative. It keeps meat from spoiling. But, it also purifies. Placed in a wound, salt burns, because it is purifying the wound by killing bacteria. Salt draws water out of bacteria, killing them by dehydration. When the bacteria overcome the salt, the salt turns to water and is no longer good for anything but to be thrown away. That is what Jesus said about the salt of the earth. When it loses its saltiness, it is no longer good for purifying. It is to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men, a reference to the legal foot of the law that is coming against Christians. God made us like that. That is why

He had to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. The sin had become so great that there was not enough salt around to preserve it. Salt preserves life. We must salt not only because salt glorifies God, but because salt will preserve America.

Jesus Came To Bring Life

As already mentioned, Jesus’ promise of abundant life is evidence God intended Christians to have happy, joy filled lives. So often, preachers are guilty of preaching the joys of eternal life, while saying little of the true joy that belongs to you in the here and now. Don’t get me wrong. We will have hardships and heartaches, but we learn how to gain joy. James said to “count it pure joy.

Paul told Timothy “Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (2 Ti. 4:8 NIV.) A man once said that “right living will keep you out of jail, but not out of Hell.” That can only be accomplished by Christ. Bob Jones, Sr. once said, “Jesus never taught man how to make a living. He taught men how to live.” Jesus beckons to us to come to him and He “will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28.) Outside of the rest he has promised, there can be no peace. His rest requires us to be yoked together with Him. I find it very interesting how the bones in Ezekiel 37 finally came to life. Flesh, tendons, skin and bones alone are no proof of life. Many look alive, but are dead on the inside. We can put on a show of religious ritual, but in a real sense, we never live until we have died. A grain of wheat falls to the ground in the hope of dying. If it is preserved, it will not die. If it fails to die, it will remain a single seed. However, if that seed dies, it will

reproduce many seeds. (Jn. 12:25) In the same way, if a man loses his life in this world, he will keep it forever. Jesus adds life.

The only peace in life comes when we have discovered Jesus. There is never a shortage of stories to support this thesis. I met a young man in jail who had murdered the clerk at a convenience store. He was drunk and, along with a companion, went on a beer run. That single event not only robbed a man of his life, but ended in tragedy for the killer. We studied together and he found Jesus. When I baptized him, he came out of the water ready to meet execution as a child of God. His last days in the county jail were filled with peace and joy as he pleaded guilty and accepted the penalty.

Another young lady had been involved in sexual perversion for a long period of time. Her entire life was a reflection of little or no self-control. She tried to find peace in many different ways, finally resorting to the counsel of a psychiatrist, until he made sexual advances toward her. She was so devastated that she attempted suicide. Then, she met King Jesus. I tell you, Jesus is the only answer. He adds life! Pass it on!

Jesus Adds – Satan Subtracts

While knocking on doors one day, signing people to ride our Joy Buses, I met another young lady we will call Sandy. Sandy was pathetically unhappy. Like many young people, Sandy was looking for peace but finding it in all the wrong places. Her peace seeking left a trail of miscarriages, marijuana and other drug use, including more serious, as well as dangerous, mind altering drugs such as LSD. She rode a Joy

bus one Sunday, but was convinced there was no hope for her or her husband, Dennis. He frequently beat her, and often she would leave him and disappear until he settled down enough for her to come home. I lost contact with Sandy, and gave little thought to her or where she was, until I received a late night phone call. She was having another miscarriage and wanted me to come to the hospital to be by her side. About a year later, she called and asked for help; as her husband had threatened to kill her. That night, Sandy met Jesus and I baptized her in the church baptistery. After a lot of study and counsel, her husband was baptized the next day. This was a testimony to the power of the Gospel.

For several months, their marriage was everything you would want in a sweet little family. Both were serving God, staying pretty much out of drugs and into Jesus. After awhile, his behavior started changing making it pretty clear Dennis was doing something that was leading him back down the old path. It wasn’t long until he stopped coming to church and she started showing up with bruises and black eyes. This time, he was not dealing in marijuana; he had graduated to heroin, both selling and using. Since Sandy felt it was extremely dangerous to live at home any longer, we helped her move to another state without her husband knowing.

Losing Sandy was difficult for Dennis. It was a sad story about a man who had gone too far over too many years. He refused to come to grips with the fact that someday he would have to pay the piper. After weeks of counseling, He surrendered his life to God, and purposed to get out of selling drugs. Anyone who has been down that road knows how difficult it is to up

and walk away. The story Dennis told me was that he and a friend met in Holland to get together with the drug boss supposedly to walk away. His drug boss had different ideas. Dennis awakened me in the middle of the night to tell me in fear and tears that his buddy had been killed by a Molotov cocktail thrown into the backseat of his car while driving down the freeway. He watched from his car as his friend driving behind him was blasted into eternity.

He was determined to make it, but had given in so much to the devil that he had a difficult time handling his fear and the rejection of his wife. One evening, our Sunday evening services were interrupted by the State Police who had found his body. Dennis had lost everything here because he gave in to sin. I asked the funeral director if he thought he had committed suicide. He said no. I guess I will never know for sure. Jesus adds life, but Satan takes it away. He is in the business of subtracting.

America, the Land of the Brave

Even our nation is in danger of losing precious freedoms for which thousands have shed their blood on the battlefield. The Bible says, “Righteousness exalts a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people” (Pr. 14:34.) From the beginning of history, down to this present moment of time, when righteousness prevails, the nation is blessed by God. When Satan takes over, which happens gradually enough that we don’t even recognize he is at work, nations go down. There are no exceptions to this rule.

I love America. I love the freedom for which our

nation stands. When our forefathers wrote our constitution, they did so with the Bible laid out in front of them. It was one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all! On the back of our money the impression is stamped, “In God we trust.” This may seem a bit corny, but I still get goose bumps when I hear our National Anthem and see Old Glory wave over the land of the free. Tears well up in my eyes and chills run down my spine. But, when will Americans learn that a nation that has been so blessed by God is being blessed only as long as it remains in obedience to God? Satan is out to destroy all that is good and righteous. “He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world.” The answer is Jesus. We need to pass it on. We must get in the caring business and get busy salting this nation before we lose it. We can, and I believe we will, but we have to get busy today. Pass it on-Jesus adds life!

By the way, there are a lot of people in America who have more than their share of this world’s goods who are living on the thin edge, and they do not enjoy it.

8

PLAN

The Lord foils the plans of the nations;

He thwarts the purposes of the peoples,

but the plans of the Lord stand firm forever,

the purposes of his heart through all generations.

Psalm 33:10-11

To man belongs the plans of his heart,

But from the Lord comes the reply of his tongue.

Proverbs. 16:1

Commit to the Lord whatever you do

And your plans will succeed.

Proverbs 16:3

To fail to plan is to plan to fail.

(Anonymous)

My Disclaimer

A disclaimer is in order before this chapter can be written. People who know me will laugh at a chapter in one of my books about making plans. Truthfully, I never imagined that was even remotely possible until it became apparent that the subject could not be avoided in a book about living on the edge. Living on the edge requires a plan; to fail to plan is to invite certain disaster. Earlier, I wrote about some of the scrapes I have fallen prey to because I failed to make any kind of plan. My wife makes a plan for every situation, but for some reason, spontaneity is my aim in life. However, it is surprising how much of my spontaneity is eaten up by the tyranny of the urgent.

During the original writing of this book, I built

my life around safeguards to guard against failing. It all started when I was a young man sleeping in the south bedroom upstairs where I went through a ritual every night of making sure the door was securely fastened with the top of the door knob pointing up and the design on the face of the knob perfectly aligned with a mark on the door. In addition, I compulsively checked the light switch; a round little switch that turned clockwise to make sure it was perfectly aligned with a small part just above the switch. Making things much worse, all this had to be done in the proper order so that my lust for order could be appeased. Lest you are thinking that I am crazy, let me assure you, I am, or at least, I was. Then, there was basketball and baseball. All you have to do is to watch an athlete for a few minutes and you will quickly diagnose his ritual as either obsessive or at least, superstitious. My shoes had to be tied exactly the same every game, free throws had a ritual and batting was preceded by all the customary spitting, resin on the hands and practice swings. Thank God for delivering me from my self-made bed of fear.

I was never diagnosed with OCD, but even then I knew why I was compulsive. Compulsive behavior is nothing more than a manifestation of fear and anxiety. Dealing with my worries relieved me of fears rising from projects undone, or fear of failing. One of my recurring dreams focuses around church meetings. There is always a big crowd, to which I either show up late, or forget to put on my trousers, bring my Bible or notes and the list goes on. Thorough preparation helps allay my fears. More important, knowing God is absolutely in control, builds my confidence, when the door knob does not line up with the doorplate!

I have found great consolation in God’s remarkable display of order in the Universe, every detail spoken into existence through His powerful Word (Heb. 11:3.) He had a plan and made everything work according to that plan. In addition, the Bible describes you and me as part of this detailed plan. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

We are thrilled with the amazing plan of God made for each of us before the foundations of the world (Eph. 2:10.) He works with purpose and intentionality from his blueprint, bringing all His plans to fruition. Earlier, I wrote about the folly of attempting projects without making prior preparation. Most of our lives are marked by projects started but never completed, often a direct result of poor planning. God is a God of success, having never failed in any endeavor. When He spoke the world into existence, His only commentary on His work was “It is good” or “very good.” When God says something is “very good, “it is not a prideful boast or an effort to cover up some detail that has gone amuck; it is genuine evaluation of the perfection, intricacy and beauty of what He has put His hand to. Everything God did turned out right and He is still controlling the Universe in the same remarkable way He started it.

Planning in the Psalms

The Bible enables us to view our plans from God’s viewpoint.  Framing our plans according to a biblical perspective helps us make plans that are based on truth rather than our own desires. Psalm 33:10-11 is a good example of this principle. To begin with, the Psalmist

declares that God is sovereign. The purposes of nations are under the scrutiny of God and he will frustrate their plans when it is necessary in order to fit into his master plan.  Paul put it this way: “For by him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him” (Col. 1:16.) The Psalmist says, “But the Lord foils the plans of the nations” (v. 1.) God lifts up rulers and deposes them as they fit into His plan.

In addition, our plans as a people are under God’s sovereign will and he will frustrate the plans that we make to fit into His plan. “He thwarts the purposes of the peoples” (v. 10.) Not only does God directly intervene in the affairs of nations, but He will also bend or stop the plans of people. We should always make our plans with an eye to the will of God. However, “the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.” That tells us three things about the plans of God. First, God has a plan. Nothing is by accident. He guides the affairs of His people. Second, his plan is unchangeable. He works from a master plan and fits everything together for His glory, even our mistakes (Ro. 8:28.) Finally, His purposes will last through all generations. In other words, we may have a plan, but it’s only when our plan fits into the purposes of God that our plan will be successful in the long term. Solomon warned about planning a course of action and expecting God to honor our plan. We may make a plan, but God will order our steps (Pr. 16:1-3.) Then, in Proverbs 4:26-27, He warns “Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.

The life that we enjoy comes as a result of God’s plan and continued fulfillment of that plan. When He created man, God gave him dominion over the earth. He was created to rule over the garden and all that God created. Since the fall, man has allowed the world to have dominion over him. When Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the grave, He gave that dominion back to believers. Paul testifies to this truth in  Eph 1:18-23:  ”I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet…” This was all according to plan.

When God created man, for the first time He said it was not good. Please be careful here, God was not disappointed over Adam, but He recognized Adam was not complete without Eve. She became his helpmeet, not by accident, but by forethought (Ge. 2.) Marriage itself was part of God’s plan from the start. Jesus quoted Genesis when he gave his discourse on divorce and remarriage. This powerful institution was not societal or cultural, but a result of God’s plan to give the world a picture of the relationship between Jesus and the church through the image of the relationship between a loving leader and his submissive bride (Eph. 5.) It was all according to plan. When God rested on the seventh day, the Creator did not rest because he was tired. Rest means completion. It

was perfect, just like the rest we enjoy in Christ, rest from work. (Heb. 4 and Mt. 11:28.) It does seem that since we are the only part of creation created in the “likeness of God,” that part of being in His image would include the quality of planning.

To fail to plan is to plan to fail. One man put it like this: “We so often aim for nothing, hitting it with remarkable success!” It is exciting to live on the thin edge, and it is always rewarding to take on a new project, a bigger challenge, or to set our minds to accomplish a God-sized and ordained dream.  God made us like this in His image. But, all of our dreams and ambitions, every exciting project we undertake, never amount to anything, unless we formulate a God given plan and work off the blueprint God has given us in His Word. Every church in America needs to formulate strategies for maturing Christians, developing leaders and reaching families for His glory.

PLAN

Some years ago, I was asked to speak on this subject at a workshop. It was such a huge subject that I could not get my mind around what to say. I want to close this chapter with the acrostic God gave me for that occasion.

People

The top priority for our plan ought to be the people for whom Jesus gave His life on the cross. First, above all, God is concerned for His glory, which includes all the people he created. Then, our greatest concern ought to be His church, which is not

a building but the saved people who congregate within

its walls. People of all classes and colors are under the jurisdiction of His Kingdom. If our plan is to bring success, it must have God’s glory at the top if its’ priorities and people next. Everybody needs somebody! Sometimes we may feel like packing our bags and heading for a desert island, but God created us as community people, who live together, share together, weep together, and rejoice together. Don’t let projects interfere with people! A salesman who builds his business around people will be most likely to succeed. The church that is built with an eye to serving the needs of people will mature. Children who are reared with respect for others will have a much greater chance for success.

Jesus ministered to people. He preached to multitudes, motivated the masses, but centered his ministry around the blind man, the woman accused of adultery, a little child, or a disciple who set out to walk on water. The first principle is to make your plan all about God’s glory as seen in His people.

Love

The world will know we are His disciples because of one outstanding characteristic that does not exist outside of Christ. That quality is love. Our plan must include an ample portion of love. Whatever a church does to gain the attention of the outside world, the only thing that will make a lasting impression is love.

I have stood in front of audiences, scared to open my mouth until I remembered I had something they needed and I loved them enough to want to

communicate with them. Salesmen can overcome their fear of people by loving and filling their needs. Love overcomes many negative reactions to our message. The man who depends on his talent or skills will eventually flounder.

True love comes from God who is Love. It is refined in the pot of suffering (Ro. 5:1-5) when the Holy Spirit sheds abroad love into our hearts. It is true, families that pray together stay together, but another truth is that families who suffer together are given an unusual amount of love for each other. Of course, the opposite also is true. I have seen adversity rip families apart at the seams. It all depends on how you face suffering. Men are anointed by God to draw their families together during times of struggle. By the way, does it need to be said, you cannot buy your children’s love? Love is essential for any good plan to work. Too many of our programs are centered on works and projects. We often turn people into projects, ignoring the value of loving them where they are and trusting God to take them where they need to be. In 1 Co. 13, Paul says words without love are like a clanging cymbal. How irritating can that be?

Action

The word I have chosen here is Action, but before we get there, let’s look at the word “anointing.” Anointed people take action. People get nervous when we talk about our anointing, because we do not see its importance. In 2 Co. 1:21, we are told that we all have an anointing from God. That anointing establishes us and places on us the seal of ownership as well as the guarantee coming from His powerful Holy Spirit!

In Ephesians. 5:18, we are told to be “filled with the Holy Spirit,” an ongoing action. We do too much in the power of the flesh and too little through the power of God. In Eph. 3:19-21, after his prayer that the church would be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God,” Paul makes this dramatic declaration: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work in us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus…”

The word we have chosen here is the word action. Most grand, beautiful plans are never lifted off the drawing board because we don’t take whatever action God directs us to take. Our lives should be action packed and our churches should reflect the movement of God in our lives. In the story, Tobacco Road, the poor, poverty stricken old farmer sat on his porch, year after year, saying, “When spring comes, I will plant a crop.” Next year never came. Too many of us are sitting around waiting for our ship to come in, when all we need to do is go and meet the ship!. Take action on your plan. Plan on how you will work your plan. Faith without works is dead, whereas our faith ought to produce action.

Nuts and Bolts

The final piece to the acrostic is the Nuts and the Bolts. These are the details of our daily lives that must be carried out every day of our lives. I call it “taking care of business.” Success is a result of God moving in the detail of our lives, one day at a time, one step at a time. The hardest lesson to learn is to be careful about the mundane issues of life, paying our bills on time, taking care of our homes and keeping a short account on our

sins. Preparing our lives every day for what God is doing by Bible study and prayer is essential. Psalm 1 tells us that success is built around meditating on the word of God. The man that does this will “be like a tree that is planted by streams of water, whose leaves do not wither. Whatsoever he does will prosper.” Here are the suggestions of a person who has struggled with order all his life.

1. Determine your overall purpose in life. What are you living for? God placed you on this earth for a purpose (Eph. 2:10) and that reason centers around giving glory and honor to God in everything we do. Your goals must fall in line with your overall purpose.              2.  Make sure all your plans fall under your overall purpose in life, that of glorifying God. If it does not glorify God, then it must not be part of your plan.                            3.  Put in the nut and bolts. These are the day by day goals that will help you achieve your overall purpose. If you want to lose weight for the glory of God, make a daily plan to cut back on calories and exercise. Failure to make a daily plan will lead to ultimate failure.

4. Be accountable. Find someone who loves you enough to hold you accountable for daily devotions and your walk with God. Be honest and faithful to those God brings into your life who are not afraid to ask you hard questions. Accountability is by far the most overlooked part of most of our plans. Accountability is vital to keep us focused.

God works through our plan when that plan is according to the will of God. I want to close with Jeremiah 29:11-13. “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you.

Written to Israel, the truth of God lives to this present generation and on into the future. God has a plan, a plan for your prosperity and not for your harm, a plan that will lead you to seek him and find him. That is really what God’s plan is all about. “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”(Php. 1:6

You got to be careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.

Yogi Berra

9

Champions Are Born-Again

We grew up playing ball and running track. That was our life. Our gym was Dad’s barn just east of the farmhouse. Dewayne and Floyd put in the hardwood floor when we were kids, not like the hardwood floors of modern gymnasiums but rough cut oak bought directly from the lumber mill. In order to give us more room, all supports were removed which caused the barn to list towards the east and eventually, come crashing to the ground. Kids from all over the country would show up at the Selvidge barn for basketball.  To the east of the gym was the Selvidge ball park. To the west was a block building we built for body building. We did all the work ourselves, with advice from Dad along with an occasional observation about the quality of our block laying. When I was a high school senior, they even gave me a trophy for “the most valuable senior athlete.” (Did I mention, there were only thirty one students in our graduating class? Oh, well, a trophy is a trophy.)

Everyone wants to be a winner or at least know someone who is a winner. We are pre-occupied with winning, whether it is sitting on a couch watching, or actually participating. We are a nation of winners founded on the principles of God’s word woven throughout the Declaration of Independence as well as the statutes that govern our nation, the Constitution of the United States of America. As long as we face life with an intense burning desire to win, we will never really lose. Setbacks may come. Hardships may require us to restructure our game plan. Losses may ensue, but

but in the long haul, we are winners. Read the last chapter of Revelation if you have any doubt.

Paul declares us winners in the last verses of Romans 8:37-39. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate  us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We are more than conquerors!” That resonates in my spirit, not just conquerors, but more than conquerors! Paul was a conqueror when he was stoned and left for dead outside the city of Lystra. When the disciples gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. He was more than a conqueror. When he and Silas were tossed into the local jail for preaching the truth, they were conquerors. When they sang praises at midnight, waiting to be martyred, they were more than conquerors. They were more than conquerors when God sent an earthquake; they refused to take their leave and God opened the door for the jailer and his family to be saved and baptized.

Stephen was a conqueror when he preached the Gospel clearly and powerfully to the Sanhedrin recorded in Acts 7. He was a conqueror when he called them a “stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears.” (Acts 7:51) He was a conqueror when they were “furious and gnashed their teeth at him.” He was more than a conqueror when, being “full of the Holy Spirit,” he looked up and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus, who sits at God’s right hand, stood up to welcome this conquering warrior into his arms as his accusers stoned him to death. Jesus gave

Stephen a standing ovation! Stephen was more than a conqueror when he prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

Paul said we are more than conquerors. He included my name in his declaration and your name when he said, “more than conquerors.” We are conquerors when we run the race; we are more than conquerors when we run the race well! I ran in one relay race that was the last race of my career as a runner. When the baton was passed to me, we were several yards behind. Coming down the home stretch, I had closed the gap and had overcome my opponents by several feet. With the finish line in sight, my left leg muscle gave way and my strength failed me .Dragging my leg across the finish line, made me a conqueror. When I got up and kept running, I became a conqueror. Run the race God has put you in and finish. He will give you a crown of righteousness. In the race of life, everyone wins who finishes (Heb. 12:1-2.) Since we are more than conquerors, we should act like conquerors instead of like defeated foes, “because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 Jn. 4:4 ASV.) Years ago, Ethel Waters said “God don’t sponsor no flops” and that’s the truth.

When I was a boy, I used to imagine the last seconds of the ball game with the ball in my hands. We practiced basketball until our fingers nearly froze off in our cold barn. Usually, the air temperature was so cold that the basketball would stop bouncing. We would take it inside the house, set it on a heat register until it warmed sufficiently to go back out to the barn. When we were kids, if I had my choice for breakfast it had to be Wheaties, the Breakfast of Champions! You have

heard the saying that champions are made not born, and I believe that is true. But, I once heard Marvin Phillips say, “Real champions are born again, not made.” That is the truth! Real champions have a close, personal relationship with Jesus, and have indeed been born again (Jn. 3.) Conquerors are champions and conquerors are born again. Do you want to be a champion? Here are a few principles to help us be “more than conquerors.” They are all taken from Hebrews 12:1-5.

Champions Run Races

First, to win a race you have to run the race (Heb.12:1-2.) How many champions have you ever known who sat on the sidelines watching? If you really want to be a champion, you must run your race. Hebrews 11 is about faith. In fact, the entire book of Hebrews focuses on faith. In chapter 11, the writer tells of men and women who have already finished their race. Twenty-one times in this short chapter, he prefaces a major move in their lives with the words “by faith.” Four times he uses that same phrase to highlight Abraham’s obedience to God: “By faith, he obeyed and went;” “by faith he made a home;” “by faith he and Sarah conceived a child;” and by faith he was tested.” By faith, if we obey, by faith we make a home, by faith, we experience the supernatural power of God and by faith we will all be tested. That is how we get in the race, by faith.

The wise man evaluated God’s program for perfecting our character. “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord test the heart” (Pr. 17:3 NIV.) A heard a preacher say, “Some people were made for the

furnace.” Daniel and his friends were thrown into the fiery furnace because they refused to bow down before the prideful King. To be sure, some Christians seem to suffer more than others. However, all of us were created for the furnace where God tests our hearts and molds us into the image of Christ.

The Hebrew writer does not refer to this process as a furnace, but rather as a race. We have been chosen by God to run a race on a course that God has carefully chosen for us and hand–tailored to be our own personal “agonos” or race. David writes about the personal nature of our creation in Psalm 139.

David said, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Ps. 139:13.) This psalm clearly pictures the fact that God does not create junk. He knew us while we were in our mother’s womb. During those formative months, it was not accident but divine purpose that made you like you are. He did not just oversee this process, but He knit our bodies and personalities together much as one would knit a beautiful scarf, lovingly touching and weaving together His wonderful creation. God makes no mistakes. Every human being uniquely bears the label, “Created in His Image.” I do not know much about designer clothes, but I know we are “designer” people! He knows what He is all about. We were created and designed for His glory.

Second, David says, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”Our bodies were created by God for the specific race or “agonos” we have been assigned. in order to bring glory and honor to God. It is amazing what this body God gave us is able to accomplish. Below are just a few observations about our bodies.

The average red blood cell lives 120 days and there are 2.5 trillion of them at any given moment. 2.5 million are being produced every second in your bone marrow. The total cell production every second is 25 million. We give birth to 100 million red cells in a 24 hour period of time.

It takes less than twenty seconds for a blood cell to travel throughout the entire human body, a sixty-thousand mile journey.

Nerve impulses travel at a speed of twenty five miles per hour; a sneeze generates a wind of one hundred miles per hour and the heart beats one hundred thousand times every day.

We make right around one liter of saliva per day while our body is roughly seventy per cent water.

In one square inch of our hand we have nine feet of blood vessels, six hundred pain sensors, nine thousand nerve endings, thirty six heat sensors and seventy five pressure sensors.

There are more living organisms on your skin than there are human beings on the face of the earth.

Messages to our brains travel at a speed of one hundred and twenty four miles per hour.

The list goes on. We are indeed “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Finally, David says, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (v. 16.) Not only did God prescribe us before our birth, He planned all the days of our lives. He has an “agonos” or race already planned out for you.  Your race was designed with all your personality, talents and skills in mind. God even knew what your spiritual gift would be while you were in your mother’s womb.

We only need to put on our track clothes and get in the race. God has outfitted us to run successfully and finish our own personal “agonos.”

Unfortunately, a lot of people never get in the race. They sit in the bleachers watching others run their race because they don’t like how they were made or feel deficient in skills. Part of the problem for all of us is comparing our race with races of others. Paul said in 2 Co. 10, “They that compare themselves with themselves are not wise.” Jesus is our perfect standard. The nature of the standard is not physical, it is spiritual. In our culture, way too much emphasis is placed on the so-called perfect body.

There are three important truths that will help us get past our perceived or even real, inadequacies.  First, we are prescription children. God designed us the way we are. He gave us our hair or lack of it. We are tall or short; fast or slow. Some are scientists, others are mechanics, but no one is junk! We are all created with special ways to glorify God that only each one of us is able to do. No one else can run my race, nor can I run the race God designed for you. If we would stop trying to copy the races of others and focus on the agonos God designed for us, we would not only find success, but joy and happiness would flood our souls.

God’s obsession with detail makes this principle work in our families. Every child has his own unique contribution to our families. It is also at work in our church family. God designed His church so that every member intricately meshes together with others in a purposeful and God honoring way to serve one another, using the spiritual gifts God gave us. Every person has his own spiritual gift to help the church, as

as well as family, function together in a God honoring and efficient way. Paul says the church is like a body, with all the necessary parts. When your or my gift is missing, the body is incomplete.

Second, perfection is found in our spirits and not in our bodies. Looking for perfection in our personal appearance is a frustrating experience, because we will always find a few flaws. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus emphasized this truth when He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” He used the word “blessed” or “happy are the poor in spirit.” The key to happiness is not in our well sculpted bodies, nor in the skills that we see in others, but in our hearts where God is doing a work of perfecting our character to be like Jesus.

Third, we need to cultivate a heart of gratefulness for the way God has made us thus far. Gratefulness is the key to the abundant life (Jo. 10:10.) Learn how to praise God for what you consider to be imperfections and acknowledge that God made you the way you are. We are all runners running different races. Not everyone is built to be a sprinter. Sprinters find it difficult to compete in long distance running. We have to remember that God is not finished with us yet. He is busy “working everything to the good” so that we might be conformed to the image of Christ (Ro. 8:28.)

Champions Shed Hindrances

The runner in ancient Greece took every advantage he could find in order to run his race well. The Hebrew writer reminds Christians they must do the same thing. The runner began well before the race to get rid of all excess baggage, mainly his weight, in order to compete.

In addition, during practice as well as during the actual race itself, he stripped off all clothing and ran his race naked in order to get the best advantage possible. Don’t worry. He is not urging us to go on a diet, though some of us may need to do so. Nor is he encouraging us to strip off our clothing and run naked. It is an admonition to lay aside anything and everything that will slow us down. For the Jews, the ones to whom this letter was addressed, it no doubt refers to legalism and their return to the law. In that same context, Jew and Gentile need to remember our “agonos” is run by faith and not by sight. In fact, he begins chapter 12 with the word, “therefore,” which refers back to the great chapter on faith. Running a good race requires that we run it by faith, knowing we are doing the will of God and are rendering the “obedience of faith” (Ro. 16.

Champions Finish their Race

Winners not only get in the race, they cross the finish line. The Hebrew writer calls that perseverance. A friend who was on our track team would never have been accused of being the fastest guy on the track. In fact, George became a mile runner because of his lack of speed in the dashes. George practiced before the rest of us made it to the track and he stayed later than the rest of us. His first lap of the mile run was so painfully slow that he would usually be eating everyone’s dust by the time they made it the second time around the quarter mile track. But, George never quit. By the last quarter turn, he would still be running the same pace, passing other runners. I don’t think he ever won a race, but he never quit. George was a winner in my book.

Champions Keep their Eyes on the Goal

Keeping an eye on the finish line helps runners stay focused on each grueling step of the way. When I was a young man, I worked on Tower Hill Farm # 3 which was only a short distance from our home. Tower Hill was known for its large, fresh fruit and was managed by a friend of our family. One of the main crops grown on Marvin’s farm was strawberries, which make vines and new plants at the end of every vine. By the time harvest is over, the strawberry bed is huge and had to be cut back so that one row of plants is left using a rotovator. It hooks to the back of the tractor and is powered by the power take off on the tractor. My job was to drive a straight line from one end of the long rows to the other end. Being a novice, the rows I created wandered from side to side. Actually, the rows went on long journeys. As hard as I tried, I could not make a straight row. When Marvin came to check on me, to say he was unhappy, would be one of the biggest understatements I have ever made. He was livid. As he thought about it, though, he laughed and said, “You cannot rotovate a row by looking in front of the tractor. You have to keep your eye on some fixed position at the end of the row, just like running a race.” That was a great revelation for me, but it came too late for several rows of poor strawberries.

The same is true for running your race. You have to keep your eyes on the finish line where Jesus is waiting for you along with the great cloud of witnesses who will usher you into heavenly glories. The writer of Hebrews puts it like this. ‘Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith, who for the joy that was

set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and who is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God”(Heb. (Heb. 12:2.)

Jesus had his own personal agonos which included dying an unusually cruel and painful death on a cross. How did he make it through those long grueling hours of rejection, carrying on his shoulders all the sin of mankind? He endured by thinking about the joy set before him at the end of the race when he would cry out victoriously, “It is finished!”

Champions Undergo Rigorous Training

The serious athlete would never run a race without the proper training to prepare him to run successfully. Paul often used the example of the games to illustrate the importance of training. “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

There are three truths here that are important to compete in the games. First, running our race requires strict training. Coaching always reminded me of the Christian’s race. It took a lot of hard work. In the late summer, we ran what we called “two a days.” The summer heat was at its’ worst and bodies that had enjoyed the pleasures of summer were being trained to respond to the requests of the coaches. It took a few days, but the bodies of the young athletes responded to

the planned discipline of the coaches who carried clipboards with daily goals listed, planned in advance, for the benefit of every athlete. Practice was never finished until every goal was accomplished. The second truth Paul teaches is the necessity of beating our bodies to turn them into slaves. Christians train not to satisfy the hunger of the body, but to bring the body in subjection to God’s Spirit. Finally, the good athlete preaches to himself all the time, lest he disqualify himself to receive the prize. God faithfully applies discipline to us so we may be trained by it (Heb. 12:7-11.)

Champions Receive a Crown

In an earlier chapter, we mentioned the three human motivators: fear of punishment, hope of reward and the joy of love. Christians are motivated by all three, but the greatest of the three is love. In fact, the two lower motivations are affected by love. Love casts out fear. We want the crown of righteousness because it is a reward from our loving father. Jesus said, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” We receive life by dying for him. In Revelation 22:12, Jesus said, “Behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me, to render according to what he has done.”

The ancient games had a referee at the end of the race. He would place a victor’s crown or wreath on the head of the runner signifying that he had run the race successfully. In the same way, we receive a crown of righteousness for running and finishing the race. The judgment for the child of God is a judgment of rewards. We look forward to hearing our father say, “well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

Passing the Baton

The Christian race is not a dash, but is more like a marathon, with each runner being given a specific course to run, our time of finishing being governed by God who appoints unto all men a day to die. The word marathon has some significance for us, since legend has it that the first marathon was run by the man who ran 26 miles from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens. Upon arriving in Athens, he declared, “we won,” over the Persians, then he collapsed and died. In many ways, the marathon can be compared to our “agonos.” To begin with, it is a long race. Our commitment is not just to a short dash, but to a lifetime of running. In addition, the marathon is a grueling race filled with hardship and the runner must persevere in order to win. Finally, the finish is the most grueling. This is where most of us get into trouble.

One of the members of our church reminded me that when a Christian nears the end of his leg of the race, it is time to pass the baton on to the next generation. In a race, the baton has to be passed to the next runner within a short distance called the exchange zone. If he passes the baton too early or too late, the runner is disqualified. My generation has to pass on the truths we have learned to our children and our children’s children in order to run effective races. Every generation ought to be able to build on the work of the previous generation. Many of us are in the exchange zone right now and need to be watching for the next runner to enter our exchange zone. In a race, there is a point where both runners are running at the same pace, before the one finishing his leg of the race passes the

baton to the next runner who is accelerating. That is a crucial point in every relay. Toward the end of our race, we have to know when it is time to decrease so that others might increase.

“I have fought the good fight,

I have finished the race,

I have kept the faith.”

The Apostle Paul to his protégé, Timothy

2 Timothy 4:7

10

Two is Better than One

But a Cord of Three Strands…

The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself (1 Sa. 18:1.)

A friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity (Pr. 17:17.)

Americans are among the loneliest people on the earth (George Barna.)

Friends are friends forever if the Lord’s the Lord of them (Michael W. Smith.)

David and Jonathan’s friendship was deep. It grew in the soil of adversity, rising above family and the political environment to become one of the greatest examples of the devotion of two friends. The Holy Spirit described their relationship in an unusual way. He says, “The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself” (1 Sa. 18:1 KJV.) Few men ever achieve a friendship like this one. Few even want relationships that close. Fewer still are willing to put forth the effort necessary to deepen such a relationship. Yet, our families, churches and communities would greatly benefit by loyal, sacrificial relationships.  But, notice that it does not say that he knitted himself, but that his “soul was knit to the soul of David.” The word knit is from a Hebrew word, quashar, meaning, “to bind together.” The life of Jonathan was knit together with the life of David.

True friendship is a gift from God and should be treated as such. Jonathan gave up the kingdom for his friend (1 Sa. 1:4.) He was the son of King Saul and heir apparent to the throne, but he was willing to walk away from the throne to protect his good friend, David. Friends are born for times like these. Adversity has shaped many relationships. People persevering through testing will enjoy a depth of love that transcends hardships. The end result of suffering together is the Holy Spirit shedding abroad love into our hearts (Ro. 5:1-5.) The wise man said, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Pr. 17:17.)

Marriage was designed for this kind of friendship, when God said, “the two will become one.” Though I have had many good friends, none are as dear to me as my wife friend. I would rather be with her than any other human being. I enjoy having my first cup of coffee every morning with her as we talk or as we sit in silence; either way, it is sweet. Our relationship has grown in the caldron of adversity, tempered by the heat and pressure of struggles God has used for refining. In fact, marriage is one of God’s greatest tools to hammer and chisel away at our imperfections so His love is shed abroad into our hearts. Husbands and wives ought to enjoy the best of friendships.

A wife friend is not the only friend a man needs. It should strike us as strange that with all the wealth and opportunities for social engagement in America, “Americans are among the loneliest people on the earth” (George Barna.) People without Christ are hungry for meaningful relationships, stumbling from one bad relationship to another. It is part of the nature God gave

us when we were created, to desire companionship. We are social beings who have a longing deep inside for meaningful relationships.

The truth be known, loneliness does not stay outside the walls of churches. In fact, our churches may be some of the loneliest places in our cities. Phoenix is just like every other major metropolitan area where people have stopped attending church because they have found churches to be as lonely as the rest of the world. I heard someone say, without backing his statement with any proof, that if on any given Sunday, everyone who claims to be a Christian decided to attend worship, 95% of them would not find an empty seat. I can’t verify the truth of that statement; nevertheless, it is an intriguing thought. A lot of people come to church every Sunday and leave who never get their buckets filled! It is inconceivable, but true. Hundreds of people gather together, offering up praises to God, fellowshipping and loving one another, and yet some leave as lonely as when they came, all alone in a crowd, sad, victims of life, who rarely ever experience the joy of intimacy with other people.

The sad part of all of this is that a life lived to oneself is an unhappy life and usually, non-productive. Part of the problem is in our idea of fellowship. When Jesus brought us out of darkness, He placed us in a family of believers who have a common bond and the same Holy Spirit living inside us. The Bible calls this fellowship; theologians call it “koinonea,’ the Greek word for fellowship. Koinonea means much more than getting together to eat a meal, which is commonly how we see our fellowships. (We even call our kitchen, a “fellowship hall.”)

The first church devoted themselves to koinonea, among other things, and the result was awe coming on every soul, not just a handful, but every soul (Ac. 2.) In addition, many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. They were so moved by the richness of this fellowship that they had all things in common, even to the extent of selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all who had needs. That is biblical fellowship, not just patting each other on the back and giving a handshake, but ministering to the needs of every member of the body. From time to time, as the Spirit led, Paul took up contributions to help needy saints, especially in the church in Jerusalem where a large number of Christians had gathered at a time of economic hardship.

It would be hard to be lonely in a fellowship like that. Everyone looked out for each other, everything they had was held in common. Needs evoked compassion, leading brothers and sisters to sell what they had and share it with one another. That sounds like a fairy tale, but it happened, recorded in the pages of the New Testament. Their mutual pain and suffering melted their lives into a solid unit. That is koinonea. It is missing in most of our fellowships.

I have noticed how evangelism helps a church become other focused. Churches bringing in hundreds of people, all from different walks of life, and with widely differing needs, forces churches to share their lives together. Ministry is less contrived and more a result of compassion accompanied with action that draws the fellowship together. We saw that in South Haven, and we have seen it here in Phoenix. We have always seemed to appeal to the downtrodden of life.

Prayer for God to bring new families to our church usually brings families with a lot of needs.

A life lived to oneself is an unhappy life at best. In Ecclesiastes 4:4-12, the writer points to the emptiness of living without a close friend, someone with whom one can share the joys of life as well as the disappointments; one to lean  on in hard times, who are able to lift each other up. The wise writer here then passes on a golden nugget of truth: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor” (Ecc. 4:9.) It was good then and it is good today! Today, many Christians claim relationship with Christians but have no relationships in the body of Christ. Mega-churches as well as small fellowships are full of lonely people who have never made a connection with another living person. That is sad and is non-productive. The Bible says, “No man lives to himself.” We share together, love together, suffer together, weep together, and rejoice together, and someday, together we will enjoy the pleasures of heaven throughout eternity. We do not have to be lonely here on earth.

If One Falls, the Other Lifts Him Up

Hunting was one of our favorite pastimes growing up. There was an unspoken bond that held us together while deep in the woods, far away from any other security where all we had was each other. We frequently had to rely on each other and the few small items we could pool out of our shallow pockets. A partial list of these very limited resources might include a candy bar, a book of matches or extra ammunition. One such memory was of a cold, wintry night, hunting

raccoon in the backwoods several miles from home.

When the dogs started howling, we knew they had sniffed out their prey and were hot on its trail. We ran through briar patches, crossing creeks and ice covered water, following the howl of the hound dogs. I was cold and wet, scared of falling behind and getting lost. Dewayne kept falling back to keep check on me and make sure I was okay. What a great memory that continues to be. I can’t remember whether we got the raccoon or not, but the memory of the chase is fresh on my mind as I look back fifty-five years or so to that moment in time when my brother was so close to me that I can today remember the smell of the flavor of the gum he was chewing (Juicy Fruit.) That is true fellowship.

The essence of koinonea is love. Love requires commitment and loyalty to each other, not only to the leaders, but to all members, weak and strong. Our motto should be “leave no wounded warrior behind.” When a brother falls behind, go back and walk with him until he can catch up. Make every effort to include every person in the church in the fellowship. Wolves lie in wait for stragglers. I think of some of the beautiful little boys and girls who used to ride our joy buses. We spent huge sums of money and a lot of energy to bring them to church to give them an opportunity to “see Jesus.” Sometimes we began to wonder if we were doing any good at all when they used our baptistery for a swimming pool and marched around classrooms as if the walls were the walls of Jericho and their marching would bring them down! I once crawled on a bus where 107 joyful Joy Bus riders were gearing up for a coup. As I held off one of the fighters, and turned to

restrain the other, a powerful hay-maker landed on my nose, breaking the nose and blacking my eyes. That makes it hard to love. It is hard to love at times like that, yet that is exactly when people need to be loved and lifted up. The next time a brother or sister slips and falls behind, lift him up, help him brush off and walk with him until he catches up. When I hit the pits, I need a helping hand, someone who genuinely cares and obviously wants to help. That is the blessing of having someone else around. He can lift you up when you fall.

That reminds me of a story that I like to remember. I was a little guy and my brothers were 7 or 8 years older. The next door neighbor boys were at least 4 years older than me. They made a career out of bullying me, because I was an easy mark. One day, they slapped a little too hard, because they left a mark on my face which my big brothers saw right away. They chased Billy and Herman for miles, right into a patch of poison sumac. They never did itch to chase me again. Two is better than one because they can lift each other up. Get in the lifting business!

They Can Keep Each Other Warm

One cold winter night while at Harding College, several of my Frater Sodalis brothers decided to camp out at Bee Rock just a few miles from campus. Bee Rock is a beautiful spot located just above Red River, before the Heber Dam was built. We all knew it was cold, but we did not know how cold it was going to get! Picking up a few blankets and provisions to last us through the night, we headed out to Bee Rock. We soon set up camp, fixed our evening meal and sat around the camp

fire, enjoying the moments of fellowship with each other. Little did we know that the nature of our suffering was about to change from a fellowship of food and talk to a fellowship of suffering

It all seemed cozy enough at first, snuggled under our light blankets, close to God, each other and a dying fire. As the night wore on, it became apparent that someone should have checked the weather report and we should have known that eventually, we would have to crawl out of our warm blankets to, well you know. By the time the mercury had plummeted to well below freezing, the blankets became woefully deficient, snow began to fall. It was so cold that none of us could sleep. We ending up moving closer to each other, pooling our meager resources, throwing newspapers over our blankets, letting what body heat we had keep us warm.

I will never forget the shock when we awakened the next morning, stiff and bleary eyed, to shake snow off our backs! Two can help keep each other warm. Of course, the warmth we spread has more to do with our devotion to each other than the biting cold outside. We need to learn how to warm each other, even the coldest heart among us. It is amazing what this kind of love will do for the cold hearted who are stiff as a board. Warm them up with love!

Blackie was a stray that ended up at our house somehow years ago. When Dad penned in the back of the house with blocks, Blackie managed to get caught underneath the house as Dad inserted the final block. For weeks, we could hear the poor little dog cry, but we couldn’t find him. That is, until Dad thought to check under the house. It was the middle of winter in

Michigan and Blackie endured some of the coldest nights all alone under the house. When he came into the house, he ran right straight for the heat register which was on the floor. He stayed there, day in and day out for many days. If the register was hot, he would sit there and whimper, but he would not budge. Even in the hot summer, Blackie could usually be found squatting on a cold register. He never got over his need for warmth. Many of us have never gotten over their need for warmth from a fellow warrior.                            Edification is a valuable function of the church. A cold, closed and reserved atmosphere will never grow people. In Eph. 4, Paul admonished the church in Ephesus to build each other up in love (v. 29.) The church ought to be a mutual edification society. As Christians, we need to go out of our way to edify in love the lonely, despairing, and frustrated brother and sister. Once they feel that warmth, they will keep coming back for more and tell others where they found it. People are looking for that warm register

Two is better than one because they keep each other warm. A house full of cold registers will not attract nor keep anyone who is looking for a warm spot.

They Have Each Others’ Back

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves (Ecc. 4:12.) Churches are not usually good at defending one another. Instead of having each other’s backs, we spend our time watching our backs. By far, the greatest type of assault comes from harsh criticism and unloving rebuke. The church family ought to be a

refuge, a sanctuary from the hurtful, painful darts of criticism. One of the reasons God gave us a church family is to protect one another. When you have a brother, if one prevail against you, two will be there to stand together.

Negative, harsh, critical attitudes damage fellowship. The emphasis of this book has been living out on the thin edge with joy. As long as our hearts are reservoirs of bad thinking about each other, we will always be finding fault with one another and impugning each other’s motives. In Mathew 7:1-6, Jesus gave a great teaching on judging each other. Here is a four step plan to change our polluted reservoirs to pools of living water.

First, take the beam out of your own eye before attempting microscopic surgery on your brother’s eye (v. 4.)  A speck in our brother’s eye ought to prompt us to examine our own lives and remove whatever obstructions we find in our own eyes, including the huge beam blocking our vision. Jesus paints a humorous picture of a surgeon attempting to remove a speck while his own vision is occluded with what amounts to a great beam.

Second, we must remove the speck with love or we will do more damage than good. How we remove the speck is also important. We are taught that the “only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Gal. 5:6.) We are also told to speak “the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15.) How can God use us to change the world if we are constantly fussing with each other? Paul says, Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Co. 13:4)

Now listen to the last phrase that fits so aptly: “It always protects, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (1 Co. 13:7-8.)

Third, criticize the performance rather than the performer. This is a great lesson for us in rearing our children. Discipline is necessary in bringing children to become responsible people. I never cease to be amazed as I watch two hundred pound men and adult women over-powered and run ragged by a tiny child. The Bible says, “He who spares the rod hates” the child (Pr.13:24.) We need to give firm discipline, but it must never be in anger or directed as a personal attack on the child. Criticize his behavior and love his soul. Jesus hates sin, but he does not label us. Children tend to live up to our expectations.

This is true with adults as well. We are in the life-changing business. It has been proven that people tend to live up to their reputation. Label a man as a no- good, do- nothing person, and chances are, that is what he will become. That is not to say we should sugar coat and cover up our sins. God wants us to acknowledge our sins and receive his forgiveness. Forgiveness is essential to peace of mind and peace of mind will not be ours until we have clear consciences. We can help each other get at the root of problems that interfere with our abundant life (Jn. 10:10.) However, there is always a right way and a wrong way to help each other. We should be careful about leaving a friend feeling that they are no longer loved. You may hate the sin, but never the sinner.

Fourth, always expect the best from one another. Most of us watch each other with one eye on the past which greatly skews how we see the present.

We ought to be able to forgive a person’s past and refuse to impugn their motives. That requires me to look for the best, and helps me grow to expect the best. The Bible says, “He that covers over an offense, promotes love” (Prov. 17:9.)

But Three is Best

Living on the thin edge is made possible by close relationships that lift one another up, keep each other warm and give protection. Two is better than one, but three is best, especially when the third party is Jesus. Mutual uplifting and building up of one another creates a bond that is difficult to break. Add to that horizontal relationship, vertical intimacy with God, and you  have an unbeatable combination. “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Jesus is the greatest burden bearer of them all, as he put it, “Come unto me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28-30.) Two is better than one, but three is best! You always need a friend to walk with you when you are out on the thin edge. It is better if you have two. Two is better than one, but three is best!

11

The Love Trailer

We met Richard and Marilyn while knocking on doors to sign people up for a prayer route in Glendale. I believe my son-in-law, Steve was with me. Passing out cards for prayer was a low-key, effective way to meet people and minister to their needs. This method allowed us to meet hundreds of people and witness many of them become Christians. Each household would be given a yellow card with big black cross printed on one side. We asked them to place the card in the window facing the street if they had any prayer needs. We would then walk by every week and look for yellow cards. When we located one, we would stop and pray with the family. Some families even invited others to join with us for a prayer meeting every week.

Hidden in one small trailer park was a quaint little trailer, which had seen better days. What was remarkable about this particular trailer were the big black letters on the front of the trailer, spelling “The Love Trailer.” Those words conjured up all kinds of thoughts about the people we might find behind the door, but what we expected to see we did not see. Instead, we met a couple who impacted our lives in a lot of different ways.  Richard was a short, balding man with a sheepish grin and a boyish demeanor; Marilyn was just a little short for her size and fiercely verbal about her love for Jesus. Of course, they had prayer needs, immediately placing their card in the window so we could see it as we walked by.

Richard and Marilyn loved Jesus and each other at the same time. It would be hard to say which one

needed the other one the most, Richard got her everything she asked for, that didn’t cost anything, rummaging through yard sales and junk piles, for treasures that he could bring home to his wife. Their trailer was filled with these treasures, mementos discovered in some one’s pile of trash; stuffed animals, little knick-knacks all made the love trailer a special place for Richard and Marilyn.

Richard had hurt himself as a child throwing a pocket knife in the air while lying in his bed. The knife would stick in the ceiling, and then fall back down where Richard retrieved it and started the process all over again. That at least, was the plan. The last thing he remembered was the knife sticking in the ceiling and the next thing he remembered, he awakened in a pool of blood. The knife had apparently dislodged from the ceiling, fallen to the bed and stuck in Richard’s head. He lost enough blood that it did permanent damage to Richards mind. Marilyn was just a tad bit slow. It is hard to say who took care of whom.

Richard took a fancy to his bride-to-be when they were only kids. Richard vowed to take care of her for the rest of his life and Marilyn consented, thinking Richard was the most handsome man she had ever seen. They were married, with the approval of their family, but with many naysayers saying it would never work. After all, neither one of them were capable of taking care of themselves.  How could they possibly take care of each other? People did not understand that two is better than one.

Richard worked at odd jobs around the trailer park and Marilyn took care of their trailer, such as it was. We fell in love with them and asked them to come

to church with us. The church fell in love with them as well. We had many prayer meetings in the Love Trailer and from time to time, had to organize a cleaning party to remove the clutter accumulated by two dedicated hoarders. The ritual went something like this.  We would spend several hours moving piles of rubble to the dumpster down the street usually Saturday. By Monday, it would all be back in their home again. At first, it was maddening. But, after several attempts to get them to live like “normal people,” I finally surrendered, carving out a place to sit every time I came to visit them in the love trailer.

They always made some kind of a fuss at church. One time, Marilyn got her underwear caught after using the restroom, requiring someone to reach down her skirt and re-arrange things so she could walk. My daughter, Erin managed somehow to get that detail. They would frequently speak out while I preached, carrying on a two way conversation with me while preaching. On potluck Sundays, she always brought her favorite dish which she usually took home as full as it was when she bought it. Richard maintained she was the best cook he had ever met.

They had been married for over thirty years and had taken care of each other for that long. We were not about to change them. Sometimes, Richard would go with us on prayer walks, witnessing to neighbors about God and the great church they had found. They attended all the functions of the church, dressed in bizarre clothing kept in their love trailer for special occasions. They would embarrass all of us with their public display of affection, but they were only doing what they had promised to do decades earlier, take care

of each other.

One day Richard called me and told me something was wrong with Marilyn. Rushing to the Love Trailer, I found Richard sitting outside and he told me the story. He had tried to talk to her four days earlier, but she would not answer. He thought she was sleeping. But, when he came home that night, she still would not speak. He thought that was odd, but thought no more of it. This went one for three days. On the fourth day, he asked a neighbor to call 911 because she was not “acting right.” She was pronounced dead at the scene. She had died four days earlier. Richard’s heart was broken.

Richard never fully recovered. Part of him was dead and could not be revived. Together, they were a team. Pulling together, they had become a functional team.

Separated, he was not half of the team. Some dynamic is at work with two people pulling together that make them stronger than the combined parts. Two is better than one, but not simple addition. One plus one equals far greater that the individual parts.

I have seen this dynamic before, both as a coach and as a player. Five basketball players who know how to play like a team are stronger by far than the five players individually. There is a component that kicks in that turns five players into a team. It is the same with churches. When we work together, there is no limit to what the Holy Spirit is able to do through us. Work alone, and the power is in the flesh. A team of Christians can accomplish incrementally more than the individual members. That is the power of the New Testament church.

What was the dynamic that made the Love Trailer a powerful home? After Marilyn died, we got a group together from the church and cleaned everything out of the trailer, including the chair Marilyn died in. I remember looking around after we had finished our work and thinking, “Where did the Love Trailer go?” The dynamic that made it the Love Trailer was gone. “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever! Amen” (Eph. 3:20-21.)

For the first time, I got a little glimpse into the meaning of that great scripture. When a church unites in prayer, God is able to do immeasurably more than the individual parts could ever accomplish, according to His power that is at work within each individual.

Two is better than one. Three is best.

“Again I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.” (Mt. 18:19-20.)

12

Knocked Down-But Not Knocked Out

My Brother Dewayne

Dewayne was a remarkable person. He loved to live life on the thin edge and seemed to invite others to join in. My mind floods with childhood memories, like the long talks, late in to the night, long after Dad called upstairs, “You boys go to sleep.” We talked about everything, including plans for our lives. Dewayne was what I would call a big thinker. Nothing seemed impossible to him, including many projects we saw to completion while we were still young. He rarely ever saw a challenge too big, too expensive or too demanding. That is why I am including this chapter on Dewayne. His life personifies all that I have written about in this book. He had a lot of dreams.

Dewayne’s dreams came to an end when he was 38 years old after a long hard struggle with three benign brain tumors. Surgery took two of them. The third was wrapped around nerves that could not be removed. The third one got him after robbing him of his hearing, sight and finally, control of his body. Tumors sucked out Dewayne’s life, but could not destroy his zeal for life, his great sense of humor and his big dreams. JoAnn and I were in a redwood park in California camping when the California State Police traced us down and brought us news of his impending surgery, when they removed two tumors and left the third that would eventually take his life. He was an unusual man.

Once, Dad sent Dewayne to the store for a bunch

of bananas to make banana pudding. He returned with a stalk of bananas nearly as tall as his 5’8” frame.  Sent for a bag of peanuts, he came home dragging a 100 lb. bag that lasted several weeks, even with five hungry boys. One morning, he went out to have breakfast and did not return until late in the day, just in time to go to work. He had met a man hitchhiking to Chicago, which is nearly 120 miles away, so Dewayne drove him. Dewayne’s brain was in his heart, the seat of his thinking in the bowels of his compassion. He was an extraordinary man, full of courage, a fighter to the very end. His doctor said he died of a massive heart attack from fighting so hard to live. That was my big brother, Dewayne, my hero then and today. When he died at 37, life for me briefly came to a halt. Adjustment to life without him was tough.

Dewayne was often knocked down, but even at the end, he was never knocked out. He just got up, brushed himself off, and kept coming back for more. When he was a little boy, he jumped out of the hayloft into a haymow onto the tines of a pitchfork which buried in his little foot. He broke one arm when he fell from a tree house we were building, severely burned both arms and hands when he tried to ignite a fire to wash clothes with a five gallon can of gasoline which promptly burst into flames. He sustained third degree burns over his right hand and arm after we set the living room drapes on fire shooting long stem matches at each other out of our BB guns. With the lights off, our home looked like a battleground as the match heads struck the walls and ignited into flame. Dewayne put the fire out with his bare hands. The sight of my brother standing on the seat of the outdoor toilet,

waving his arm and hands through the open to get some cool air to relief the pain from burns up and down his arms is forever etched into my mind.

Dewayne has a new body now, and everything works just like brand new. He has a mansion to live in with all those who have gone on before him. I fully expect to meet him someday, near the river of life, drawing pictures in the sand. Here, he walked with a limp from the tines of a pitchfork driven through his foot after having jumped off the hay mow into a stack of hay.

Dewayne was a prolific writer. He wrote short stories and even kept correspondence with Jesse Stuart who wrote the book, The Thread That Runs So True. Jesse Stuart was a great encouragement to Dewayne since their writing styles were so similar. His style was very much “Dewayne,” written not to impress, but to communicate long after his ability to speak audible words had deserted him. He wrote volumes of letters to the editors of local newspapers, poring over every word, pecking them out letter by letter with his typewriter. With resolution, he would use a magnifying glass, putting together words into sentences and sentences into thoughts. He worked hour after hour, in his down home country style, critiquing politicians and often bringing public figures to task for what he considered to be some “boneheaded” act. Dewayne’s handle was “‘Peace ‘n Smiles.” He usually wore a big smile and could almost always muster a laugh or two. Dewayne sometimes got down, but it took very little to pick him back up again. I miss my brother. I hope someday you will have a chance to meet him.

There is a lot of gloom and despair in this old

world we live in. A lot of people are depressed, joyless and without hope. The world needs “Peace n Smiles” to brighten each day, representing hope; hope for today and hope for tomorrow, hope for a better life. Sometimes we do hit the skids, finding ourselves in a free fall to the bottom of the barrel, not knowing how far we are from the bottom. We need to find something to grab on the way down, so God can pull us up and we can start all over again. I have heard it said that even the sun has an occasional sinking spell, but it manages to get back up! Christians are knocked down every now and then, but we don’t have to stay down for the count.

Knocked Down-But Not Knocked Out

Noah preached to a generation of hard-hearted people, hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Other than his family, not one other family obeyed the truth. His preaching engagement lasted 120 years; he poured out his heart, warning friends and neighbors that judgment was coming, with no response. Preachers like to see some response to messages prepared with salvation in mind. But, no one responded, not one single soul outside his own family. Do you know how tough it is to continue to preach when no one is listening or even cares? In the end, “Noah built an ark to save his family” (Heb. 11:5.) He made the hall of faith in Heb. 11 and generations were affected by his faith. He was a faithful father first and a preacher second and God blessed his faith. He was knocked down, but he was never knocked out!

Elijah was a man of passions just like you and

me, according to James. He was subject to mood swings. However, he lived by faith and not by sight because he had an appointment with God and the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. His opponents were following the god of their age, Baal, who was powerless yet held great influence over God’s people. Elijah detested what they were doing to the point that he met them and defeated them on Mt. Carmel. However Elijah first was knocked down at the Brook Kerith and humbled in the village of Zarephath. At one point, Elijah found himself under a broom tree, praying for God to end it all. God had to remind him that there were still thousands who had not yet bowed their knees to Baal. He was knocked down, but he was not knocked out.

Samson was a powerful, strong man whose secret of strength was found in his hair. He kept that secret hidden until Delilah tricked him into revealing his secret; as a result, he lost his hair and his power. Samson was embarrassed and down for the count. His eyes were gouged out, he was placed in shackles, but his hair began to grow back. Samson turned his eyeless sockets toward God, and with a great show of power, brought the pillars of the palace down on the partying Philistines. Not one person survived! Down, but not out! God’s people may indeed hit the canvas, but they are never down for the full count.

Jesus, the first born among many brothers, came to this earth, born in a manger, the child of a teenage Jewish girl and the stepson of Joseph, a carpenter. He said of himself, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head” (Mt. 8:20.) He spent three years healing and performing

miracles while training a small band of disciples. He was falsely accused, beaten within inches of his life and being just short of death, was nailed to a cross with nails through his hands and his feet. He suffered the most humiliating execution known to man.  Friday, he was laid in a tomb. Sunday, He was raised from the grave, incorruptible. He gained victory over the Devil and death and brought salvation and deliverance for a lost world all at the same time. He was knocked down, but he was not knocked out

Paul, called by God to take the Gospel to the Gentiles, led a fruitful ministry. In 2 Co. 4:7-8, Paul affirmed that he was nothing but a jar of clay, the treasure of the Gospel carried in a jar of clay. Can you imagine? God took the most wonderful gift of the gospel and placed it in jars of clay, the hearts of faltering, stumbling, quivering humanity. He did this for one reason: to show that “this all surpassing power is from God and not from” us. He confessed, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” Did you catch that? Knocked down, but not knocked out!

In 1 Co. 1:8, Paul describes the hardships they had suffered while in Asia by using the following descriptive phrases. “Utterly burdened,” “beyond our strength,” “despaired of life itself,” and “we received the sentence of death.” All this was to make them rely not on themselves, but on God who raises the dead. Why did he add “who raises the dead?” They were knocked down, but not knocked out!

Paul suffered as a faithful preacher of the Gospel of Christ. He said he was “not ashamed” of the Gospel.

Paul understood perfectly why a child of God had to suffer. In 1 Co. 9:24-27, Paul admonishes Christians to “Run in such a way as to get the prize.” What does a race look like that wins the prize? First, the runner has to go into strict training. In addition, he keeps his eye on the goal, the precious crown of life. Finally, he beats his body to bring it under subjection. Discipline is essential in running a race and prepares Christians to finish their race. Even Jesus had to learn the lesson of obedience through the things which he suffered that He might become the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him (Heb. 5:8 ,9.) If Jesus had to suffer, so must we in order to be used by God.

In 2 Co. 12:7, Paul gives yet another reason for his suffering. “To keep me from becoming conceited…there was given me a thorn in my flesh…” Paul pleaded three times to have it removed, but the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” The conclusion that Paul was able to draw from God’s admonition was that he “…delighted in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecution, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul was knocked down, but he was not knocked out. In 2 Co. 11:23-29, Paul outlines a history of suffering and finishes in v. 30 by saying, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” Praise God for suffering!

Suffering Produces

All of us want to be successful, productive Christians. We bring glory to God when we bear much fruit (Jn. 15:8.) A branch that bears no fruit will be trimmed

clean, and a branch that does not remain in Jesus  (the vine) will not be fruitful. In Mk. 4:19, we are taught that there are three things that will destroy a person’s productivity: “the worries of life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things.” We need to train ourselves to be focused on God so that worry, wealth and the desire for other things are not able to turn our heads and affect our productivity. Suffering produces.              In Jas. 1, the writer reminds us to “count it all joy when you fall into temptation.” Why? Suffering produces. It produces patience and patience produces maturity which leads to wisdom. Suffering is the fertile soil in which faith grows. Suffering prevents us being wishy-washy or up and down like “a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind” (Jas 1:1-8.) Real fathers, who care for their sons and daughters, discipline them for their own good. If God did not chastise us, we should be disappointed as that would prove to us that we are not his legitimate children (Heb. 12:7-13.) It is not pleasant, but the writer assures us, it does produce a “harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” That is good stuff!

Dewayne suffered a great deal in his body while he lived here on earth. His faith grew weak and he started doubting God. He had always been a strong, muscular man, making it that much more difficult to accept his weakness. Now that he is on the other side, he could tell you why he had to suffer. Before he died, he wheeled himself down the aisle at church just before I got up to preach. Dewayne was proud of his brothers and encouraged us in many ways. This time he wanted to sit close enough to the preacher so he could feel the “spit coming from his mouth” when he preached. He

positioned himself right next to the front pew on the inside aisle. He was not able to hear, but somehow he “heard” my message and asked for prayers for his backsliding. There is no way of assessing how many people his life affected. Several years after his death, every now and then, someone still would stop me and tell me how much Dewayne’s life had touched theirs. Suffering produces.

Suffering Produces Perseverance,

Character and Hope

By now, you may be saying, “Bring on the suffering so I can get happy,” and you are not far from the truth. I do not want to leave the impression that we ought to be sadistic about this, but you cannot argue with success. In Ro. 5:3-5, Paul said he rejoices in suffering because it produces.

1. It produces perseverance. Perseverance is the ability to stick with it and never quit, even though you have been knocked down. God gives us the ability to persevere as we struggle through a difficult time. Dewayne was never a quitter. Before he died, JoAnn and I would take him to the bowling alley, where I would wheel him down the lane, as he carried the ball in his lap, timing the release of the ball to coincide with the end of the runway. Our timing had to be perfect. When the ball bumped a pin or two, the alley would be filled with our shouts of joy. You would have thought he had a three hundred pin game!

He chose crawling over a wheel chair because he refused the restrictions of a wheel chair.  Dewayne sat

at his typewrite night and day. It was rarely ever silent,

even near the end of his life, as he communicated with  people all over the country. He was not a quitter.

2. It produces character. There are a lot of characters around, but the character Paul refers to here is a quality produced by persevering. Every character quality imaginable is produced through persevering. When we ask for patience, we are asking God to give us some genuine suffering so we can persevere through and gain patience. A person with character is pleasing to God and is useable by God to bless the lives of other people. He is a person positioned to be a winner in life, who has learned to stand on truth, speak truth when the opportunities arise, and do so in love. He is not afraid. He is bold and courageous.

3. It produces hope. “Hope does not disappoint us, because the Holy Spirit sheds abroad love into our hearts” (v. 5.) That is where we started this chapter. It really summarizes what this book is all about, hope. Without hope, there is no reason to smile. With hope, there is no

reason to frown. In Php. 1:6, Paul says to have confidence that God will finish the good work He has begun in us. In Gal. 6:9, He tells us not to grow weary, because in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. The only way we will fail is by giving up. Paul says hope does not disappoint us because the Holy Spirit is shedding abroad love into our hearts. No, hope does not disappoint us. Endurance and the encouragement of scriptures guarantee it! (Ro. 15:4)

In 2 Timothy 1:6-7, Paul tells Timothy to fan into flame the gift of God. Why? Because God gave us a Spirit of love, self-discipline and power instead of a spirit of fear. In the depths of a cold, dark dungeon, awaiting execution, Paul had hope. He had hope

because he was not ashamed of the Gospel, God’s power to redeem, God’s power to deliver. Hope does not disappoint.

Looking For a City

When God told Abraham to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, he “obeyed and went,” even though he had no idea where God was sending him. He had faith (Ro. 5:1,) and his faith produced hope. He was looking for a city whose builder and maker is God, which has no foundation. That city is the city of the loving God, the church of the firstborn (Heb. 12:22-23.) We, too, look for that city, where the firstborn will live forever. There will be no tears there, and no disappointments. The sun and the moon will not be necessary, because God will be its’ light. From the throne of God, and of the Lamb, right down the middle of that great city, the river of the water of life will flow clear as crystal. No, hope will not disappoint you!

For Your Labor is Not in Vain

Paul said it in 1 Co. 15:58, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Have you ever been knocked down? Get up, brush yourself off and start all over again. Life’s mountain peaks are beautiful because they stand out in full relief to the valleys and low places. When you are in the valley, don’t take your eyes off the glorious peaks surrounding the valley.

Good-bye to My Brother

When Dewayne died, my wife wrote these words: “On the inside cover of his casket was a representation of the tree of life…it looks as though it’s dead and yet lives. And, someday, suddenly it will burst forth into beautiful bloom. What a wonderful thought to know that truly one day he will live again and without all the suffering which he so bravely endured in this life. We were blessed to have had him for awhile and even now he would have us to “keep on keeping on.”

Peace-n-Smiles - Dewayne

Jo Selvidge

September 26, 1973