He forgot the obvious

Many times people will put style over substance.

I'll never forget the story that my dad would tell us on occasion, dealing with this very subject. As a young boy growing up in the sandlots of Pittsburgh , he had a chance to play quite a bit of baseball, and ended up on an organized team when he was a teenager. The team improved enough to make the playoffs.

The story goes, as my dad tells it, that some of the boys knew that there would be a fair-sized crowd to see the playoff game, so they cleaned up their uniforms and bought some new shoes, caps and even gloves in order to make a good display.

The game was very close, and going into the ninth inning my dad's team was down by one run, but with two outs, was able to get a runner over to third base. On an infield smash, the runner at third base made a dash for home. The catcher got the ball, holding the ball high for a tag. All the runner needed to do was slide... but he didn't. He ran toward home, and was tagged out by the catcher, and that was the end of the game.

My dad and his teammates surrounded the runner. "Why didn't you slide?" they asked. "You could have tied the game."

"Hey," said the runner, "these are new shoes, and no way I'm going to risk scuffing them up."

In order to keep up his appearance, the runner forgot that the main reason he was out there was to win the game!

He forgot the obvious.

This came across my desk some years ago and I've kept it in my file for quite some time. It was from an international business magazine, and the article was talking about strange and odd bits of news. The report came out about an unusual business move by the owner of a South Korean movie house.

It seems that the theater owner got the rights to a very famous American movie and with joy, announced its release to the public. However, when he previewed it, he was bothered by what he saw. This theater owner decided that the movie "The Sound of Music" was too long, and wanted to pack in as many people as possible. He decided to take care of the problem by shortening the movie so he could have more showings per day. How did he do it? Believe it or not, he shortened it by cutting out all of the musical scenes!

Sometimes in a rush to get a result, people will make poor judgments that divert them from the very goal they seek.

I like this:

In Acts 4:20 Peter and John are warned to speak of Christ no longer. They answer in a straightforward way, by replying that "we cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard. The words in the Koine Greek "ou dunamai" denote more than Peter and John's reluctance to stop speaking. The word "dunamai" is where we get the word for dynamite. More strongly worded, it could say this: "We have no power to stop speaking of the things we witnessed." Peter and John knew the reason they were put on Earth; they knew their ministry. So should we Christians. Simply be witnesses of the fantastic things Christ has done for us.

Do You Want Merely Nice Persons or Radically New People?

I hear this argument many times, and it does indeed become a puzzle to many Believers: if Christianity works, then how come there are so many people who call themselves Christians so rotten? Why aren't all Christians nicer than the non-Christians?

I recommend highly C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, particularlyone of the final chapters entitled "Nice People or New Men." In it, Lewis tells of how Christians are a continual work in progress as they grow closer to the Lord, and the overall picture is clearer when you remember that the entire creature is overcoming the effects of a sinful kosmos and is in transition towards total and complete Christlikeness. At the moment, some "works in progress" may seem to need a lot more renovation (boy, that really describes me!) For the casual observer to point and say, "well, that's the reason I don't become a Christian, because that Christian is not perfect in his manners," I direct you to Lewis' closing paragraphs of that same chapter:

"Niceness"-wholesome, integrated personality-is an excellent thing. We must try by every medical, educational, economic, and political means in ourpower, to produce a world where as many people as possible grow up "nice";just as we must try to produce a world where all have plenty to eat. But we must not suppose that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world - and might even be more difficult to save.

For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man. It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better but like turning a horse into a winged creature. Of course, once it has got its wings, it will soar over fences which could never have been jumped and thus beat the natural horse at its own game. But there may be a period, while the wings are just beginning to grow, when it cannot do so: and at that stage the lumps on the shoulders - no one could tell by looking at them that theyare going to be wings - may even give it an awkward appearance. ..

If whatyou want is an argument against Christianity (and I well remember how eagerly I looked for such arguments when I began to be afraid it was true) you can easily find some stupid and unsatisfactory Christian and say, "So there's your boasted new man! Give me the old kind." But if once you have begun to see that Christianity is on other grounds probable, you will know in your heart that this is only evading the issue. What can you ever really know of other people's souls - of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him. You cannot put Him off with speculations about your next door neighbours or memories of what you have read in books. What will all that chatter and hearsay count (will you even be able to remember it?) when the anaesthetic fog which we call "nature" or "the real world" fades away and the Presence in which you have always stood becomes palpable, immediate, and unavoidable?

Mark 2:16-17

When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, "Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?"

And hearing {this,} Jesus *said to them, "{It is} not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

That Jesus would not only converse, but dine with the "common, dirty folk" was astounding to the Pharisees, whose name literally meant "separated ones." They were secure intheir religious ways, including quiet libraries, fine robes and front seats at the big social events of the town.

Then here comes Jesus - a Man who touches lepers, preaches in houses and on seashores, and takes children into His lap. The Pharisees couldn't comprehend One who would soil His hands in such a way.

The write Morgan says: “I am constrained to say that I believe at this very hour one of the secrets of arrest, and one of the reasons for the condition of things in the Christian Church that is troubling us in many ways, is the aloofness of the Christian Church from sinning men and women. We still build our sanctuaries, and set up our standards, and institute our arrangements, and say to the sinning ones: if you will come to us, we will help you!”

I recall working under a pastor years ago, who, when I was discussing an outreach, shut down the whole discussion by saying, "If they want to hear the Bible, they know where we are."

Small wonder why our church couldnt clear 100 in attendance in a town of almost 40,000.

Yet in later years, I was under a pastor whose fervor for reaching out affected our whole church. Everyone was invited and nurturing the townfolk. They streamed in: kids coming in from the Projects; single moms who were trying to make it from paycheck to paycheck; lonely men and women who just wanted friends; desperate people who needed the Gospel. They knew they were "sick" and needed the Physician, just as we staff members knew our "sickness" as well. It was an amazing time of seeing people coming to Christ and growing in grace.

Monday

After the mountaintop, you sometimes experience the valley...

After a great Bible study time at the U.T. campus, I came home and experienced a familiar feeling last night around 11 p.m.: the back pain again.

This time it was brutal. My lower spine felt like I was laying on broken glass.

I paced the floor all night, barely getting over an hour of sleep. Couldn't think straight, get my thoughts together. I broke out in a sweat, because of the pain, and developed shivers. Massive headache set in. Nausea. Work, of course, was impossible, so I spent the day at home, literally on my back.

I'm trying to avoid surgery - the surgeon is definitely telling me it is an uneasy option due to the aftereffects - and I am down to taking in liquids only as well as spending incredible amounts of time on my back. (In fact, I snuck to the back part of the church on Sunday and lay on my back between for a good ten minutes in order to relieve the pressure.)

Lord, if this might pass...

... I will surely remember the simple joy of being able to sit or stand without pain. And right now, to be pain-free ... that's pretty high up on my prayer list.

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE THIS SUNDAY

IT'S TIME ONCE AGAIN TO GET BACK ON CAMPUS!

Our Jolly Beggars Bible study will load the cars and head on down to U.T. campus for a Sunday evening Apologetics Bible study. Yessssss!

I LOVE to go on campus and meet up with the hungry, dynamic kids at the University of Tennessee. The many times I've been at either Reese Hall or Hess Hall have been great.

We're going to share the restfulness of Jesus as taught through the Scriptures.

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28


The word REST is important to know. Jesus gives us anapauo {an-ap-ow'-o}

Strong's Concordance says it means "to cause or permit one to cease from any movement or labour in order to recover and collect his strength." I think that's what a lot of Christians need to do - collect their strength. You KNOW that a college student today needs to sit back and get a restful time with Jesus. I think one of the most frequent words used by Christian college students - and nonbelievers as well - is "busy." Always preoccupied with classes, functions, deadlines, studies, holidays...and very little time for Jesus Himself. We need a rest. We need anapauo - a time to recover our strength.

Meet at my house at 6 p.m. We'll get the caravan moving!

Revival comes about...

When I was on the Bible faculty of a Christian academy a few years back, I was given the responsibility of organizing the chapel services. I recall - to my great surprise - of being chastised by a student for not having enough music during the service.

"But we have music for the first twenty minutes,"I replied.

"It's not enough," he retorted. "It needs to be at least an hour. We want a revival to start."

"You understand," I said, "that the entire chapel service is only sixty minutes long."

"It doesn't matter," he answered back. "We need more time to get into the Spirit."

After I questioned him longer, he told me that in his home church, the congregation felt it necessary to have a music/praise service for a minimum of two hours "in order to get into the Spirit. We want revival and that's the way it comes about."

Now, I am not sure what this young man feels about the Scripture, but when I challenged him to show me a passage in the Bible where a revival (by his definition of an outpouring of the convicting power of the Holy Spirit) was brought about by a musical event, he stared at me blankly.

We had recently had a school activity where some students openly flaunted the rules and the result was a minor scandal among the student body. I pointed this out, saying, "We as the faculty did everything we could in confronting the rule-breakers, including punishment. You students have talked about this with one another. Yet not one of the students of this school has stepped forward to confront these guys, who still remain unrepentant. And you know, every revival I have read about in the Bible started with the recognition, confession and repentance of sin. My friend, that's what you need to do as a peer and fellow Christian. If you feel so strongly about wanting to see revival within this school, go and deal - in the Matthew 18 principle - with these troublemakers who call themselves Christians but are still rebellious. Talk with them. Pray with them. But you gotta deal with it."

He looked at me blankly and left the room. He never confronted any of the rule breakers. Nor did any other student in the school.

Revival never came.

Starting Line

On Sunday night October 5th I will be meeting with interested families here in Knoxville at the Kolinsky home, sharing my ministry about reaching college students and seeing if there is an interest in expanding the ministry.

Please pray for this, as this is a pivotal meeting. I will be basing much of our future plans on the decisions made that night.

Although I am excited and a little nervous about it, I don't have an anxiety about it. Hey, this is all of God's doing, and if it is meant to be, then He will make a way.

Phil. 4:6 puts it this way:
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

The Greek word for "anxious" is "merimnaō" and it gives two pertinent definitions:
1. to be taken over by troubles - in other words, to be rippling with worry.
2. to seek to promote one's self interests - in other words, to turn my eyes of of Jesus and to rely on my own wits.

Both definitions show that anxiety in a Christian's walk is a crack in the foundation of the relationship with Jesus.

This college ministry is not a self-interest. This is not an ego trip. And I will not trouble the waters of my relationship with Jesus by fretting and fussing about it if things don't turn out the way I want them to.

Merimnao is not my leader. Jesus is.

The Wild Honey is what people seek

Pronounced: (mel – ee ag-ree-os)

Mark 1:6 - "John was clothed with camel's hair and {wore} a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey."

Over the past few months, I've run into both former students and old classmates of mine, whom I once knew to be in the Christian faith but since have fallen away. I've also encountered those who have told me that they've seen Christianity and found it lacking.

And after a little bit of studying about their search, their contacts and their place of worship, I can see what they mean.

They hit the A.S. Christianity...."artificial sweetener Christianity."

And we have no ones to blame but ourselves when we see people turned off by it.

I run into more and more people who are tired of the concert-type of gatherings - they want the direction to be toward Jesus, and how they can know him as the Bible intends. No games, no traditions.

I meet people who don't want a pastor who tells anecdotes and one-liners... they want someone who digs into the depths of the Scripture, with commentary limited to a helpmeet of how God intended for us to use this in today's day and time.

I am encountering people who want the "meli agrios" - the wild honey of Jesus' message. They want the grassroots works and words of the Messiah. Wow - and when they get it, they're changed, my friend.

Like Stewart in North Carolina, who sat in my office and wrestled with the problem of a death in his family. When he saw what Jesus offered, BAM! Stewart was a changed man. He became a joyous and energetic follower of Christ who was happy.

Like Jeanine, who came out of the depths of depravity from the Tenderloin district of San Francisco and met me in California, telling me that if she could not get the roots of Jesus' forgiveness and grace, she would end her life that night. Let me tell you, when she realized - through the Bible, not my opinion - the real Jesus and what He did for her, she changed that instant. The depression left, the guilt and the slavery to sin. As I watched her the next few weeks, I saw Jeanine grow in an amazing display of relief, comfort, and open joy because she was able to taste freely of the Wild Honey of Jesus' message.

Man, oh, man. We need to get back to this Wild Honey.

Jesus, take us back to the basics.

Quick notes

Although I try to keep as much Scripture study in this blog, I want to drop a few personal notes...

Nicholas will be coming home from Camp RedCloud (Lake City CO) at the end of October. He has announced his engagement to Alexis Shipley of Greenville TN. We are very excited. Nicholas will be home and working toward transferring to University of Tennessee. He is also looking into options of a military career, possibly Air Force.

Peter is in another play at Berean. This one will be a Sherlock Holmes mystery. They have a great theatrical program, a very impressive director named Mr. Brown.

My back pain is constant but liveable. Yesterday was excruciating for about three hours but the rest of the day was okay. Last night was fine. This morning my lower back had a dull throbbing rather than the sharp pain that would make my skin crawl. And here's the strange thing: I can still run. I hit the treadmill for 40 minutes to an hour five times a week and , as the doctor said, there is nothing wrong it. In fact, it even helps it at times. ?

Jill is readying us for the fall holidays already! Of course, with the NFL underway, we already in a great mood. I'm preparing to put a gas line into the downstairs fireplace so she'll be warm all winter. Fibro myalgia is brutal to her when the winter cold sets in.

Julianne, of course, is Julianne. She's three years old but has decided that she is the only one to monitor the medical progress of my back. She is Julianne the Doctor who feels it's important to whack my knee with that little medical hammer every time she wants to see if my back is okay.

Stop and think

Psalm 1:2 - "But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night."

Definition of meditation:

Haga, which means to utter, groan, meditate, or ponder;  in various places in the Bible it is the same word used by a lion growling over his prey, and of low thunder - both speak of strength that is above and beyond a human's... a great thought to remember.   Meditation speaks of great power, which comes from the realization of our mighty God and the things He can do. 

Stop.

Think.

Really think about what God says and who God is. 

John MacArthur quote

I will tell you this, there’s really only one thing that I want to do in my ministry. There’s only one obligation that I have and it is this: to show people that the Scripture is the Word of the Living God, to be adhered to. I don’t want them to think I’m the authority, I don’t want them to think the culture is the authority; I just want them to know this Word is the authority. Now, how do you convince people of that if you don’t ever teach it? People coming through those kinds of environments, have a superficial, once-over-lightly view of Scripture. The depth of it utterly escapes them.

Friday morning

I am finishing the editing of my youth pastor's ministry book that will be picked up by two Christian universities. It's slow going, but I should be done within a week and ready for final publication.

I say this guardedly: It is nearing 9 o'clock and this is the first morning since May that I have been pain-free. I am plenty sore - my back still throbs - by the pain started subsiding last night about 10 p.m. It is hard to believe that I have been putting up with this since the end of last school year, but it's true. I have had plenty of quiet times with the Lord while flat on my back, so I honestly say I cannot regret the time I spent in this condition. And this is not to say that it is over. Even as I write this, my skin still crawls with the pulsing soreness deep in my back. But still, I at least have a morning without glass-sharp pain ripping into me.

"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." - C. S. Lewis

God is above and beyond

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out! - Romans 11:33

How do you fully describe God?  As I read the Bible and find the snippets of the descriptions of God, I find that even these morsels of information are astounding to me.  I see why God parcels them out in small forms - they are so awesome that we could not process them with our finite minds.  I stop and meditate upon His transendent attributes and I must sit still and ponder in order to take it in.  This is pretty heady stuff for me, anyway - I'm the kind of person who gets amazed by the circuitry of our home's water heater.

This God of all the universe defies description. 

Here's what I'm trying to say... well, Isaac Newton puts it best.  Here is a good summery in his own words - 

“The supreme God exists necessarily, and by the same necessity He exists always and everywhere. Whence also He is all similar, all eye, all ear, all brain, all arm, all power to perceive, to understand, and to act; but in a manner not at all human, in a manner not at all corporeal, in a manner utterly unknown to us. 

As a blind man has no idea of colors, so have we no idea of the manner by which the all-wise God perceives and understands all things. He is utterly void of all body and bodily figure, and can, therefore neither be seen or heard or touched; nor ought He to be worshiped under the representation of any corporeal thing. 

We have ideas of His attributes but what the real substance of anything is we know not. In bodies we see only their figures and colors, we hear only the sound, we touch only their outward surfaces, we smell only the smells and taste the savors, but their inward substances are not to be known either by our senses or by any reflex act of our minds; much less, then, have we any idea of the substance of God. 

We know Him only by His most wise and excellent contrivances of things and final causes; we admire Him for His perfections, but we reverence and adore Him on account of His dominion, for we adore Him as His servants.”

Something about atheism...

Last night's Bible study at the CAK campus went well. We hit some pretty serious Greek phrases as well as handled some apologetics arguments.

I love these points brought up to question atheists. These are refutations to claims made by prominent skeptics, notably Richard dawkins. These few points are culled from a book called The Irrational Atheist by Vox Day:

1. Atheists claim that atheists make up a smaller percent of prison populations that their theists counterparts. However, surveys indicate that those who profess no religion are four times more likely to be incarcerated than their Christian counterparts. (Page 20)
2. Atheists say that religion hinders scientific progress. However, one of the most religious countries (the United States) produces 28.7% more scientific output per capita than the most atheistic one (France). (Pages 58-59)
3. They claim that Hitler was a Christian. The truth is that although Adolf Hitler made Christian-like statements when attempting to get elected to political office, once installed, he hated Christianity, and planned to replace it with a religion based upon racial eugenics. (Pages 209-214)
4. Atheists claim that only religious people start horrible acts, and that atheists would never commit atrocities. But the writer states that atheist regimes of the 20th century have committed much worse atrocities than all religious atrocities combined. In the words of Day, "...the average atheist crime against humanity is 18.3 million percent worse than the very worst depredation committed by Christians, even though atheists have had less than one-twentieth the number of opportunities with which to commit them." and "The (atheists') attempt to explain away the murderous acts of atheists shows the logical errors and double standard for those within their own camps. "(Pages 233-250)

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I ask for prayer for my back once again. The pain became so severe that I had to leave a meeting. Once again, I lay sprawled on the floor of my office, waiting for the pain to subside. This has been going on since May. The specialist has me on some nuclear-powered medicine, and wants me to try it for six more weeks, then see if I need surgery.