Pastoral Resources

A fellow decided to rob a convenience store clerk The robber had a neat plan to give the clerk a $10 bill, get her to open her cash drawer to make change, and then grab all the money The plan worked! He got everything in her cash drawer-total $4.34-and left the clerk with his $10 He went in the hole to the tune of $5.66!

The undeniable truth is that sin never gives what it promises It always returns less than the sinner invests in self-esteem, integrity, and spiritual security Want proof?

Adam and Eve were promised freedom, wisdom and life by Satan, only to be led to commit spiritual suicide.

Sensuous Samson fell in love with a woman who did not love God, and he paid with his eyesight, freedom and life.

Ananias and Sapphira were going to get credit for being generous and wound up being buried for being liars.

In each of these cases, sin promised something it could never deliver The same thing is still happening in our world today.

Adolescents are led to see God, their parents, and their teachers as enemies and wind up in rebellion's deep pit.

People date and marry without taking into account that the spiritual element is the critical part of a relationship.

Some church members hide behind masks and fool themselves and their friends, but not God.

Sin costs too much You have to sell your soul to have whatever pretty trinkets it offers you for the moment Then you have to face a time of bitter reckoning You have to "pay the piper." Yet whatever had been promised to you as a reward has already gone up in a puff of smoke or has slipped through your fingers And Judgment Day is coming! The basic lure of sin is the promise of quick gain, without regard to long-term consequences.

Truth and holiness work differently With total honesty about the difficult demands at hand, the God who cannot lie promises to reward you down the line Obedience, purity, integrity, repentance, denial-these are hard words and demanding deeds But what lies at the end is invaluable!

Sin never delivers Christ never fails So don't get robbed while trying to pull a fast one on God.

A neighbor heard that a poor woman was reduced to extreme poverty by the loss of her cow, which was her only means of support He was personally unable to replace the cow for the poor woman, so he went around soliciting funds Each neighbor offered sorrow and regret, but none practical assistance He became impatient, and after being answered as usual by a plentiful shower of feeling, exclaimed "Oh, yes! I don't doubt your feeling; but you don't feel in the right place." "Oh," said one, "I feel with all my heart and soul." "Yes, yes," replied the solicitor, "I don't doubt that either; but I want you to feel in your pocket." If we can feel in our pockets but don't, we commit sin.

The cross of Christ is the only real corrective for legalism In Matthew 5, James rescues the law from the legalists We human beings have discovered several ways to reject God's law We can defy the law, taking the antinomian stance, "I am my own person, I do not need law." Or, like the scribes and the Pharisees, we can reduce the law to hundreds of rules we can keep.

For example, the rabbis "fenced" the Sabbath commandment with 39 categories of possible violation Each category was then broken down into specific rules They debated whether one could wear a wooden leg or a brooch on the Sabbath Would this be "carrying objects" on the Sabbath? Legalism begins with reverence for God's law and ends in making the law trivial and absurd.

The legalist runs the risk of at least three sins First, he loses sight of the Lawgiver in reducing the law to rules Second, he reduces God's great claims upon us to manageable rules he can keep He then loses sight of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man (An old African proverb asks, "How do you eat an elephant?" Answer: "One bite at a time.") Third, having lost sight of the holy God and his own sinfulness, the legalist becomes self-righteous and judgmental of others.

In Matthew 5, Jesus restates the law as the Word of the holy God He is not fighting the liberals; he is taking the legalists to task for reducing the law to bite-sized chunks "The holy law of the holy God cannot be watered down so easily as you think," he says "Anyone who reduces the great claims of the law is least in the kingdom For example, you do not kill Do you hate? You are proud because you do not commit adultery? Do you lust? You give your wives a legal paper of divorce; what about your commitment to live with them until death do you part? You stay inside the law in your business dealings, but is your word your bond? You live by 'an eye for an eye,'but do you love your enemies and pray for them? You must not reduce God's great claims upon you to a list of rules you can keep."

In view of Jesus' teaching about the holiness of God and this law, what do we see in the cross of Christ? The cross was the sin of sins But why? Because the Jews and Romans broke the law, "Thou shalt not kill?" Yes, but is that all? Was there not also a law which said that blasphemers must die (Leviticus 24:16), and did not many in Israel sincerely see Jesus as a blasphemer? What happened that day outside the walls of Jerusalem was not only the breaking of God's law, it was also the rejection of the holy and loving God who gave the law, the prophets, and even His own Son The sin was not just the breaking of the law, but the breaking of the Lawgiver's heart Jesus was crucified by the most conscientious legalists in town.

As we stand before the cross we see a love so wide, so deep, so high that all human beings come within its reach In the cross, God reaches out once again to those who refuse to acknowledge His law and to those legalists who trivialize His law and declare themselves righteous All our human pride and pretension is shattered on the rock called Golgotha The cross is the only real correction for legalism.

Each of us has certain legal rights in life It is our privilege to insist that we enjoy every one of them But in so doing we may commit moral wrong which would be injurious, not only to others, but also to ourselves and thus rob us of that most essential peace of heart One of the apartments owned by a Christian landlord is rented by a widow with four children Month after month, as a result of the hard work of that poor widow, the rent is paid But suddenly she gets sick and is unable to pay the rent The landlord has every legal right to call upon the authorities to evict this woman and her children from the apartment His act would be legally right but morally wrong, i.e., right according to the letter, but wrong according to the spirit If he shows kindness to this woman and her children and allows them to stay on in the apartment in spite of the fact they are not able to pay rent, he is showing the Christian quality of compassion It is wiser to be willing to allow our legal rights to be trampled on, rather than by claiming them, to be morally in the wrong.

37:1 begins, "Do not fret," and those words are repeated later in the chapter The dictionary defines "fret" as "to eat way, gnaw, gall, vex, worry, agitate, wear away."

Whenever H Norman Wright hears this word, he is reminded of the scene he sees each year when he hikes along the Snake River in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming Colonies of beavers live along the riverbanks, and often he sees trees that are at various stages of being gnawed to the ground by them Some trees have slight rings around their trunks where the beavers have just started to chew on them Other trees have several inches of bark eaten away, and some have already fallen to the ground because the beavers have gnawed through the trunks Worry has the same effect on us It will gradually eat away at us until it destroys us.

In addition to telling us not to fret, Psalm 37 gives us positive substitutes for worry First, it says, "Trust [lean on, rely on, and be confident] in the Lord" (Psalm 37:3 AMP) Trust is a matter of not attempting to live an independent life or to cope with difficulties alone It means going to a greater source for strength.

Second, verse four says, "Delight yourself also in the Lord" (AMP) To delight means to rejoice in God and what He has done for us Let God supply the joy for your life.

Third, verse five says, "Commit your way to the Lord" (AMP) Commitment is a definite act of the will, and it involves releasing your worries and anxieties to the Lord.

And fourth, we are to "rest in the Lord; wait for Him" (Psalm 37:7 AMP) This means to submit in silence to what He ordains but to be ready and expectant for what He is going to do in your life.

Stop worrying and start praying (Ph 4:6-9; Psalm 34:1-4) The passage in Philippians can be divided into three basic stages We are given a premise: Stop worrying We are given a practice: Start praying And we are given a promise: Peace The promise is there and available, but we must follow the first two steps in order for the third to occur We must stop worrying and start praying if we are to begin receiving God's peace.

The results of prayer as a substitute for worry can be vividly seen in a crisis in David's life that prompted him to write Psalm 34 (See 1 Samuel 21:10; 1 Samuel 22:2) David had escaped death at the hands of the Philistines by pretending to be insane He then fled to the cave of Adullam along with four hundred men who were described as distressed, discontented, and in debt In the midst of all this, David wrote a psalm of praise that begins, "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth" (Psalm 34:1 RSV) He did not say he would praise the Lord sometimes, but at all times, even when his enemies were after him.

The sins committed by ancient Israel were recorded "for our admonition" (1 Corinthians 10:6, 1 Corinthians 10:11) that we might not make the same mistakes Many great men have failed God because they were found in the wrong places In the form of a question, we introduce several of the "wrong places" where some great servants of God failed.

Are you on the slippery path of DISHONESTY, as was Abraham when he went down to Egypt (see Genesis 12:10-20)? Since his wife, Sarah, was such a beautiful woman, Abraham feared that the Egyptians might kill him in order to have her To prevent this, Abraham deceived them by telling them she was his sister It was only a "half-truth" for Sarah was Abraham's half-sister (Genesis 20:12) We have a modern name for what Abraham did: "situation ethics," the philosophy which says that one's ethics are determined by the situation in which he finds himself According to this concept, there is no absolute standard of morality, no objective basis for conduct Thus, one may lie, cheat, commit immorality, etc., if the situation "calls for it." However, God has always abhorred the practice of dishonesty (Deuteronomy 25:13-16), no matter who was involved Christians are to "provide things honest in the sight of all men" (Romans 12:17).

Are you giving way to IMPURITY as did David when he walked upon the housetop (2 Samuel 11,12)? David yielded to his lower and baser instincts when he saw the beautiful Bathsheba bathing The immorality led to further sin-murder! It all began when David was at the wrong place at the wrong time The Christian, whose mind should be on things above (Colossians 3:2), would do well to avoid people, places and literature which tempt him to yield to unholy passions.

Are you sitting under the juniper tree of DISCOURAGEMENT as did Elijah (1 Kings 19:1-18)? Elijah's great victory at Mt Carmel was followed by despondency when he learned that Jezebel was out to kill him He sat down under a juniper tree and prayed that God would let him die Despondency frequently comes after a mountain-top experience, doesn't it? When it happens we want to crawl under our "juniper tree" and let the rest of the world pass us by Remember, God is still on His throne and rules the world (cf Psalm 42:5).

Are you sailing on the ship of DISOBEDIENCE as did Jonah when he fled to Tarshish (Jonah 1:1-17)? Jonah's prejudice prompted him to disobey God when he was told to preach in Nineveh Is it possible that you are "on the way to Tarshish" when you should be "on the way to Nineveh?" Did you obey the Lord in becoming a Christian, but you have now boarded the ship of disobedience and are fleeing away from your Redeemer?

Saints in the wrong places! Maybe we can learn something from them and avoid their mistakes.

A skeptical physician said to his Christian patient, "I could never understand saving faith I believe in God and I suppose I believe in Jesus Christ-I am not conscious of any doubts I believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and I believe in the Bible, yet I am not saved, I do not feel God near me What is the matter with me?" "Well," said the patient, "a week ago I believed in you as a very skillful physician I believed that if I put myself in your hands I would recover from my illness In other words, I trusted you For a week now I have been taking some mysterious stuff out of a bottle I don't know what it is; I don't understand it, but I am trusting in you Now, whenever a person turns to the Lord Jesus Christ and says, 'Lord Jesus, Christianity seems to me to be full of mysteries I do not understand them, but I believe Thou art trustworthy and I trust Thee; I commit myself to Thee,' that is faith A very simple thing, isn't it?" The faith of the patient did not heal him; it was the remedy that healed him; but in faith he took the remedy.

When personalized license plates were introduced in Illinois, the Department of Motor Vehicles received over 1,000 requests for the number "1" The state official whose job it was to approve requests said, "I am not about to assign it to someone and disappoint a thousand people." What was his solution? He assigned the number to himself.

A little boy and a little girl were riding a mechanical horse in a shopping mall The little boy, who was riding in front, turned to the little girl and said, "If one of us would get off, there would be more room for me."

Nowhere is man's creativity more apparent than in his ability to discover new and original ways to commit the original sin It all began in the Garden of Eden when the devil convinced Adam and Eve that he had found a way for them to move God over and become "Number 1." And the beat goes on-and we keep looking for ways to succeed where Adam and Eve failed We look for ways to be first on everyone else's priority list We look for ways to be first in line We look for ways to be first at the checkout counter We look for ways to be the first ones getting out of the parking lot We look for ways to win in the game of "first come, first served." But these are mere symptoms of the real transgression In the case of Christians, our creativity as original sinners is revealed most clearly when we look for ways to be known as disciples of Christ without following His example.

"We are Number 1! We are Number 1!" All well and good, perhaps, to hear the chant ringing out from football fans, but when we hear it ringing out from our hearts, it is all pride and imagination Remember, therefore, "He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts" (Luke 1:51).

It was a case of now-you-win-it, now-you-don’t. That’s what people remember about 1972’s gold medal game—how the USA celebrated victory only to watch in horror as the Soviets won the second time around.

The Soviets had control of the game from the opening tip until the furious final seconds. They led 26-21 at half time and 38-28 with 10 minutes to play. Then the USA began to chip away. With less than 40 seconds left, Jim Forbes made a 20-foot jump shot to cut the deficit to 49-48. Here’s what happened in the chaotic final 10 seconds—or to be precise, 13 seconds, since those last three were played twice:

10 seconds to go—Tom McMillen blocks a jumper by soon-to-be-hero Aleksandr Belov. The ball bounces back to Belov, who quickly tries to pass it back to mid-court.

07—Doug Collins intercepts the pass and dashes for the other basket with Zurab Sakandelidze in pursuit.

03—Sakandelidze tackles Collins rather than give him the winning lay up, ramming Collins into the basket support. Collins gets up woozily, walks to the free-throw line and makes both shots as Soviet coach Vladimir Kondrashkin prematurely tries to signal time out USA 50, USSR 49.

The Soviets inbound the ball; two seconds elapse while their coach continues frantically to signal time out.

01—The referees, one from Bulgaria, the other from Brazil, stop play to check the commotion. The Soviets inbound with one second left. A pass glances off Belov’s hand and caroms harmlessly off the backboard.

00—The horn sounds and USA players celebrate the hard-fought victory. Final score: 50-49 USA.

Only it wasn’t final. Enter Great Britain’s R. William Jones, secretary general of the International Amateur Basketball Federation (FIBA), the organization that governs international amateur basketball. Technically, he had no authority to intervene in an Olympic game. But he ruled international basketball with an iron hand, and when Jones ordered three seconds restored, apparently to honor the Soviets’ attempt to call a timeout, game officials acquiesced.

Under international rules of the time, the Soviets were not entitled to a time out. “I think Jones thought he could avoid controversy by giving them the time out,” says Bill Wall of Amateur Basketball Association/USA. “Instead he created it. I just think he never thought they’d score.”

USA coach Henry Iba says one of the referees suggested he pull his team off the court. “But walking away with your tail between your legs is not the American way,” Iba says.

As it was, the Soviets appear—on tape replay—to commit at least three infractions on the winning play.

03—With three seconds back on the clock, McMillen prepares to defend against the inbound pass. But the official moves him to the foul line. The Soviets launch a court-length inbound pass. But the player throwing it steps on the end line just before he released it.

Violation No. 1. Belov shoulder-blocks two USA defenders, Forbes and Kevin Joyce and they sprawl to the court as Belov catches the ball.

Violation No. 2. Belov shuffles his pivot foot as he sets himself to lay in the winning basket.

Violation no. 3. The shot banks in and the Soviets take the court for a victory dance similar to the USA’s frolic of moments before, USSR 51, USA 50. The USA files a protest that is rejected (Italy and Puerto Rico side with the USA; Hungary, Poland and Cuba do not). Iba was doubly robbed: A pickpocket lifted $370 from him as he signed the protest papers.

Tennis star Boris Becker was at the very top of the tennis world—yet he was on the brink of suicide. He said, “I had won Wimbledon twice before, once as the youngest player. I was rich. I had all the material possessions I needed ... It’s the old song of movie stars and pop stars who commit suicide. They have everything, and yet they are so unhappy. I had no inner peace. I was a puppet on a string.”

Becker is not the only one to feel that sense of emptiness. The echoes of a hollow life pervade our culture. One doesn’t have to read many contemporary biographies to find the same frustration and disappointment. Jack Higgens, author of such successful novels and The Eagle Has Landed, was asked what he would like to have known as a boy. His answer: “That when you get to the top, there’s nothing there.”

During China’s Boxer Rebellion of 1900, insurgents captured a mission station, blocked all the gates but one, and in front of that one gate placed a cross flat on the ground. Then the word was passed to those inside that any who trampled the cross underfoot would be permitted their freedom and life, but that any refusing would be shot. Terribly frightened, the first seven students trampled the cross under their feet and were allowed to go free. But the eighth student, a young girl, refused to commit the sacrilegious act. Kneeling beside the cross in prayer for strength, she arose and moved carefully around the cross, and went out to face the firing squad. Strengthened by her example, every one of the remaining ninety-two students followed her to the firing squad.

Observe this random sampling of expressions of the Gospel taken from tracts, sermons, books, and radio and TV messages. I list them without documentation since the point is not who said these but what was said, and to illustrate how varied and confusing these statements are. If we gave even half of them to an unsaved person, which and what would he be expected to believe?

1. Repent, believe, confess your sin to God, and confess Him before men and you will be saved.

2. The clearest statement of the Gospel in the N. T. is found in Luke 9:23: “If any man wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

3. Perhaps the most comprehensive invitation to salvation in the epistles comes in James 4:7-10: “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”

4. May the Lord reveal to the sinners that the only way for them to be saved from their sins is to repent with a godly sorrow in their hearts to the Lord.

5. Utter the prayer of the prodigal son—ask Jesus to be your Lord and Master.

6. Come forward and follow Christ in baptism.

7. Place your hand in the nail-scarred hands of Jesus

8. Find Christ by praying through to Him.

9. Believe in Him, trust Him, accept Him, commit your life to Him.

10. We have the warning of Christ that He will not receive us into His kingdom until we are ready to give up all, until we are ready to turn from all sin in our lives.

11. God offers eternal life freely to sinners who will surrender to Him in humble, repentant faith.

12. Do we literally have to give away everything we own to become Christians? No, but we do have to be willing to forsake all.

13. Matthew 7:13-14 is pure Gospel: “Enter by the narrow gate...”

14. No one can receive Christ as his Savior while he rejects Him as his Lord.

15. Give your heart to Christ.

We continue to adjust to each other, an adjustment that started 19 years ago and will never stop because we each continue to grow and change. We will always be different. I think of anniversaries as a time for roses and dinner; she prefers Mexican food and a movie. For Halloween she thinks apples are a good treat; I say, since when did Halloween have anything to do with nutrition?

Don’t mistake it for a solid marriage. There is no such thing. Marriage is more like an airplane than a rock. You have to commit the thing to flight, and then it creaks and groans, and keeping it airborne depends entirely on attitude. Working at it, though, we can fly forever. Only she and I know how hard it has been, or how worthwhile.

Historian and art critic Robert Hughes tells of a convict sentenced to life imprisonment on a maximum-security island off the coast of Australia. One day, with no provocation he turned on a fellow prisoner and beat him senseless. Authorities shipped the murderer back to the mainland to stand trial, whereupon he gave a straightforward, passionless account of the crime. He showed no sign of remorse and denied having held any grudge against the victim. “Why, then?” asked the bewildered judge. “What was your motive?” The prisoner replied that he was sick of life on the island, a notoriously brutal place, and saw no reason to keep on living. “Yes, yes, I understand all that,” said the judge. “I can see why you might drown yourself in the ocean. But murder? Why murder?” “Well, I figure it’s like this,” said the prisoner. “I’m a Catholic. If I commit suicide I’ll go straight to hell. But if I murder I can come back here to Sydney and confess to a priest before my execution. That way, God will forgive me.”

After reading 1 Thess. 4:3-8, 1 Cor. 6:18-20, Acts 24:16) In obedience to God’s command, I promise to protect your moral purity from this day until our honeymoon. Because I respect and honor you, I commit to build up the inner person of your heart rather than violate you. I pledge to show my love for you in ways that allow both of us to maintain a clear conscience before God and each other.

Criticism is always difficult to accept, but if we receive it with humility, and a desire to improve our character, it can be very helpful. Only a fool does not profit when he is rebuked for his mistakes.

Several years ago I read a helpful article on this subject. It stated that when we are criticized we ought to ask ourselves whether the criticism contains any truth. If it does, we should learn from it, even when it is not given with the right motivation and in the right spirit.

The article then offered these four suggestions:

1. Commit the matter instantly to God, asking Him to remove all resentment or counter-criticism on your part and teach you the needed lessons.

2. Remember that we are all great sinners and that the one who has criticized us does not begin to know the worst about us.

3. If you have made a mistake or committed a sin, humbly and frankly confess it to God and to anyone you may have injured.

4. Be willing to learn afresh that you are not infallible and that you need God’s grace and wisdom every moment of the day to keep on the straight path.

When we are criticized, let’s accept what is true and act upon it, thereby becoming a stronger person. He who profits from rebuke is wise. H.G.B.

Norman Geisler, as a child, went to a DVBS because he was invited by some neighbor children. He went back to the same church for Sunday School classes for 400 Sundays. Each week he was faithfully picked up by a bus driver. Week after week he attended church, but never made a commitment to Christ. Finally, during his senior year in High School, after being picked up for church over 400 times, he did commit his life to Christ. What if that bus driver had given up on Geisler at 395? What if the bus driver had said, “This kid is going nowhere spiritually, why waste any more time on him?”

In 1960, the total number of children living in fatherless families was fewer than eight million. Today, that total has risen to nearly twenty-four million. Nearly four out of ten children in America are being raised in homes without their fathers and soon it may be six out of ten. How did this happen? Why are so many of our nation’s children growing up without a full-time father? It is because our culture has accepted the idea that fathers are superfluous—in other words, they are not necessary in the “modern” family. Supposedly, their contributions to the well-being of children can easily be performed by the state, which disburses welfare checks, subsidizes midnight basketball leagues, and establishes child-care facilities.

Ideas, of course, have consequences. And the consequences of this idea have been as profound as they have been disastrous. Almost 75 percent of American children living in fatherless households will experience poverty before the age of eleven, compared to only 20 percent of those raised by two parents. Children living in homes where fathers are absent are far more likely to be expelled from or drop out of school, develop emotional or behavioral problems, commit suicide, and fall victim to child abuse or neglect. The males are also far more likely to become violent criminals. As matter of act, men who grew up without dads currently represent 70 percent of the prison population serving long-term sentences.

A neighbor heard that a poor woman was reduced to extreme poverty by the loss of her cow, which was her only means of support. He was personally unable to replace the cow for the poor woman, so he went around soliciting funds. Each neighbor offered sorrow and regret, but none practical assistance. He became impatient, and after being answered as usual by a plentiful shower of feeling, exclaimed. "Oh, yes! I don't doubt your feeling; but you don't feel in the right place." "Oh," said one, "I feel with all my heart and soul." "Yes, yes," replied the solicitor, "I don't doubt that either; but I want you to feel in your pocket." If we can feel in our pockets but don't, we commit sin.