In response to letters some of my writing students sent to the newspaper, a woman wrote, “Rev. Fox usually stays away from politics and writes about religion.” There are at least three things wrong with that statement. The first bone I have to pick is with the title “Rev. Fox.” I never use that title in correspondence. Most of the adults who know me call me Mark. A few call me Pastor Fox. Mrs. Johnson, the widow who used to live across the street called me “Preacher Fox.” She would call often and ask me if I could come over and help her with something. One time, she called because her TV wasn’t working, and when I got there, she looked at me with sad old puppy dog eyes and said, “Preacher Fox, I can’t get my TV to come on, and you know I need to see my stories.” I told her not to worry and started trying to diagnose the problem as she walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. “Mrs. Johnson, come in here and I will show you what I found,” I said, after looking behind the TV. As she walked in, I held up the cord which had been unplugged and left laying on the floor. “Here’s your problem,” I said, looking into her eyes and watching her try not to smile as she said, “Oh, is that what it was? My goodness! Well, come into the kitchen and set a while. I poured us a Coke.” The thought of that dear lady, who was not petite by any stretch, crawling under that TV to unplug it so that she could have some company that morning still makes me smile, and a little sad, too. Back to the point. Widows sometimes call me Preacher Fox. My kids call me Dad. My grandsons call me “Gan-Gan.” But nobody but the Times-News and those who write letters to take me to task call me Rev. Fox. I am always a pastor, though not always a good one, but I never want to be known as “Rev. Fox.”
The second problem I have with the letter is more serious. The dear lady says I usually write about religion. I don’t. “Religion” refers to every system of belief about a “higher power” in which the adherents to that belief try to “bind themselves back” to the god whom they believe will somehow be impressed by their good deeds. That definition would cover every known manmade system of religion, but not Christianity. I write about Jesus Christ, who was equal with God, came to earth as a man, was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, took our sins upon himself on the cross so that we, who have done absolutely nothing to impress God and never could, would by grace and through faith cross over from darkness to light, from death to life, and will one day live in eternity with God the Father and Jesus his Son.
The third problem I see is the idea that we “reverends” need to stick to religion. C.S. Lewis said, “I believe in Christianity like I believe in the sun, not only because I see it, but by it, I see everything else.” The Bible says “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” which is precisely why the followers of Jesus need to speak and write and teach from a biblical worldview on every subject under the sun. It doesn’t mean that we know anything better than anyone else. However, we know the One who does.
Category: 2012 Column
When I was 13 years old and weighed about 95 pounds, I joined my junior high school football team. At one of the first practices where contact was involved, we got introduced to what the coach called “the meat grinder.” The name fit. Two boys lined up facing each other, 10 yards apart. On either side were tackling dummies, laid end to end, to create a narrow channel within which the “meat” could be ground. One boy was designated the runner, and handed a football, the other designated the tackler, and was given jeers and whistles and other forms of encouragement by the rest of the team.
I was called into the meat grinder, and the coach gave me the ball. A 14-year-old named “C.D.” (who as I recall was already shaving, stood 6 feet tall and weighed in at 165 pounds) crouched on the other end, ready to grind me into powder.
If this were a Disney movie, I would have bowled C.D. over, knocking him senseless, and the other boys would have carried me on their shoulders to the locker room, coach running to catch us, anxious to talk to me about being their star running back that year.
This was not a Disney movie.
C.D. hit me like a freight train, driving me back past the point where I had started running, and finished the job by landing with his full weight on my skinny frame. I lay there for a few minutes as the team snickered into their hands, and then I slowly raised my body from the dust, mentally checking to see if I still had all of my body parts. The only thing I can figure is, the coach was trying to get me to quit, but I was too stupid or too proud or both. I stayed on the team … but not really.
You see, though our team went undefeated that year, I never saw one minute of playing time. It wasn’t because the coach didn’t try to get me in the game. We would be up by 45 points at halftime, usually, and in the second half the coach would start putting in the scrubs. Eventually, he made his way to me.
“Fox, have you been in the game yet?” he would always ask.
“Yes sir!” I would always squeak, mortified that he would call my bluff and make me play. But the coach knew what was going on, and he didn’t push it.
I was a part of a championship team, but I never got in the game. I was on the sidelines the whole year, cheering on my teammates, thankful to be there, but praying I would not have to actually go on the field and face my opponents.
I am still part of a championship team, the undefeatable church of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul said, “We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair.” I think he knew something about being in the meat grinder. His response was never to retreat to the bench and the protection of the sideline. Paul, like his Savior, endured the trials, knowing that victory would come to those who put their trust in God.
I have been through a few “meat grinders” since that year in junior high. Not on the football field, but in ministry, in marriage, and in the day-to-day challenges that can leave us all bruised and bewildered. But by God’s grace, I will never retreat to the bench again.
My favorite place at the Myrtle Beach marathon was the pre-race expo, and especially the bumper stickers that were for sale. One said, “If you find me on the road, please drag me across the finish line.” Or, “If you can read this, I’m not in last place!” Or, “This IS my race pace.” The next morning, I saw people holding some of the same signs, and many others. Some were signs of encouragement for the 6,000 runners who passed by. Some people were just trying to be funny, and they were. Like the guy just a half a mile into the race whose sign read, “One. Lousy. Parade.” Then, there was the lady holding up a sign about 10 miles in that said, “My husband knows a shortcut.” Or the one that said, “The Kenyans finished an hour ago.” Some were meant to be funny, but just were not. When I was in the most pain of the race, around mile 24, I passed a guy whose sign read, “Is that all you got?” The most encouraging sign I read said, “I am exactly .3 miles from the finish line.” That was a sight for sore legs. The only sign that was better than that said, “Finish.”
Paul holds up a sign in his first letter for Timothy, who was a sometimes fragile, sometimes discouraged young pastor, that says, “But you, O man of God.” Man of God! Timothy, Paul seems to say, remember who you are. You are a man of God. I wish we could know somehow what effect that had on Timothy. Did he break into a huge grin when he read that? Or did he break down and weep in relief and thanksgiving?
More importantly, would the testimony of God and his word be the same for you? What is your identity? Are you a man or woman of God? Would you be able to say with confidence that you are one of his “peculiar people,” as Peter refers to believers? If you are born again, having been purchased by the peculiar and unique manner of the blood of the Savior on a cross, you are a man of God or a woman of God, no matter your age. You have been made to “stand” because of what Jesus Christ did, not through anything you have done or ever will do. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
How are we able to stand? By grace. How do we get grace? Through faith. But where does it come from? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. What is the result of this grace applied to our lives? We have peace with God. How? We have been justified. What can we do as a result? Rejoice in hope of the glory of God. This is why Christians around the world will celebrate tomorrow, and indeed, why we celebrate every day. Jesus Christ hung on a cross for six hours one Friday, was dead and buried from 3 p.m. Friday until sometime before dawn Sunday, and then he rose again from the dead. He appeared to Peter, to the other disciples, and to more than 500 at once. Great news! Christ has conquered death for us who believe. Do you know him? If you do, then you know what many in the world can only dream about. You know who you are.
Last week, we talked about the richest people on earth, those who have godliness with contentment, who know that what they brought into the world is exactly what they will carry out. Who, then, are the poorest people on earth? The Bible makes that equally clear: Those who desire to be rich because of greed, who have a love for money. A story in the Old Testament illustrates the pitfalls that accompany a pursuit of possessions.
Elisha, the prophet of God, told Naaman the Syrian commander how he could be cured of leprosy. Grateful for God’s intervention, Naaman offered Elisha a big payoff, which the prophet promptly refused. Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, thinking his master had lost his mind, went to find Naaman in secret and lied to him, saying that Elisha had changed his mind and really did fancy the goods that the commander could offer. Naaman gladly gave Gehazi some nice stuff, which the sly servant stashed in secret. When Gehazi returned to his master, Elisha said, “Where did you go, Gehazi?” Gehazi lied like a child: “I didn’t go anywhere.” Elisha told his servant everything Gehazi had just done, and said that because Gehazi had taken things from Naaman when it was not time to receive such, now Gehazi would receive something he and his descendants did not want — leprosy. “Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever.”
Two things stand out to me from this story in 2 Kings 5. First, greed always has traveling companions, and they are usually lying or lust. Remember the definition of an idol? It is something we are willing to sin to get. If we have a desire to be rich, the Bible teaches that we will be willing to compromise the truth in order to get what we want. Second, when we desire to be rich and we get what we want, we also get what we don’t want. Paul says it clearly in 1 Timothy: A desire for riches leads to “many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.” A love for money leads you to go places you would not ordinarily go, and do things you would not ordinarily do. A love for money also leads you to form alliances with people you would normally avoid.
So, the question some of you may be asking yourself is this: How do I know if I have a love for money? I give Alistair Begg credit for this list of questions, though I have added a few of my own. Here are 10 indications that I may love money more than I should:
When thoughts of money consume my day. When I am always on the lookout for the latest get-rich-quick scheme. When the financial success of others makes me jealous. When I find myself looking down on those who have less than I have. When I am tempted to define success in terms of what I have rather than who I am in Christ. When my family is neglected in my pursuit of money. When I close my eyes to the genuine needs of others. When I live in the paralyzing fear of losing my money. When I am prepared to borrow myself into bondage. When God receives my leftovers rather than my first fruits. These are the poorest people on earth. Do you see yourself in that list? Then there is hope for you to get off the track you are on and become one of the richest.
When one of my sons was a toddler, he put every toy he owned in his backpack. Then, he had one of his brothers help him put his backpack on because it was too heavy to lift by himself. After a struggle, it was done. My son promptly fell on his back, like an upended turtle, dragged down by the weight of all he was trying to hold onto. Did he own the stuff? Or did the stuff own him?
Then, there’s the story of the little boy who kept getting into trouble because he would take a toy from one of his brothers or sisters. Each time, he was told by his parents, “Give that toy back. Your brother (or your sister) had it first.” So, one morning the father walked past the little boy’s bedroom and heard his son crowing with delight as he lay, spread-eagle over every toy in the house that he had piled up in the middle of the floor. He was saying triumphantly, “I have ‘em first today!”
Paul makes a statement in 1 Timothy 6 that I wonder if we should write in permanent ink on our checkbook covers, stencil on the walls of our houses and even scratch with a penknife into the dashboards of our cars. He said, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain.” What? You mean having the most toys is not the way to victory or even to great gain? I thought I could only be content if I had every need met along with most of my wants. It reminds me of the king who was not happy with his life and suffered greatly, to the point that he could not sleep or eat. His wise men told the king that if he could wear the shirt of a contented man, he would be cured of his suffering. So, the search began for such a man, but not one could be found in the whole kingdom. Emissaries were then sent beyond the kingdom, and finally, outside the realm, a contented man was found. But he had no shirt.
Where do we find contentment? Apparently, it cannot be found in money, no matter how much we are able to amass. John D. Rockefeller said, “I have made many millions, but it has brought me no happiness.”
Being content starts with right thinking about stuff and about God. What did you have when you were born? Nothing. What will you carry with you when you die? Nothing. After John D. Rockefeller died, his aide was asked how much he left behind. The aid answered, “He left it all behind.” Job said it like this: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there.” Job knew that everything he “owned,” including his health, was temporal and the One who owned him was eternal. God alone is our source for contentment.
Think about this. Everything in your house will end up in the landfill. Your house will fall down and be hauled off, piece by piece. Our money can buy a house, but not a home. It can buy a vacation, but it cannot buy rest. It can buy a health care plan but it cannot buy health. It can buy a wedding ceremony, but it cannot buy a blessed marriage. It can buy a college degree but it cannot buy understanding. Contentment cannot be bought, but it must be sought.
The truth is that if we have contentment, we have everything. Then we will be among the richest people on earth.
I thought this week about the whooping cough scare in the schools. There has been a lot of press about it. The schools and health care community are dealing with it. I also received a text and an email from Elon this week because they were practicing their emergency alert system, in the event that there’s a tornado coming or another disaster strikes. Alamance Community College had an “active shooter drill” on campus last week in order to prepare for the event if it really does happen.
Medical warnings in the schools. Tornado warnings at the university. Active shooter drills at the college. These are all very important warnings, and we should not minimize them at all. There’s another warning, however, that has been issued to the church, and it is just as important.
The threat to the church, like a tornado or a terrorist on a college campus, is deadly and dangerous. In fact, it may be more so, because the poison of this threat affects not just this life, but life eternal. At the very least, this threat can render a church ineffective in its mission and turn it into a weapon against the truth, rather than the pillar and the ground of the truth.
Paul wrote, “and if anyone tries to teach some doctrinal novelty and does not follow sound teaching (which we base on our Lord Jesus Christ’s own words and which leads to Christlike living), then he is a conceited idiot!” (J.B. Phillips’ translation) Another translation says that this one who has brought doctrinal novelty into the church is a “pompous ignoramus.”
There was a constant parade of itinerant teachers in the first century, some who were legitimate, many who were not.
The illegitimates came with novel ideas and people with itching ears flocked to these characters.
These teachers are even more dangerous today because they don’t have to come to the church building in order to corrupt sound doctrine. They do it through webinars and podcasts. They go on talk shows. They speak on college campuses. They write books.
Many of these “teachers” do not claim to follow Christ, and so we should expect novelty doctrines from them. But what about those inside the church who teach and preach novelty doctrines? What about the doctrine that the book “Love Wins” made popular last year, that there is no Hell? How does Jesus refute that in His own words? Or what about the doctrines of God and sin that were twisted in the huge bestseller “The Shack”? What about a TV preacher who taught recently that the reason tornadoes hit Kentucky and Indiana and killed 39 people was because there weren’t enough people praying?
For the record, I am not comfortable claiming that these men are false teachers, but I have no problem saying that those are examples of false teaching.
What is the church to do? Perhaps we need an emergency alert system. Wait. We already have one, and it is the clear and compelling case for Christ and His doctrine that is laid out for us in the Bible.
The reason why the average Christian cannot spot a doctrinal novelty a mile off is because he does not know the truth when it is right under his nose.
How do we avoid being a pompous ignoramus or following those who are? We read the Bible, knowing that the main things are the plain things. We embrace the truth.
Then, we will be able to reject doctrinal novelty and avoid those who are “obsessed with disputes and arguments over words.”
When I got fired from my job, it wasn’t because I threw the cat. That was part of it, but the cat bit me first, and it bounced off the wall and landed on its feet unharmed. No, I got the pink slip because I was not a good employee. At the age of 16, I figured I knew better than most people what was good for me, and that included my boss, the vet. I worked hard when it pleased me, and goofed off the rest of the time. It also didn’t help matters that I had been chosen by my youth group at church to deliver the sermon for “youth Sunday.” I made sure my boss knew that and impressed upon him my sincerity in the faith and my diligence in studying the Bible. The problem was, he saw a hole in my life big enough to herd a family of St. Bernards through, the gap between my profession of submission to God and my commitment to honoring my employer.
The Bible says you are to “Count your own (employer) worthy of all honor.” How do you do that?
With obedience. This has to do with work ethic. You honor your employer by carrying out his wishes, starting with showing up on time and promptly getting to the work you are hired to do. The sign in the store window read, “No Help Wanted.” As two men passed by, one said to the other, “You should apply — you’d be great.” One employer told the story of having a bad taste in his mouth for Christian workers because they tended to “stand around and talk about God during work hours.” The deal was sealed when he saw one of his Christian workers go into the bathroom and not come out for 20 minutes. When he finally emerged, the boss heard him whisper to another Christian worker, “I just had a wonderful time. I read three chapters of the Gospel of John.”
With sincerity of heart. This has to do with our attitude. Even if you work hard and do what you are supposed to do, you can do it with an attitude. Some display an attitude that says, “I will do whatever you ask me to do, but don’t expect me to like it. Don’t expect me to be pleasant. As long as I am doing my job, that’s all you need and that’s all you’re going to get.” OK, Miss Sunshine or Mr. Happy, but that’s not what the Bible teaches. There are also those who work hard, but they are constant complainers. They can find nothing but problems with the way they are compensated, with the way everybody else does his job, and with the way management runs the company.
Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers. This has to do with honesty. Are we working hard when the employer is watching us, when his eye is on us, and doing anything but work when the employer is out of the room? Character is who you are in the dark, someone has suggested. When no one is watching, do you work hard? Keep this in mind; there is never a time at work or anywhere else when no One is watching. Also, to the degree that we serve our employer faithfully, we will be recompensed by the Lord himself. See Ephesians 6:5-9.
Dr. Robertson, you probably will never see this column, but I want to thank you for teaching me a lesson I could not learn any other way. And, I am sorry about the cat.
What if a church leader is guilty of persistent sin? He should be “rebuked in the presence of all.” The Bible is as clear on this point as the church is confused on it. Sin happens in every church, large or small. The question is not whether it happens, but how the church should respond when it does, especially when persistent sin is found in the life of a leader. How many times have you heard about a church where the pastor, youth pastor, worship leader, or one of the elders has been discovered in an ongoing pattern of adultery or another sin that disqualifies him from leadership, and he has simply been quietly dismissed? Or worse, he has been given a stern “talking to” by the other leaders in private; meanwhile, he remains in his position with no public rebuke, no discipline whatsoever. Whatever sin a church ignores, especially in its leaders, it welcomes into the body. A large church in California chose not to discipline sexual sin with a pastor and his secretary, but rather kept it quiet. The next year, 17 marriages of senior leadership people in the church ended. Why is public discipline necessary? Paul says it clearly in 1 Timothy: “that the rest also may fear.”
I remember being fascinated by a guy in the seventh grade named Steve. Even at 13, he was a wild child, living on the edge. We were walking down the hall one day, when Steve suddenly stopped, pointed to the ceiling tiles and said, “It would be so easy to put a bomb up there, under one of those tiles.” I looked at him with surprise, thinking he was just kidding around. I laughed, nervously, unsure what to say, but Steve was lost in his thoughts. Just days later, during a wholeschool assembly, the principal called Steve down front. He then told the student body that Steve was trouble and warned us to avoid him.
Apparently, Steve’s bomb talk had been voiced to other students and had made its way back to the principal’s office. I don’t know why the principal handled the situation with public censure, and I am not suggesting it was the right way. Today, he would probably be fired. The end result, for me at least, was mortal fear. I stayed away from Steve from then on, and was very careful about my behavior for the rest of the year. The last thing I wanted was to be called to the front of the gym during an assembly.
That is the point of the instructions Paul gives to the New Testament church. If discipline of a sinning church leader is done properly, the result will be a healthy and glorifying fear of God. Why, then, has the church lost its courage to discipline her leaders? Al Mohler writes, “The decline of church discipline is perhaps the most visible failure of the contemporary church. No longer concerned with maintaining purity of confession or lifestyle, the contemporary church sees itself as a voluntary association of autonomous members, with minimal moral accountability to God, much less to each other.”
What can result when churches lose their courage? John Leadley Dagg wrote in the 1850s, “It has been remarked that when discipline leaves a church, Christ goes with it.”
What if the church does have courage and the sinning leader repents? Then restoration is made possible, at least to the fellowship as a member, if not as a leader.
A healthy church has courage to exercise church discipline, especially with its leadership. We ignore this at our own peril.
Nate and Tara Ariel left town last fall. They packed as much as the airlines allow, boarded a plane with their seven children, and moved to Bocachica. That’s an island off the coast of Cartagena, a beautiful port city in Colombia, South America. The Ariels don’t live in the beautiful port city; they live on an island that is a 30-minute boat ride off the coast. There’s no running water on the island, so bucket showers are the order of the day. Drinking water for non-natives, like the Ariels, has to be brought by boat from the mainland. There is electricity there. Sometimes. Most of the houses have dirt floors and no bathrooms. That’s why the early morning trek to “the hill” is necessary. You either do your business behind the hill or out in the ocean. One of the main reasons missionaries come to the Proyecto Libertad mission is to build latrines and pour concrete floors for as many as they can. The Ariel family went to Bocachica to serve the Lord for the rest of their lives. It’s just been a few months, but the impact one family has had there is astounding.
Their children already have dozens of friends. Spanish is quickly becoming their second language, with love being their first. Besides playing soccer and kickball with the children, they chase iguanas, work hard at serving the mission, and keep visiting missionaries entertained with their giggles and pranks.
Tara picked up right where she left off, already earning a reputation on the island as a woman who loves her husband and is ready to help him accomplish his calling. She loves to bake and has won the hearts of many Bocachican ladies with her sweet gifts. Tara is also an encourager of the young ladies who come from Germany to serve in the mission.
Nate was known around Burlington as a hard worker and a straight shooter. You didn’t ask Nate what he thought unless you wanted to hear the truth. He also made no empty promises; he simply delivered. In the Bocachica community, Nate has risen quickly to earn the respect of the men, especially the day laborers. They admire his skill; Nate can do nearly anything with his hands, especially if he is working with brick or block. They also appreciate his acceptance: Nate could not care less about skin color or socioeconomic status. He just wants to know if you are willing to work hard and if you are teachable. Those qualities are rare everywhere, and Bocachica is no exception. Jobs are hard to come by on the island, so men who have a good work ethic have found a friend and an employer in Nate Ariel.
Not only that, Nate is teaching the men how to be good fathers. One of his employees sells ice cream on the island when he is not working with Nate. Nate said to him recently, “Why don’t you take your son with you, and let him help you in your business?” That thought had never occurred to the man, nor to anyone else on the island. Relationships between fathers and sons are strained there with much neglect and sometimes abusive. This man took Nate’s advice and found a working partner and a friend in his son that he never knew he could have.
Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” How do you do that? One child at a time. One wife and mother at a time. One husband and father at a time. The Ariels are discipling a nation. How about you?
The greatest struggle of the average pastor in America is with discouragement and sometimes flat-out depression. The source of his discouragement may be the stress of the ministry and the absence of elders who are walking with him in it. Or the feeling that he is not equipped to take care of a flock. Or that he or his wife or children are struggling with their own sins that they believe they have to keep hidden in order to maintain the facade of a “nearly perfect family.” Or the source may be financial stress.
Alistair Begg gave a talk at a pastors’ conference years ago entitled, “Dealing With the Blues.” His subject was ministerial depression, and the auditorium was packed with discouraged pastors and elders. After the session, elders from one church asked to talk with Alistair in private. “Our problem is not with the pastor, but his wife,” they said. “She is deeply depressed and we have tried everything, but nothing has helped. What should we do?” Pastor Begg said, “Increase your pastor’s annual salary by $5,000.” The elders were shocked and had no response. Later, one of the members of the church who had heard about this conversation found Alistair and said, “You don’t know how right on target you were. Our pastor’s wife has never been able to buy new shoes for her children, and the elders wear it as a badge of honor that the pastor’s family has to scrape together pennies to make ends meet. They believe they are helping them trust God. They think they are helping the pastor never to become a lover of money by making sure he doesn’t have any money to love.”
I heard about another pastor who was thrilled when a couple of families in his country church started giving him milk and eggs every week. Until he found out that the cost of the gifts was being deducted from his salary.
Paul addressed this issue of remuneration for pastors a number of times. He said to the church in Corinth, “If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?” To the church in Galatia, Paul wrote, “Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.”
Part of the problem is disobedience to the Scriptures with regard to providing for pastors. But there is a deeper problem with disobedience to the Word with regard to giving to the church. The average church in America operates on a 10/90 basis. Ten percent of the people give 90 percent of the money so the church can operate, the pastor and the elders can feed and equip the people (100 percent of them), the lights can stay on, and the missionaries can do their work. Let me ask you something: What percentage of people in churches in America make the payment on their car, which provides them with physical transportation, in the same way they give to the church, which provides them with spiritual nourishment and development? I would guess that most do not.
The few who do pay their bills that way end up losing their cars or their homes. Now, if we pay our bills 100 percent of the time because we feel an obligation to do so and we want to continue to enjoy the material things that those bills represent, how much more should we cheerfully give to the church where we are fed spiritual truth?
Does your pastor or his wife have the blues?
