“Religion begat prosperity and the daughter devoured the mother.” Kent Hughes explains Cotton Mather’s quote by saying that when a person comes to Christ by faith and is born again, his life is turned upside down. Old bad habits are replaced with new good habits of faith and love and hard work and gratitude. He becomes a better worker and manager of resources as he lives out the Scriptures, which results, often, in economic prosperity. The tragedy is, in many cases, “new prosperity and material wealth devour the same Christianity that gave them birth — especially in the second and third generations.”
This is why Paul gives a stern warning to all who are “rich in this present age.” By the way, if you are tempted to stop reading because you don’t think you are rich, consider this. The average household income in Alamance County is around $45,000 per year. That income is in the top 1.72 percent worldwide, which means we are richer than more than 98 percent of the world. What should we do about it? According to Paul, there are attitudes to avoid and actions to adopt.
Avoid being arrogant. It just goes with the territory that those who have look down on those who don’t have. If you live in a house, you look down on those who live in a trailer. If you live in a trailer on your own land, you look down on those who live in an apartment! And so it goes. But we are commanded in Scripture to put away arrogance and a haughty spirit. After all, “what do we have that we did not receive?”
Avoid trusting in uncertain riches. The more we have, the more we have to fight against finding our security, and even our sense of self-worth, in our possessions. This deadly downward spiral never ends well and can only be corrected through repentance and acknowledging God as the owner of everything, including the very breath in our lungs. He alone is worthy of our trust.
The actions to adopt begin with this simple command: “do good, be rich in good works.” I know a dear lady who used her income and her nice home to show hospitality to people she knew who did not know Christ. She would invite several couples over for dinner and a conversation about things of faith. I know a couple here in town who own several properties that they invite people going through difficult trials to live in for a while, as they teach them to manage their money and their lives in a way that is healthy and productive. You know people like that as well. Are you one of those people who live on less so that you can help others who have legitimate needs?
Paul then says to us we should be “ready to give, willing to share.” It is sad that though Americans have the largest incomes in the world, we also saddle ourselves with the most debt. As Dave Ramsey says with a smile, “We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t even like!” Why not put yourself in a position where you are ready to give by getting out of debt as quickly as possible, while at the same time beginning to give to the work of your church, to global missions, and to local needs?
Don’t get devoured by your own prosperity. I believe that those who learn to give will one day be met in heaven by the beneficiaries of their giving. That is worth the sacrifice.
Category: Uncategorized
The story of Junior Seau’s suicide is still reverberating in the sports world. The all-Pro NFL linebacker who played for 20 years took his own life a few weeks ago, and no one really knows why. The best guess is that football was Junior’s life and he simply did not know how to live without it. That may be it. If so, it leads to another question, one repeated over and over by players and coaches who were good friends of Junior Seau: “If he was struggling so badly, why didn’t he tell me? Why didn’t he tell somebody?” Former quarterback Dan Fouts perhaps said it best: “With all tragedies, there are lessons to be learned, lessons that must be learned by all of us. The lesson here is, if you need help, get help. It’s out there. All you have to do is swallow your pride and ask for it. We all need help at times.”
That story reminded me of a lesser-known event from 2005. Mount Kilimanjaro is the tallest free-standing mountain in the world, at 19,500 feet. Larry and Mary Warren spent seven days climbing that mountain, but they almost didn’t make it. The last day of the climb was to begin at 10 p.m. and end the next afternoon at the summit. Larry asked why they would be climbing in the dark, not able to see where they were going. The guide answered, “Because if you could see where you were going, you would not climb!”
With only five hours to go to the summit, the guide had to make a decision. Some in the group were slowing the others down. “I will separate the group into two, so that you can all keep up your pace and get to the top.” Larry said the guide separated the 12 climbers into a group of 10, and a group of two: Larry and Mary! Seems they were slowing down the pack just a bit.
Two guides remained with Larry and Mary, and the others raced ahead toward the summit. Larry said that the last five hours were grueling, and he was praying that Mary would quit so he could quit with her. Finally, with three hours left, Mary was done. “I can’t go any further,” she said to the guides. “Can you go for 30 more minutes?” the guide asked. Mary agreed she could, thinking that the summit was a half-hour away. “He used that same line about five more times!” Larry said, but it worked to keep them motivated and moving.
With only an hour to go to the top, Mary was completely worn out. That’s when the guides did for the Warrens what we all need when it seems we cannot go on. Larry said, “One went in front of us and Mary held onto his backpack. The second went behind her, pushing her on the back, and I came behind the second guide and held on as these men literally pushed and pulled us up the mountain! Yes, we kept walking … we did our part … we did the best we could, but it was the strength and determination of these experienced guides that helped us make it to the top.”
All of us need a push or a pull to get through difficult times; life itself can be a tough climb. That’s why the Bible says, “God composed the body … (so) that the members should have the same care for one another.” We need each other.
If you need help, and we all do, ask for it. None of us has to climb alone.
A little boy said to the girl next door, “I wonder what my mother would like for Mother’s Day?”
She said, “You could decide to keep your room clean and orderly, and go to bed as soon as she calls you. You could brush your teeth without having to be told, and quit fighting with your brothers and sisters, especially at the dinner table.” He replied, “No, I mean something practical.”
On the eve of Mother’s Day, I offer three practical gifts from Scripture. These are part of God’s refrigerator art, if you will, pictures of faithful motherhood.
In Psalm 128, the mother is pictured as a fruitful vine in the very heart of the house.
The godly mother has a central place of responsibility in the home that, though she may not see it through diaper pails and dishpan hands, will bear fruit for generations to come.
In 1 Samuel 1, the mother is pictured as the greatest intercessor her son would ever know. It was Hannah’s prayer that touched the hem of God’s garment, and it was Hannah’s spiritual influence on Samuel that shaped and prepared him to fulfill God’s calling on his life.
A London editor once submitted to Winston Churchill a list of all those who had been Churchill’s teachers. Churchill returned the list with this comment: “You have omitted to mention the greatest of my teachers — my mother.” And Charles Spurgeon said, “I cannot tell you how much I owe to the custom on Sunday evenings while we were yet children for Mother to stay home with us, and then we sat around the table and read verse after verse and she explained the Scriptures to us. Then came a mother’s prayer; and some of the words of our mother’s prayer we shall never forget even when our hair is gray.” I don’t know if there is a more powerful force on this earth than a mother’s prayers for her children.
In 2 Timothy 1, the mother is pictured as a woman of genuine faith. Apparently Timothy’s father was not a believer, but God worked through his mother and his grandmother to give him a sound foundation. Is there anything more precious to a mother than genuine faith?
The man who would become the most beloved companion of the greatest missionary the world has ever known learned the Word of God as a young child on his mother’s knee. She had genuine faith, not the wishy-washy easy-believism that so many in the church subscribe to today. Genuine faith impacts every person it touches.
Consider Susanna Wesley, who was the youngest of 25 children and who gave birth to 19 herself. Eleven of her children died in childhood. Her husband left her for a time, even serving extended sentences in debtor’s prison. O, how God used Susanna Wesley to give away her faith to her children. As each child turned 5, she tutored them in the alphabet and then, beginning in Genesis, she taught them to read, word by word, from the Scriptures.
“I wonder at your patience,” her husband Samuel once said. “You have told that child 20 times the same thing.” “If I had satisfied myself by mentioning it only 19 times,” Susanna Wesley answered, “I should have lost all my labor. It was the twentieth time that crowned it!”
I am thankful for the mother who raised me, and for the wife and mother I love and live with.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of you who serve so faithfully. You are a gift that could never be repaid in this lifetime.
Antioch was born on Mother’s Day in 1987, and the five families who formed the core knew that God had called us together to be a church. We also thought that we were the church that this county had needed all along. At least, that thought probably crossed my mind because of my years of experience and my unfathomable wisdom as a 29-year-old. Sigh. Anyway, we started Antioch like a house afire. We had a clothes closet, a door-to-door evangelism team, a children’s ministry, a discipleship program, a prayer ministry, and much more. God smiled and was very patient with this little group.
Fast-forward 10 years, and we were in the middle of an outreach to the college campus. We had been faithful to come when he called and work where he sent us. We had baptized 67 believers, 20 of those being college students. We had seen students come to the service we called Celebration and say, out loud, “I have never liked church. It’s boring.” Then, the next thing you know, they were coming and bringing their friends every Sunday. We had heard them say, “I don’t think I will ever get married, much less have children.” But then they hung around us for a while and drank the Antioch water. By the time they graduated, many of them had spent time in our homes, had become a part of our families, and were excited now about having families of their own. We started the church looking at programs. He turned our eyes back to him and to people, to Dads and to Moms. We were trying to figure out a way to attract people to a place. The Lord turned our hearts in a different direction and has helped us turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. He has helped us open our homes to the lost and bring them into the family. He has taught us how to worship him with all our hearts, and how to treasure the Word of God as our daily bread.
God has built a spiritual family at Antioch for his glory, and as the Psalmist said, “This was the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” He has used this family to give birth to others, as we have been able by God’s grace to plant two churches and are “expecting” again this summer. We have also been able to assist in dozens of other church plants around the nation.
If Antioch has a “life verse,” it is Revelation 3:8. “I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.”
We are 25 now as a church; what does the next 25 years hold? We don’t know, but our prayer is that the Lord would use us in any way he chooses to bring glory to the name of Jesus Christ. It is by his grace that we continue to live and act in the truth that we have a little strength, because that means we have to depend on his unlimited power. It is by his grace that we have kept his word. It is by his grace that we have not denied his name.
Jim Elliot once said, “Wherever you are, be all there.” That’s good counsel for a church and for any follower of Jesus. I am thankful to have been part of such a teachable, loving church for a quarter-century.
There are many things in this world for which we humans have freedom to come up with different design. Transportation is one. If you can design a vehicle that takes people safely from one place to another with greater efficiency, you can make a name for yourself. Mousetraps are also negotiable. You know the saying. “If you can design a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.” You can apply this principle to almost any thing, but when you start talking about human relationships, there is a higher authority who must be consulted. God has spoken clearly about marriage, and any confusion about marriage’s design reflects a problem with man’s heart, not with God’s word. A letter to the editor in the Times-News of Burlington this week by a pastor, Rev. Daniel Kuhn, made it sound like the Bible is all over the map on marriage, and that there is no plan, no word from God on this basic institution. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just to encourage good biblical interpretation, let me say this: we must not judge or discard the clear principles of God’s Word because of man’s violation of them.
Here is Rev. Kuhn’s letter:
Standards of marriage in the Bible raise questions
Religious proponents of N.C. Constitutional Amendment One base their arguments on “Biblical standards of marriage” (Open Forum, April 24). If they do, we are in deep trouble.
The Biblical standards of marriage are quite a mess. As far as we know, Jesus never married. According to Matthew 8:14, Peter had a wife, but was pretty much an absentee husband.
The following are the Biblical standards of marriage:
Abraham, the had concubines in addition to his two wives Sarah and Keturah (Genesis 25:1-6). (A concubine is a woman with whom one has a regular sexual relationship.)
Jacob had at least two wives, Leah (Genesis 29:23) and Rebecca (Genesis 29:28).
David, the great king of Judah and later of a united Israel and who was an ancestor of Jesus, was given Michal as a wife by her father, King Saul (1 Samuel 18:27). In addition to her, he married Abigail, widow of Nabal (1 Samuel 25:39-42), then married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and then Bathsheba the widow of Uriah whose murder David had manipulated (2 Samuel 11:27).
King Solomon, whom we are accustomed to calling “wise,” is reported to have had at least seven hundred wives (1 Kings 11:2).
Paul, in 2 Corinthians 11:2, promised a whole church full of people to Jesus in marriage!
It is quite a leap from these Biblical definitions of marriage to saying it is only between one man and one woman.
Religious proponents of Amendment One tell us who can marry and who cannot, and their argument is not based on the Bible. Rather, it comes from the arrogant doctrinal certitude of the southern white conservative church, the same arrogant certitude that defended slavery, split denominations, instigated the Civil War, and brought us Jim Crow laws. It is time this dividing hatred is ended.
We all would do far better if we based our actions and words on the one commandment that Jesus gave: “love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
I have voted against Amendment One and in favor of Jesus’ love.
Here is the rest of my response:
The foundational truth about marriage is found in the second chapter of Genesis and during the first days after creation. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” God had just created the first woman, Eve, by putting Adam to sleep and fashioning a woman from one of his ribs. It was from this first marriage that mankind was born. Eve is the mother of all. Notice also in this foundational passage on the family that there is paternity and maternity, a father and a mother, the basic building block of civilization. Are there variations of that family unit in the Bible? Yes, for example when a woman is left alone through death, divorce or desertion, the family unit is altered. But life’s circumstances do not change God’s design for marriage and family.
This design for marriage is repeated by Jesus himself in the New Testament. The Pharisees wanted to know if a man could divorce his wife for any reason. Jesus answered them by asking why they did not know the foundational principles of marriage since they were supposedly the religious leaders of the nation. “Have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?’”
Paul repeated the design for marriage in Ephesians. He quoted the verse from Genesis that Jesus had quoted, and then added this astounding statement: “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” The union of one man, the groom, with one woman, his bride, is a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church. Jesus was never married on earth, not because marriage can be defined any way that pleases us, but because it was not the right time. The greatest celebration the world will never see will take place when Jesus Christ is told by the Father to go and receive His bride, the church. The multitude in heaven will cry out, “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come…”
Marriage is God’s idea, and His design works. We follow it to His glory and our delight. We alter it, and teach others to do so, at great risk.
Vance Havner said in a sermon years ago that he walked into a restaurant that was “a dimly lit dungeon,” so dark that he was tempted to ask the waiter for a flashlight so he could see the menu. He had to feel his way to the silverware on the table. The food came, and he said, “We sat there and ate by faith and not by sight.” After a while, he could begin to make out a few things on his plate. That’s when his companion for supper said, “Isn’t it amazing how you get used to the dark?” He was speaking literally, but there is a spiritual truth there that relates to fighting the good fight of faith.
I believe one way we know we are getting used to the dark is when the fight has gone out of us and we are just floating with the current, kind of like dead fish. That’s the situation David found when he visited the battle, or the non-battle, between the Philistines’ champion, Goliath, and the army of Israel. Goliath strutted and mocked, taunting the army of Israel, challenging them to send their champion out to fight him. There were two problems with the army of Israel. First, not one soldier moved a muscle because they were all afraid. They were doing all they could to avoid a fight. Courage leads to action. Fear leads to apathy. Perhaps the reason most Christians do not witness is because we have become accustomed to our fear-born apathy. When we first got saved, our faith was stronger than our fear and our joy in the Lord for saving us made us bold witnesses for him. Remember, believer? We were not always the wisest witnesses, but God can work with that. Then, the edge of our joy began to wear off and we began to settle into a routine. We got used to the encroaching darkness around us and gave up the fight.
There’s a second thing we see about this army of Israel that helps us understand what it means to fight the good fight of faith. The soldiers whom David observed that day were no longer practicing the disciplines they had first learned in the army. There was no one even in the bullpen warming up to face Goliath. The fight was gone out of the team and the game was over. Though they were trained warriors, no one was using his training. David showed up on the scene, heard Goliath’s blasphemous taunts, and immediately signed up to get in the game. He said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” He defeated Goliath because he was not afraid of him, because he was well trained in the weapons of his warfare, and because he used those weapons by faith. When Goliath mocked David, the young soldier replied, “You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts.” David brought the fight to Goliath and brought glory to God.
Have you grown accustomed to the dark? Or are you fighting the good fight of faith? Examine your heart for fear and its companion, apathy. Examine your life for the disciplines that keep us always in the fight, with the Word of God and prayer being our primary training table.
It is always too early to quit in the good fight of faith.
I have just finished the rough draft of a new book that has the working title, “Equipped to Lead.” It is written for fathers and for young men who will be fathers, to help them to be the leaders in their homes. I was encouraged to hear this interview Desiring God did with Doug Wilson, on the topic of “father hunger.”
This past weekend was meticulously planned. Well, let me qualify that. It was about as planned as it could be by my standards. My motto is, “If I get there and I don’t have it, well, that’s what Walmart is for.” My wife’s motto is, “If I am leaving the house and I have forgotten something, then the four checklists, six spreadsheets and four days of planning that would rival the preparation for D-Day were not enough.” I am kidding about Cindy, but some of you men will recognize this statement as you are backing out of the garage to go on vacation or even just to church: “I just feel like I have forgotten something.” She often looks at me as she says it, and I will say, “Of course you feel that way, darling. But you never do forget anything. And if you did, well, that’s what Walmart is for.”
This weekend trip was just me and my five sons, and we were headed for the mountains to camp, cook over the open fire, laugh a lot, and talk about our lives. The campsite was a little more than two hours away from home, and about 15 miles from our destination the transmission started to give up the ghost. That’s what I forgot to bring, I thought. A spare transmission! All the rental car places were closed, so we limped back toward Burlington, thinking that if the tranny was going to die completely, the closer to home we were, the better.
Four hours later, we arrived at a lake lot owned by a family in the church, just 20 miles from home, and tried to pick the lock to the Dutch barn on their property, with their permission, of course. That’s another thing our spreadsheet failed to include: a lock-pick. We gave up after an hour and decided to pitch our tent in the dark. I wasn’t worried about sleeping; my friend Mark had loaned us their tent and a queen-size air mattress. I realized as we were setting up camp that I forgot a pump. The prospect of two hours of blowing up the mattress left me feeling breathless, and there wasn’t a Walmart in sight, so I slept on the queen-size sheets.
We built a fire, ate s’mores, and talked about college, relationships, jobs and future plans. The next day we had planned to drive north a few miles to play disc golf. That plan was changed when we realized the transmission had not been healed as we slept, so we started toward home. A 20-mile trip took an hour and included some scenes worthy of a sitcom episode as Micah drove while the rest of us jumped out and pushed the van up hills, then made a mad dash to jump back into the moving vehicle. Don’t try this at home or even in Caswell County.
We traded the van in for two worthier vehicles back at the house and still got in three hours of disc golf. Judah said later, “That was the best day of my life.”
This camping trip will go down in the Foxian chronicles and be told for generations. It was not at all what we planned, but it was everything we needed, and a powerful reminder that “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” We can trust him for a camping trip, for a college career, for a marriage decision, and for every other step we take.
It’s often the unplanned that makes the best memories. Still, next time, we’re taking Micah’s car.
I love the story that appeared on ESPN’s website yesterday about UNC basketball player, Dexter Strickland. It illustrates Malachi 4:6, “And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers…” Here is an excerpt from the article:
Seven years ago, a probationary judge was ready to throw the book at Dexter Strickland. And juvenile hall was a possible destination. Strickland had been living with his mother, Sherrone, in Rahway (NJ) after his parents divorced. But it wasn’t working out — young boys can be tough to handle for single mothers — and the sixth-grader was heading down the wrong path. “He was very troubled at school,” (his father) Dexter L. Strickland said. “He was continually being disruptive in class and being suspended. I’m pretty sure he got suspended at least once every year he was in school.” Dexter Strickland had even gone so far as to hit his teachers. But what landed him in the most trouble was when he was caught pulling out a knife in front of one his female classmates. “I got the call about that at work,” said Dexter L. Strickland, who works as an electrician. “That incident, that’s when I realized, we got a problem.” Although Sherrone had majority custody of Dexter, she and her ex-husband realized it would be best if he began living with his father in Linden (Dexter L. Strickland and his new wife later moved to Hillside), as well as change schools. “I took him in,” Dexter L. Strickland said. “And I began to read the Bible to him every day. It was like clockwork. He was a kid that needed structure. Sherrone did the best she could. There’s no question about that. But she was a single mother and it was tough. “But it was that one Bible verse — ‘Life and death, blessings and curses, you choose’ — that stood out and had the biggest impact on him.” Ever since, as his father said, Dexter Strickland has been choosing life and blessings. “Absolutely [moving in with him saved my life],” Dexter Strickland said. “I think my father shaped me to be the person I am today. I don’t now know where I would be without him.”
The Bible verse that became a foundation for Mr. Strickland’s relationship with his son is Deuteronomy 30:19-20: ”I call heaven and earth to witness against you, that today I have set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Oh, that you would choose life; that you and your children might live! Choose to love the Lord your God and to obey Him and to cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days.”
What a wonderful picture of one father who got it right and is making all the difference in his son’s life.
Source for article: http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/news/story?id=6256165
A student in a public speaking class said one of the reasons she supports abortions is because there are too many children who are being abused or neglected. I asked her after the speech if that meant she believed it is better for a baby to be aborted than abandoned. “Yes,” she said, without blinking. I countered with, “So you honestly believe that no life is better than life that includes suffering, even if it is great suffering?” Again she replied in the affirmative. I expected her classmates to take up the banner for the unborn baby, but no one mumbled a word except one student who suggested that there are a number of people who would like to adopt that baby rather than see it aborted. I agreed with that and then suggested that the real question is, “If none of you would agree with allowing a mother to kill her 6-month old because she is afraid the child may have a difficult life, then what makes it OK to do that a few months earlier, while the baby is still in the womb? What makes an earlier time and a different location justification for murder?”
