Week Twenty-Three, 2020

THE TARGET

But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians‬ ‭11:3‬ ‬‬‬).

Matthew Emmons was an American sharpshooter, just one shot away from a second Olympic gold medal in the 2004 Olympics when he fired at the wrong target in the final round. Gone was the chance of gold – or even silver or bronze. “I didn’t look at the number above the target before the last shot,” said Emmons. He had dominated the 50-metre rifle three-position target event and was considered the best in the world in his discipline, got a big zero and plunged to eighth.

The Bible spells out a target to reach. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1 Timothy 1:5). It’s not about the things we do, but the relationship we have.

I once got a pamphlet written by a pastor that spelled out the major monotheistic religions in the world. I was curious about why he left out Christianity. When I bumped into him, I asked why he had left it out. His answer struck me when he said that Christianity is not a religion, rather it is a relationship. I had always thought about it is what we do or don’t do.

Eternal life is not a destination. It is a relationship. It is not about doing. It is about being. We are called to take Christ with us everywhere we go. It’s the target! This is what we are shooting at – a sincere faith that leads us to love God and love people. Does what we believe affect how we act? Does what we believe affect our attitudes and decisions? As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

If we are not loving others, or if our conscience is constantly troubled, or if we find ourselves faking our Christian life, these are warning signs. It means we have lost focus. We have become occupied with something other than Christ. Jesus Christ sets us free to love fervently, to have an inner peace, and to have a vibrant, growing faith. We don’t need a list of rules. Christ lives His life through us. Christ fulfills the righteousness of the law through us very naturally when our hearts are occupied with Him.

Has something come into your life that has distracted you from developing a close relationship with Christ? Tell Jesus this, admit it, and then make a decision today to become fully occupied with Christ! This is the only way you will hit the target in your Christian life!

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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES

THOUGHTS:

Solomon is saying our thought life controls the rest of our life. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Our thought life dominates and shapes our attitudes, good or bad, negative or positive. Attitudes lead to actions. The thought is the father of the deed. Actions are thoughts carried out. Here’s a profound thought… Achievements of your thought life are going to be the sum total of your thoughts. When you sow a thought, you reap an act. When you sow an act, you reap a habit. When you sow a habit, you reap a character. When you sow a character, you reap a destiny. It all begins with the thought life. The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart.

—Ken Whitten

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Elizabeth Magie came up with the idea for the Monopoly game in 1903 and called it “Landlord’s Game” to protest against the monopolists of her time.

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The Labrador Retriever has been on the AKC’s top 10 most popular breeds list for 25 consecutive years—longer than any other breed. There are over 75 million pet dogs in the U.S.—more than in any other country.

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QUOTES YOU CAN USE

Better praying in the pews makes better preaching in the pulpit. Ken Whitten

There’s no age restriction for spiritual growth. Moody Publishers

Who is on the throne matters more than who is in The White House. Eugene Cho

They tell me a revival is only temporary; so is a bath, but it does you good. – Billy Sunday

Week Twenty-Two, 2020

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

It is one of the must see places in Washington D.C., The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Located in Arlington National Cemetery on the Virginia side of the Potomac River and overlooking the City of Washington, it is the final resting place of several unidentified soldiers who gave their lives defending their country.

For nearly 100 years the tomb has been guarded everyday around the clock. The guard change is very symbolic, conducted in accordance with Army regulations. The relief commander or assistant relief commander, along with the oncoming guard, are both required for a guard change to take place. The relief commander orders the guard being relieved to “pass on your orders” to the oncoming guard. The guard being relieved will say to the oncoming guard, “Post and orders remain as directed.” The oncoming guard’s response is always, “Orders acknowledged.” In all those years, the orders have never changed.

Jesus gave us some orders too and they, in more than 2,000 years, have not changed either. As He was about to leave this earth, He told his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything he had commanded them.

Those orders remain as directed. They apply not just to the disciples to whom He directly spoke, but to all future generations of Christians down through the ages. Those orders are passed on to you and to me. As Christians, Jesus commands us to go to the four corners of the earth and perhaps our neighbor next door to spread the word and to share our faith, teaching people that Jesus is Lord and encouraging them to accept Him as their Lord and Savior.

Are you willing to carry out His orders today? They remain unchanged.

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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” – Matthew 6:33-34

I love it when something that Jesus said is so clear.

• He didn’t say seek Him first, but after your second cup of coffee.

• He didn’t say seek Him first, but after you’ve read the paper or watched your favorite morning news show.

• He didn’t say seek Him first, but not before your spouse and/or family.

• He didn’t say seek Him first, but not before your career, career goals or work.

• He didn’t say seek Him first just behind any personal goals and dreams you might have.

• He didn’t say seek Him first just behind all the church work and church stuff you’ve got to accomplish first.

• He didn’t say seek Him first, but only if all your personal needs and desires are satisfied.

• He didn’t say seek Him first, but only if you don’t have anything better to do.

• He didn’t say seek Him first, but only if you feel like it.

• He didn’t say seek Him first if you feel Him close on the mountain top or if you’ve hit rock bottom in the valley.

• He didn’t say seek Him first, but only after you fret and worry about it first.

He said “seek FIRST His kingdom and His righteousness…” Marty Stubblefield

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Locusts and grasshoppers are a regular dietary component in local diets in many areas of Africa, Asia, and the Americas—and since they’re packed with protein, they’re an important nutritional staple as well.

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QUOTES YOU CAN USE

Your identity determines your behavior. Ken Whitten

Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting. Joyce Meyer

Look back and be grateful, look ahead and be hopeful, look around and be helpful.

Distraction leads to destruction. Andrew Evans

ARE YOU FULLY DRESSED?

By John Grant, Week 21, 2020

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes (Ephesians 6:11).

The county just north of where I live is known as the nudist capitol of the world. Nearly a hundred years ago a doctor told his patient that he needed more sun on his body and suggested that he become a nudist. He found others to join him founding the National Organization for Naturists which later American Sunbathing Association. Now, the organization has gone nationwide. People flock to nudist clubs and resorts in central Florida buying condos so can they live there full-time.

We come into the world nude. Then things get complicated. Different countries have different ideas about nudity and America’s mixed culture has different ideas, each thinking they are right.

What does the Bible say about nudity?

▪ And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:25.

▪ You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the hips to the thighs; Exodus 28:42

▪ Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed! Revelation 16:15

The Bible talks little about what to take off, but is unequivocal in what to put on. In 1945, as American troops were fully armed and about to storm the beaches of Iwo Jima, in the departing religious service aboard the Bunker Hill, the chaplain pointed the troops to Ephesians 6:11. Paul tells the Ephesians to put on the whole armor of God, so that one is able to stand against the powers of the devil.

What a great send off into battle, both then and now. We battle against the schemes of the devil every single day. Paul told the citizens of Ephesus to be prepared for battle and to be strong in the power of God. Be fully clothed with the belt of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit.

While people have different ideas about how much clothing to take off, the Bible is unequivocal about what we are to put on. We are to be armed with the Gospel as we go forth to battle each day.

Like the famous credit card advertisement…. Don’t leave home without it!

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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES

Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border:

I was reading through 1 Chronicles and came upon the passage made famous by Bruce Wilkinson’s bestseller, The Prayer of Jabez. “Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, ‘Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!’ And God granted what he asked” (1 Chronicles 4:10).

For God to “enlarge” his “border” meant to increase his territory and influence. Jabez wanted his life to count as fully as possible. But he knew that this was impossible unless the “hand” of God was “with” him to lead, empower, and protect.

Such a prayer may seem audacious, but “God granted what he asked.” It seems that the Lord wants us to seek to be all we can be for His glory and the good of others: We are to “work heartily” in all we do (Colossians 3:23). Are you doing so?

God wants us to “approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:10). Are you ready for that day?

Our Father empowers what He expects: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3). Are you seeking such empowerment? Jim Denison

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QUOTES YOU CAN USE

It is our responsibility to live in the present and make the most of our circumstances—whatever they look like today and whatever they look like tomorrow. We accept the good, we accept the bad, and we make the most of the season right in front of us—regardless of how it looks today or tomorrow. That is our responsibility to ourselves and the constantly changing world around us. The Minimalist

Daphne MacDonald. Though we live in a world of constant consumption, we don’t need much to be happy. The accumulation of stuff costs money and can lead to living outside our means and piling on debt.

For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Our first birth gives us physical life; the new birth gives us spiritual life and membership in God’s family. Billy Graham

Heaven may be reached without money or rank or learning. But it is clear as daylight if the words have any meaning that nobody can enter heaven without a new birth. R.C. Ryle

Every Bible should be bound in shoe leather. Dwight L. Moody

It is always too soon to quit. V. Raymond Edman

By John Grant, Week Twenty, 2020

“How the gold has lost its luster, the fine gold become dull! The sacred gems are scattered at every street corner. How the precious children of Zion, once worth their weight in gold, are now considered as pots of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!” (Lamentations 4:1-2).

A few months ago, my wife and I descended 1,300 feet below the surface and toured the salt mines outside Krakow, Poland. It was an incredible experience. My most important takeaway I learned was how in the times long ago the price of salt was higher per ounce than the price of gold. Salt was more practical, and much needed for food preservation and many other things. Gold was merely ornamental.

Fast forward to today when the price of gold is nearly $1,700 per ounce, but how quickly that can fade to nothing compared to the price of a loaf of bread. The prophet, Jeremiah, who wrote, Lamentations, saw that hundreds of years ago. The temple, which was overlaid with gold, was in ruins; and the gold was not distinguished from common rubbish.

Recent times have shown us how items were so wanted by people that the shelves were empty and our gold (credit cards and cash) were useless to purchase the depleted items. We all have some “gold” in our lives, but what happens when our gold loses its luster? Our fine gold of our lives become dull! Our gold is our idols.

Pastor Tim Keller so aptly says, “An idol is something we cannot live without. We must have it. Therefore, it drives us to break rules we once honored to harm others, even ourselves, in order to obtain it. Anything in life can serve as an idol, or a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life. An idol is anything more important to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. Anything you seek to give you what only God can give. Anything so central and essential to your life, that should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.”

What are some of our gods… financial security, comfort, people, job security, spiritual leaders, living the American dream….? In recent days our lives have been shaken and our lives have changed. It has not all been a pleasurable experience and the jury is still out on what the long term effects will play out. Our lives have changed, but one thing we know is our God has not changed.

He reminds us brokenness that leads to change is not aimless, pain that leads us to trust in God is not pointless and confusion that leads us to God’s throne for answers is not meaningless. In the words of Pastor Ken Whitten, our problem is not the depth of our brokenness. Rather, our problem is the depth of our own self- sufficiency.

Our idols will tarnish and wither away, but God never will.

What are the idols (gold) of your life and how have recent events drawn your focus on Jesus?

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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES

The Entertainment Test

Here are 10 questions to consider when we turn on the TV, go to a movie, attend a concert, or watch a play:

1. Is what I’m watching lewd and lascivious and appeals to my sinful fleshy desires?

2. Am I looking at a person created in God’s image with pure and honorable intentions?

3. Does this entertainment distract from my pursuit of holiness, righteousness, and godliness?

4. Does this show produce ennobling thoughts or pollute my mind with cheap and tawdry thoughts?

5. Is the allurement of this show vulgar or virtuous?

6. Am I morally stronger from this entertainment, or spiritually weakened?

7. Are the values being presented consistent with my Christian values?

8. Am I allowing myself to be amused by something that is sinful?

9. Would I feel comfortable having Jesus sit with me during this show?

10. When I finish watching, do I feel good about myself or do I feel sleazy?

—Ken Weliever – ThePreachersWord.com

Three ways Jesus responds to fear

One-way Christianity is different from other religions and worldviews centers in Jesus’ redemptive response to fear. Consider three lessons he offers his followers:

1—We should live in the present and trust the future to God.

Jesus taught us, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34). This day is the only day there is. Someday there will be a global crisis that seems frightening and unmanageable, but before it accelerates, Jesus will return for us or you or I will go to him. That’s why “now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). We are one day closer to eternity than ever before, and we have only today to be ready.

So, live in this day and trust tomorrow to the providence of your Father.

2—Worry is fruitless.

Jesus asks us, “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If you then are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?” (Luke 12:25–26).

Worry provides the sense that we are doing something about our fear, but this is an illusion. Rather than worry about the future, we should prepare by doing what we can do and trust God with what we cannot.

3—Our Father is Lord of the universe.

He asks: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore” (Matthew 10:29–31).

Our Father measures the universe with the palm of His hand (Isaiah 40:12). He is on the throne of the world.

Let’s be sure He is on the throne of our hearts today. Jim Denison

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QUOTES YOU CAN USE

Hope is for the soul what breathing is for the living organism. Gabriel Marcel

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning is young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young. Henry Ford

No matter what rough storm is in your life, if Jesus is in your boat, your boat will not sink. Franklin Graham

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. Thomas A. Edison

Week Nineteen, 2020

By John Grant

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

In these recent times, we have been introduced to a new word: pandemic. It is usually used to describe the explosion of a medical epidemic, but literally the word means something prevalent over a whole country or the world.

On December 31 last year, China alerted the World Health Organization of several cases of unusual pneumonia in Wuhan, a port city of 11 million people in the central Hubei province. The virus was unknown. Several of those infected worked at the city’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which was shut down on January 1.

The Wuhan coronavirus is thought to have originated in bats, which may have passed the disease to one of a few potential intermediary species, which then passed it to humans from where it rapidly spread around the world infecting nearly two million people and causing death in more than one hundred thousand in nearly 200 countries. The spread took not years, but days.

One of Jesus last instructions was to create another worldwide pandemic, not a medical one, but an evangelical one. He instructed His followers to make disciples of all nations, as He assured them of His continuing presence. There were no newspapers, Internet or TV and radio. His instructions fell on the ears of foot soldiers who spread the Gospel from person to person and town to town.

Beginning with Jesus, the Christianity was spread around the world first by Jesus’ disciples, then by emperors, kings, and missionaries. Through crusades, conquests, and simple word of mouth, Christianity has had a profound influence on the last 2,000 years of world history.

Humanly speaking, the odds were all stacked against it. It was unthinkable that a small, despised movement from a corner of Palestine could move out to become the dominant faith of the mighty Roman Empire, an empire steeped in fiercely defended traditional pagan religions. The spread of the Christian church in its earliest centuries is one of the most amazing phenomena in all of human history. Wave after wave of persecution was unleashed to squash it.

The earliest Christians did not have church buildings. They typically met in homes. They did not have public ceremonies that would introduce them to the public. They had no access to the mass media of their day. So how can we account for their steady and diverse expansion over the first three centuries?

The answer is found in Scripture. The spread of Christianity was through the power of the Holy Spirit and with continued presence of Jesus, both of which continue today. Perhaps an evangelical pandemic is on order.

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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES

What is success? How do you define it? What are the essentials of success? And how do you know when you’ve achieved success?

Google “success” and you will incredibly get 5,440,000,000 hits in .48 seconds. Go to Amazon and you find there are over 90,000 books written about success. All of these sources are filled with formulas, fundamentals and principles for achieving success in a given area of life.

The world’s standard often measures success on the basis of prosperity, performance, possessions, position, or power. God, however, not only gives His definition of success, but the means by which we can achieve it.

When Moses died, Joshua was designated to become the leader of Israel and assigned the task of conquering Canaan. God issued this stirring and inspiring exhortation to encourage and direct Joshua (Joshua 1:6-9).

Here are God’s five fundamentals to Joshua for spiritual success and prosperity.

1. Be Strong.

2. Be Courageous

3. Stay Focused

4. Meditate on the Word.

5. Do God’s Will.

Let’s return to the fundamentals of our faith. Then our way will be “prosperous,” and we will enjoy “good success.” Ken Weliever, The Preacherman.

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QUOTES YOU CAN USE

By owning fewer possessions, we reserve time, money, and energy for the things that matter most. So, take some time to focus on the things you own and what can be removed, today or in the future. The Minimalist

Even in total silence, it’s hard to hear God’s voice over the screaming claims of the world when God tries to pierce our heart, that’s what Satan does. Dwight Short

Hope in your present is fueled by God’s faithfulness in the past. Kelly Knouse

Hope is setting my focus on ultimate restoration, not instant relief. Kelly Knouse

Hope is a gift you receive, not a goal you create. Kelly Knouse

Before we were saved, we were the focus of our lives. Bob Sprinkle

Appreciation is one of the world’s greatest motivators.

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