Year: 2013

Categories
Christian Living

A Step In The Right Direction

In Honduras, I met several young men who were wrestling with a commitment to Christianity. The want to take a step in the right direction, but haven’t yet taken that first step. I wonder if they ever have these internal thoughts:

“How do I fathom what life is all about? Here are all these great philosophers across the centuries with better minds than I have, and one religion says this and another religion says that. Maybe one religion is as good as another. Who knows?…How can a person like me be sure?”

To that question, Catherine Marshall writes:
“Somebody very wise anticipated your question. All thoughtful men ask the same question sooner or later. So He left us a way so that we can be sure. It’s as specific as a doctor‘s prescription or as an algebraic equation. Here, I’ll write it down for you.

“Miss Alice went over to a little desk in the corner, sat down, opened one of the desk’s cubbyholes, took out a piece of notepaper, and began to write.… she folded it, and handed it to me. “Whenever you receive a written prescription from your doctor,” she said, “the first step after that is yours. You move on this,” she indicated the folded paper she had given me, “and then God will move.close-up of a person's shoes as they are taking a step in the right direction I‘ll guarantee it. And as for religion being vague—well, it isn’t. It’s been the delight of my life to find God far more common-sense and practical than any human I know. The only time I ever find my dealings with God less than clear-cut is when I’m not being honest with Him. The fuzziness is always on my side, not His.”

The piece of paper lay warm in my hand. I wanted to look at it but Miss Alice had not quite finished; “More people than not think religion dull. Some religions are dull. But believe me, Christianity isn’t. It‘s the most fascinating, delightful thing I know. You‘re standing poised on the threshold of great adventure. Now, you’re dying to see what I wrote…. Go—and take that first step.”

Maybe some of those Honduran guys are having these same thoughts.
Maybe you are too.
Maybe you would love to know what was on that piece of paper.
You might find yourself disappointed… When Christy opened the paper, it read:

“If any man will do the Father’s will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”

She then states – “I read the words over two, three times trying to comprehend. I felt let down. Why did the Bible always disappoint me this way? Other people seemed to get meaning out of it. Why couldn’t I? What had I expected? Some magic, obviously. Then I tried to recall her exact words. “Go and take the first step.”

To take that first step… that is the secret – a step in the right direction. Seek to do His will and to know Him. He tells us in His Word:
“You will seek Me & find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

Have you taken the first step today to seek Him, or are you passively waiting for something to happen?

— brian rushing

(Quotes from the book “Christy” by Catherine Marshall)

Categories
Missions

Missionary Mindset

“Please don’t send me to Africa.”
For whatever reason, this silly song stuck in my craw when I was younger. It challenged me with the ending of its chorus:
      “I’ll serve you here in suburbia, In my comfortable middle class life
      But please don’t send me out into the bush, Where the natives are restless at night.”

At times, I have our church family say: “I Am A Missionary.” God is clear that all of His followers are to be on a task to introduce other people to the salvation offered by Jesus Christ – no matter the cost of doing so. But too often I feel like a seed that has taken root on thorny ground.thorns criss-crossing and choking one another - representing the world that chokes out our missionary mindset

“And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” I find that the thorns grow thick “here in suburbia, in my comfortable middle class life.” Here in suburbia, I find that for me – “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

I want my spirit to drive my flesh, but too often it is the other way around. Pastor John Piper tells me to remember the condition I was in before salvation to provoke within me the missionary spirit:

“Is not our most painful failure…to weep over the unbelievers in our neighborhoods…? In order to grieve [over their lostness], I must believe in my heart certain terrible and wonderful things…. I must feel the awful and glorious truths of Scriptures. Specifically, I must feel the truth of hell — that it exists and is terrible and horrible beyond imaginings forever and ever. I must feel the truth that once I was as close to hell as I am to the chair I am sitting on — even closer. I must feel the truth that God’s wrath was on my head. I must feel in my heart that all the righteousness in the universe was on the side of God and against me.

“…remember, remember, remember the horrid condition of being separated from Christ, without hope and without God, on the brink of hell. If I do not believe in my heart these awful truths — believe them so that they are real in my feelings, then the blessed love of God in Christ will scarcely shine at all. The keener the memory of our awful rescue, the more naturally we pity those in a similar plight. The more deeply we feel how undeserved and free was the grace that plucked us from the flames, the freer will be our benevolence to sinners.”

Our problem is not an inadequate education. It is a rebellious heart. – Ravi Zacharias
We need God to help us to remember our former condition and to grieve over those who do not yet know His Great Love!

Too often I find us missionaries complaining and griping about other people – more irritated than compassionate. How do you keep a compassionate missionary mindset instead of being crotchety like me?

–brian rushing

Categories
Christian Living

Problematic Worry

What’s got you worried today? Anxiety is such a problem for so many of us, and it is a bigger problem than we realize. Certainly Corrie Ten Boom was right when she said: “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.”

Worry is sin in that it is a lack of faith – it is the sin of pride turned sideways. It indicates that we believe our situation is somehow more special than anyone else’s and that God isn’t big enough to handle our special situation. We don’t have faith that He is able, so it is lack of faith and pride that leads us into the sin of anxiety and worry.

“Faith ends where worry begins, and worry ends where faith begins.” –George Muellerman seated on a bench in deep prayer or worry or both

With so many of us worried about today – worried about something at work, worried about a relationship problem at home, worried about a decision we made in the past, worried about the future, what can we do?

We can give it to God. We want to give something to God that blesses Him, but “Paul warns against any view of God which makes Him the beneficiary of our beneficence. He informs us that God cannot be served in any way that implies we are meeting His needs…. But isn’t there something we can give to God that won’t belittle Him to the status of beneficiary? Yes. Our anxieties…. God will gladly receive anything from us that shows our dependence and His all-sufficiency” (John Piper).

When we lose all our anxiety by trusting Him fully, then we become fully dependent on Him! Give your anxiety to Him today and trust His promise to take care of you.

Remember – “God’s answers are wiser than our prayers.” Therefore we should certainly pray, but when the answer comes and it is not what we expect, remember that God’s foolishness is wiser than man’s wisdom, so trust His answer even more than your request.

With so many struggling with this issue, what advice would you give on how you keep your anxiety level down and your faith in God up?

“You can no more outgrow your need for God than you can outgrow your need for oxygen.” (unknown)

Categories
Ethics

Pigsties, Rotten Apples, and Morality

One of my favorite quotes deals with pigsties and rotten apples, and the idea that you cannot legislate morality. So many times we want to force people to change.

pig laying in a fithly, muddy pigsty representing the idea that if we legislate morality but don't change the pig's nature we have not done anything of value
Certainly we might be able to clean things up a bit… clean up some violence on the streets, enact new laws that force people to behave, tell people that what they are doing is wrong. But the problem is that if you don’t change the heart, the violence will return, the people will only “behave” when they think someone is watching, and they will never agree that what they are doing is wrong. Here’s the great quote –
“Clean up a pigsty and if the creatures in it still have pig-minds and pig-desires, soon it will be the same old pigsty again. Preach the gospel…preach to the hearts of men. That‘s your business. Then the fruits, including the reforms in other areas, will follow as fruits. But it’s no good tying apples onto a tree. Soon they’ll be rotting apples.”

How very true. Tying apples onto a pine tree doesn’t change the nature of the tree. It might vaguely “look like” an apple tree for a moment, but we’d know it was just a facade. Next year it’ll produce pine pollen, pine cones, and pine needle, but never apples. So the idea is that instead of worrying so much about new laws and legislation and cleaning up the pigsty, we should focus on helping our family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers to be changed from the inside. Instead of trying to force change externally which is a momentary fix, our efforts should be to help people change internally, which cleans up a person for a lifetime.

The idea is explored a bit more fully in the conversation below which ends with a powerful statement:
        “You know, David, we’re out to win people, not war with them.” Miss Alice’s view was that we had an infinitely larger task than trying to end moonshine stills and stilling. We were to create an atmosphere in which men’s hearts could be changed so that they would want a better way of life than “stillin’” represented.

        Like so many of us, David did not agree with this…”what’s wrong with preaching the gospel and cleaning up the pigsty at the same time? Why should I put on blinders to walk by the pigsty? Besides, I don’t agree that if I preach and do nothing else, men’s hearts are automatically going to be changed and then they’re automatically going to want to do the right thing….Not by a long shot!”
        “The question at issue, David, is how to get rid of the evil in men. Attacking corruption in the environment won’t do it. That’s like cutting weeds in a field. In a few days the weeds will be grown again. And attacking the men themselves won’t work either. Whatever separates men from love can’t be of God.”
        “Then,” David said, “if that’s the technique, why aren’t people changed more drastically by today’s preaching?”
        “Could be because we don’t often have the courage to give the good news to people straight. Most of us are still talking religious theory that we haven‘t begun living; and talking in wornout clichés at that. A watered-down message is as futile as applying rose water to a cancer. When your heart is ablaze with the love of God, when you love other people–especially the rip-snorting sinners–so much that you dare to tell them about Jesus with no apologies, then never fear, there will be results. One of two things will happen. Either there’ll be persecutions, or the fire will leap from your heart to catch and blaze in the depths of other men’s beings. I‘ve watched the process over and over. And then when the blaze starts; the reforms will follow as surely as the flower follows the bud, or the fruit comes after the blossom on the tree.”
        “It’s too slow a way.”
           “No, David, it isn’t too slow a way. The other is no way at all.”

I agree. The other is no way at all!

(Quotes from the book “Christy” by Catherine Marshall)

Categories
Christian Living

Amazing Insights from Teens

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… I was a youth minister. At least it seems long ago. As a youth minister I would occasionally hear negative comments about teens – about their attitudes and disrespect and (fill in the blank with something you’ve heard). And though teens can at times be impulsive, they can also have amazing insights & faith in Jesus.

Almost 10 years ago at summer camp, I wrote down a few quotes that students said during our debriefing time (which often seemed to last until about 1 am!). The insights they shared were quite remarkable.

From a student who was striving to improve his boldness in sharing his faith:
“In Luke, Jesus says, ‘The Son of Man came to seek and to save those who are lost.’ I wish people could say of me, ‘the son of Bart came to seek and to save those who are lost.’” (Brett Carr)

Brett’s brother was in college and led our Bible study time that week. As a teen he had worried that some of his past mistakes could be held against his witness. He stated: “When Paul started his ministry, people who had known him didn’t readily accept his message because of his known past. People who have seen your hypocritical life will always be there, but that should not stop us from living our life in Christ.” (Cory Carr)

Two other quotes from two of the young ladies at camp (I think both were high school seniors that year):

“As ‘good’ Christians, we can become prideful about our good and godly life. Pride in goodness is still pride – we must become humble.” (Beth Floyd)

“We spend time with people who make us feel special, so make others feel special with your life so your life and testimony will impact them and lead them to Christ.”

The faith statements of these four young people give a glimpse of what Jesus Christ can do in and through us, even at an early age. But only if we are open to His influence. Let us never doubt what God wants to teach us through those who are younger and who often have an amazing ability to show great faith in Him!

What else have your children (or someone else’s) said or done that showed remarkable faith or insight regarding his or her relationship with Jesus?
blonde-headed young girl picking white and yellow flowers in a field