The Final Battle

As the end of another year arrives, it is a good time to think about how the end of time will ultimately play out. It seems to me, at least at times, that the sensationalism of premillennialism holds sway in much of what is written about Last Things. The storyline usually goes something like this: the “Final Battle” is summarized in Revelation 19, with God coming to rescue us much as the cavalry rescued those in trouble in the old Western movies.

What does the Bible say? Where is hope? What does it mean to anticipate the return of Jesus?
The Bible does not mention a great final battle in the future in which Jesus and innumerable “returned armies” invade the earthly kingdom of His enemies. (Such is a misunderstanding of Revelation and a faulty reading of the text.) The Bible does not speak of a great heavenly invasion of the earth in the future. The hope which sustains the Christian is much better than the premillennial speculations that saturate the beliefs of many today.

As a new year begins, I am thinking about those who left our earthly ranks during 2013. The battle against Satan is life-long. All of life moves toward death and judgment (Hebrews 9:27). Paul summarizes the ‘final battle’ in this way: “I have run the race, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (read 2 Timothy 4:6-8). The promise of a heavenly crown for those declared righteous by the blood of Jesus illuminates each day in the life of a Christian. We eagerly await his coming (Hebrews 9:28). We live victoriously never quite knowing which day will mark our final battle. Those who finish the course are blessed because their labors provide testimony of the battle they have fought and won (Rev.14:13).

The Psalmist shares words of comfort: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. O Lord, truly I am your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have freed me from my chains” (Psalm 116:15-16). May we live as God’s servants, freed from the chains of sin, victoriously running and finishing the course, so that we may declare with Paul, “I have kept the faith.”

A worthy goal for 2014!

It’s Sunday Again: Looking backward, looking forward

During the last few days of the year, I typically take time to look back and evaluate what has occurred as a foundation for looking forward to what God has in store in the coming year.
This last Sunday of the year is a good time to look back over 2013 and evaluate spiritual growth. Amidst the host of activities that seem to characterize my daily life, what story is to be written during the last year about my spiritual growth, my spiritual maturity, and my walk with God?
The questions are personal–not necessarily for sharing. It is a time to ask about my habits–reading, meditation, and prayer. It is time to ask about how wisely I use my time. It is time to think about relationships, opportunities, and the purpose and direction of my life.
The backward look is the first step of a meaningful forward look that typically includes some new resolutions. Let me encourage you to take a few moments for self-examination today on the Lord’s Day, or in the next couple of days as another year concludes!

It’s Sunday Again: God and his ice

With freezing rain falling all day and ice-laden limbs hanging low in our yard, Jan and I spent all of yesterday indoors. We commented more than once on the beauty of God’s creation and the picturesque scenes God was creating.
This morning those same scenes are still amazing–even though much less visible with the moonlight, the light from our front yard lamppost, and the yellowish glow of the streetlight at the end of the block. God’s ice looks more challenging today because we will not stay indoors. We will spend time this morning assembling with our spiritual family and celebrating God’s goodness in sending Jesus to handle the sin problem we cannot handle on our own.
I am glad the earth and all of its fulness is God’s! I am glad he is in control. We needed the moisture–God provides. He gives us every day what we need. Let us praise him, worship his holy name, thank him, and glorify his name!

…The Behinder You Get

[Note: As I seek to use the last month of 2013 to establish effective spiritual habits for the coming year, today I reprint an article I penned several years ago. May God bless our every effort to walk each day more closely with Him.]

My mother often encouraged my sister and I to slow and think about what we most needed to do with these words: “The harder you go, the behinder you get.” It is true. When we flail aimlessly or act without the end in mind, it doesn’t matter how hard we work, we often make little progress. So we conclude that we need to think in advance about what we want to accomplish and how we will do.

In the spiritual realm, prayer is an important part of determining what we should do. Many Christians get further and further behind in their spiritual lives because we are too busy to pray. We are too busy to pray because we misunderstand the nature of prayer. We see prayer as one more activity to work into our busy schedules. Or perhaps we see prayer as a way out of emergencies, thinking that when we cry, God has to bail us out. In the routines of daily life that burn time and churn up problems, we seldom pray. So we find ourselves “behinder and behinder.”

Prayer is part of the Christian’s planning process. Prayer focuses our priorities. Reuel Lemmons is often quoted: “I only get done what I pray about.” More recently, Bill Hybels has written a book with the challenging title, Too Busy Not to Pray. Jesus demonstrated the priority of prayer as his way of maintaining contact with the will of his Father. Indeed, prayer is the first step in accomplishing all that God desires to do through us.

Let me suggest five things prayer will bring to your life.

  • Prayer will help you establish priorities. Since you can’t do everything, you must do what really matters. And in doing what really matters, the Christian focuses on what really matters to God. Prayer helps me decide what I will do.
  • Prayer will help you touch people. Since you can’t serve everyone, you must minister to those God puts in your path. When God leads you to people, can you see them? When God opens doors of relationship, do you walk through them?
  • Prayer will help you know God’s presence. Distinguishing the important things is helped by a sense of God’s presence.
  • Prayer will help you know God’s power. When I am overly-busy, I need help to get done even the most important things. The busier I am, the more important is prayer as a source of God’s power in my life.
  • Prayer will help you know God’s passion. Even in the midst of our busyness, prayer helps us see God’s purpose and plan. Prayer injects my life with God’s passion—compassion and caring.

The lesson is that we must pray about what we do before we do it. Too often, our prayers to God are that he might bless what we have already done. For the Christian serious about understanding and doing God’s will, prayer is first. Don’t make it the last thing you do as you deal with challenges of life.

Reflecting on Leadership and Change

In today’s rapidly changing world, it is not enough that leaders develop loyal employees who will keep doing what they have always done. Leaders must lead by demonstrating the flexibility that can escape “the way things have always been done around here.” It is almost certain that “the way things have been done” and the “way things are done” will be insufficient in the future. Those organizations that want to serve “on the cutting edge” doing everything possible to fulfill their missions will be those organizations whose leaders can question the status quo, leaders who can dream, share, demonstrate, and encourage a future that resonates with new realities and new possibilities.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In whatever circumstances you find yourself today, Jan and I wish you a day in which you can see the way in which God has uniquely blessed your life.
Twenty years ago today, Thanksgiving was forever changed for us when my mother and stepfather died in an auto accident on this day as they were traveling to our home to share Thanksgiving dinner.
The challenges and problems of life do not take a day off on Thanksgiving Day. Illnesses continue, sorrow and sadness still come. People spend the day in hospitals, faithfully caring for loved ones. The continued presence of life’s difficulties does not mean that we are not being blessed by God; the difficulties only make those blessings harder to see through the tears and blur of life. Serendipitously through the eye of faith, the difficulties can also make the blessings sweeter.

With grateful hearts in the midst of life’s challenges, we wish for you a Happy Thanksgiving!

Little Things

The biggest things in life are the little things. Many go through life wishing to make the one big splash, to receive recognition, to accomplish something spectacular or noteworthy. Life is not to be measured by the big things but by a continual, consistent stream of little things, hardly noticeable, but powerful in their combined impact.
A pleasant tomorrow depends on living fully today. The little things, reflected in the habits of one’s life, make life full and abundant: the discipline of arising early, meditating, praying, and reading; time spent with family regularly; being true to one’s word with honesty and integrity; filling one’s day with priorities rather than the urgent or peripheral; committing oneself to the best rather than being satisified with the good.
“God, help me pay attention today to the little things to your glory.”

Mission: What are we teaching national preachers?

I received an email from preacher who was trained at a preacher training school in Latin America: “I want to preach but I cannot find a sponsoring church in the United States to pay me.”

What? What did this brother learn in preaching training school? Perhaps we need to restudy the New Testament. Does the call to preach depend on finding someone to pay us to preach? Paul supported himself while he preached. Have we developed a faulty view of the call to preach? I fear we have let ministry concepts replace preaching and evangelism. Especially in mission work, we need to rethink the difference between preaching and ministry.

What is the work of a preacher? Quickly—how would you respond? Do we answer with visions of church planting and church development, or do we focus on a pastoral concept of ministry? Isn’t the work of the preacher to preach, to evangelize? The work of Titus on Crete was to appoint leaders, first correcting that which was deficient; but it seems that was for a specific, unique situation, and that the goal was to develop leaders do the lion’s share of the pastoral work.

The church needs more preachers, ministers, and missionaries who are trying to work themselves out of a job by strengthening churches and establishing local leaders who will advance the cause, lead the congregation, and encourage the member to support the work of the local church with their time, activities, and money (which may include a local minister).

Few who have genuinely received the call to preach and evangelize are going to be happy if their work is primarily in the mold associated with “local ministry.” Paul’s words to Timothy provide a helpful reminder: do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your service (2 Timothy 4:5). For Timothy, preaching and evangelism was his ministry.

P.S. I wrote back to the brother and suggested that if he wanted to preach, he should preach. Find a congregation to work with, help build up the local church, volunteer to teach and preach at every opportunity and do it well. Do not worry if you have to work vocationally in order to preach: Preach the Word!

How would you have responded to this brother? How can the church more effectively train national preachers?

It’s Sunday Again: Another Week, Principles for Life

I do not like the change that some calendar publishers have popularized. Especially on calendars designed for the business world, the week begins on Monday and the weekend is an afterthought in the far right-hand box–usually including both Saturday and Sunday in one box. (I suppose that six boxes saves money over seven boxes.)

Think with me. Let us ponder in our hearts the things of God. Let us rejoice and celebrate. Today is the first day of a new week. It is Sunday–the Lord’s Day. It is Resurrection Day. I will begin the week in worship to God and fellowship with the spiritual family. I will do today what I have done on Sunday throughout my life. The number of Sundays that I remember having missed assembling with God’s people during my lifetime I can count on one hand–two or three times for illness and once due to being in the remote high mountains with my family. Even on those Sundays when I have not been able to attend the assembly, I have spent time in worship, meditating on spiritual things.

The book of Revelation says John was “in the spirit” on the Lord’s Day. It is likely that the book of Revelation begins with visions that occurred on Sunday. What did John see? In chapter 1, he saw in a vision the power and presence of Jesus. In chapters 2 and 3, he received instructions to write letters of warning and consolation to the churches to remind them that Jesus was present among the persecuted churches. In chapters 4 and 5, he saw a heavenly vision that assured him that God was on the throne and in control of the outcomes of the history of the world.

As we today begin another week, here are three great principles. Jesus is who he claimed to be, in all of his glory, splendor, and power. Jesus walks among his people even in difficult days. God is in ultimate control.