Running Away Or Returning

 Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Henri Nouwen, and the Scripture is Matthew 11:28-30  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Judas and Peter present me with the choice between running away from Jesus in despair or running to him in hope.  Judas betrayed Jesus and hanged himself.  Peter denied Jesus and returned to him in tears.

Sometimes despair seems an attractive choice, solving everything in the negative.  The voice of despair says, "I sin over and over again.  After endless promises to myself and others to do better next time, I find myself back again in the old dark places.  Forget about trying to change.  I have tried for years.  It didn't work and it will never work.  It is better that I get out of people's way, be forgotten, no longer around, dead."

This strangely attractive voice takes all uncertainties away and puts an end to the struggle.  It speaks unambiguously for the darkness and offers a clear-cut negative identity.

But Jesus came to open my ears to another voice that says, "I am your God, I have molded you with my own hands, and I love what I have made.  I love you with a love that has no limits, because I love you as I am loved.  Do not run away from me.  Come back to me--not once, not twice, but always again.  You are my child.  How can you ever doubt that I will embrace you again, hold you against my breast, kiss you and let my hands run through your hair?  I am your God--the God of mercy and compassion, the God of pardon and love, the God of tenderness and care.  Please do not say that I have given up on you, that I cannot stand you anymore, that there is no way back.  It is not true.  I so much want you to be with me.  I so much want you to be close to me.  I know all your thoughts.  I hear all your words.  I see all of your actions.  And I love you because you are beautiful, made in my own image, an expression of my most intimate love.  Do not judge yourself.  Do not condemn yourself.  Do not reject yourself.  Let my love touch the deepest, most hidden corners of your heart and reveal to you your own beauty, a beauty that you have lost sight of, but which will become visible to you again in the light of my mercy.  Come, come, let me wipe your tears, and let my mouth come close to your ear and say to you, 'I love you, I love you, I love you.' "

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

The One Concern

The One Concern of the Devil

Dear Champions,

Thursday, May 2nd was the National Day of prayer , so that is the reason for this scripture and short excerpt found in Jim Cymbala's book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire.

Satan's main strategy with God's people has always been to whisper, "Don't call, don't ask, don't depend on God to do great things.  You'll get along fine if you just rely on your own cleverness and energy."  The truth of the matter is that the devil is not terribly frightened of our human efforts and credentials.  But he knows his kingdom will be damaged when we lift up our hearts to God.

Listen to David's confident assertion in Psalm 4:3.  "Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord will hear when I call to him."  That was David's whole posture, his instinct, and especially his approach to warfare.  It doesn't matter what the Philistine armies have.  If we call out to God, he will give us the victory.  If we backslide and don't call, then we can be defeated by a tiny army.

I can almost hear David saying, "You can chase me, you can persecute me, you can do anything you want - but when I call on God, you're in trouble!  The Lord will hear when I call to him."

The devil is not terribly frightened of our human efforts and credentials.  But he knows his kingdom will be damaged when we begin to lift up our hearts to God.

Are not we all prone to be a little cocky and think we can handle things just fine?  But let some trouble come, and how quickly we sense our inadequacy.  Trouble is one of God's great servants because it reminds us how much we continually need the Lord.  Otherwise, we tend to forget about entreating him.  For some reason, we want to carry on by ourselves.

From 18^th Century Teacher Jonathan Edwards:  "The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from prayer.  He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, pray­erless religion.  He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray."

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Susan Neder, and the Scripture is Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  Luke 7:37-38,47  When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. . . . I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."

In the story of the sinful woman, we see two very different persons and heart attitudes.  The Pharisee, Simon, was cold, satisfied with his own integrity, judgmental, critical and not even providing Jesus with the barest minimum of courtesies.  "The woman who had lived a sinful life in that town was conscious of her sinful past, rejoicing in her forgiveness, and lavishing on Jesus the outpouring of her love.  Simon does not cast himself at Jesus' feet because his proud heart was not broken.  He sits opposite Jesus, confident and satisfied with himself.  Yet, the woman is overflowing with lavish love for Jesus, bathing His feet with her tears and perfume, wiping them with her hair.  Her repentance and sorrow for her sin (mourning) had led her to the joy of her forgiveness.  The one who had the biggest debt canceled was the one who loved greatly.

The mourning Jesus speaks about is the mourning that comes from an awareness of our sin and a right understanding of the evil of sin.  We need God's help with this as we have such a desire to excuse and defend ourselves.  Today, we have a superficial and wrong conception of sin.  We don't see it as the cancer that God says it is- a cancer which will destroy us.  Therefore, we don't deal with it as we would as a cancer that we must be rid of.

We don't stop with the mourning, but we go on to the comfort?   In fact, it is only out of this deep conviction of sin that the joy and the comfort of the kingdom becomes ours.  This is true not just as we first come to Him but as a style of life.  We recognize something in us as sin, and at first it gets us down (mourning).  But, if we allow this awareness to drive us back to Jesus, then peace and happiness return, and we are comforted in the reality of His forgiveness and cleansing. 

This is the astounding meaning of this Beatitude.  Great sorrow over our sin leads us to great joy and comfort as we bring it all to Jesus.  Dealing with our sin in this way brings us "joy unspeakable and full of glory."  Not to live like this means that we have to hide much of who we really are from ourselves and each other.  Let's pray for eyes to see ourselves and our sin as He sees it, and then let's respond to Him as did the woman in Luke 7 whose heart was overflowing with love and joy for the greatness of His forgiveness?

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

A Time For Everything

A Time For Everything

The short excerpt is part of the forward by two-time NBA Coach of the Year, Hubie Brown, in Tony Ingle's book, I Don't Mind Hitting Bottom, I just Hate Dragging.  The Scripture is Ecclesiastes 3:1,4  There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. . . . a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.

Tony's Cherokee High School team was playing Marietta High School (which just so happened to have 6 foot 9 future NBA standout Dale Ellis on its roster).  Tony came up with a trick play called, the "shake and bake."  Now, get this picture in your mind:  it's a big game, the place is packed, and his team is down five points with the ball out of bounds underneath the basket.  Tony called time out to encourage and reinforce instructions.  The players returned to the court and got into their respective positions.

Then, on the slap of the ball, three of Tony's players dropped to the floor- jerking, shaking, and pretending to have seizures.  A Marietta player bent over to assist a player who was convulsing on the floor, and the ball was tossed to the front of the rim where a Cherokee High player scored a layup!  The place went nuts!  The crowd was hysterical!

Champions, hope this made you laugh or at the very least put a smile on your face!  Have a great week!-David Vining

Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

 Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller and Susan Neder, and the Scripture is Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Tim Keller says the following:  "For many, it is not your sins or your badness that keep you from God; it's your damnable good works.  It's the things that you think make you good enough.  There are two ways to try and kick God out of your own life and take control and be your own God and your own Lord and Master.  One way is to be absolutely bad.  You say, "I'm going to cheat when I want to, I am going to lie when I want to, and I'm going to commit adultery when I want to.  The other way to completely kick God of your life and totally control Him and be your own Lord and Master is by being good.  By being good you can tell God, "You owe me."  By being good you can tell other people that you owe me.  And by being good you completely zap your life of joy because you look at your goodness and you say that you can do better.  You deserve better.  But if you look at your badness and you see your unfitness, then you can see what Jesus Christ has done for you." (end of Keller excerpt)

We cannot be filled until we are first empty.  Poverty of spirit is basically an attitude toward ourselves as we come face to face with our loving and holy God.  It is a consciousness of our need and inadequacy.  Yet, it is a moving from that recognition not into depression, or an attempt to fix ourselves up, but to cry out to our merciful God for His mercy and forgiveness.  It means to trust not in ourselves or anything we must do or possess to make ourselves acceptable to God.  So, poverty of spirit is the foundation and center from which all the other Beatitudes radiate, for unless we know how poor we are, we'll never reach out for Him.  The whole of life is this:  Total dependence upon the Spirit of God no matter what you do.  How blessed are the poor in spirit.

The recognition of our need is not just bad news.  Acknowledging our need before God, who longs to address that need is the very beginning of life in the Kingdom of God.  Recognizing my inability to make myself good enough for God, to save myself, makes me open to receive the Kingdom of God through the gift of the finished work of Jesus.  This is both the entrance into the Kingdom and the continuous way of life in the Kingdom.  Jesus exemplified this way of dependence on His Father.  "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but only what He sees the Father doing."  May it be our Be-Attitude as well, and open to us the riches of the Kingdom of God.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

Absolute Truth

Absolute Truth

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by RC Sproul, and the Scripture is John 3:16 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.

The Koran (Islam's holy book) says, "Jesus . . . was only a messenger of Allah . . .Far is it removed from His (Allah's) transcendent majesty that He should have a son."  In other words, Christianity says Jesus is the Son of God, but Islam says Jesus is not the Son of God.  Are Christianity and Islam the same about Jesus?  Can both religions be true?  Two contradictory statements can't both be true at the same time in the same way.  Without assuming that principle (called the law of non-contradiction), no meaningful statement about reality is possible.

The point is that truth is not relative.  Jesus claims that there is one way to get to heaven, so all roads do not lead to the same path.  Truth is truth.  We all know that 2 + 2 = 4.  Relativism is more than logically impossible; it's morally unthinkable.

If nothing is true, nothing is immoral.  Not torturing infants.  Not the Holocaust.  Not slavery. Not rape.  Not drive-by gang murders.  Not nuclear destruction.  Not cannibalism.  Not oppressing women.  Not racial bigotry.  Not any evil act.

And that's both relativism's downfall and its attraction.  People often reject the idea of absolute truth to escape the idea of absolute morality.  They choose relativism to justify their own behavior.  But deep down in their consciences, all people know (even those who don't like to admit it during a discussion on truth) that some acts are absolutely wrong.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

P.S.  When someone tells you that no one can know the truth, ask them how they know that  is true.

 

The Real Jesus

The Real Jesus

 Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Luke 9:23-24 Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

If you see the real Jesus, then you are attracted to Him.  If you are attracted to Jesus, then that shows that you are at least looking.  When I see someone who is attracted to Christ, but he says, "I don't want this.  This will ruin my life, and my family will laugh at me.  This will probably change everything, and I don't want this."  I'm much happier about your state of condition than the people who have never struggled or wrestled. 

Until you see not only the attractiveness of Jesus but also the utter demands that intimidate and scare you to death, you haven't really come to grips with the real Jesus.  People that say, "Of course I have always believed, but I don't believe that you need to get fanatical about religion."  These type of people haven't seen the real Jesus.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

P.S.  The gospel message is that you are more sinful, evil and weak than you ever dared believe, but you are more valued, accepted and loved than you ever dared hope.