Sheep

Sheep

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is in the excerpt.

 

A sheep is a stupid animal, and they follow one another and lose their direction continually in a way that cats and dogs do not.  But even when they are found they are never happy to be found.  It is extremely difficult to round up a lost sheep and bring it home unless you have a dog to scare it.  The lost sheep rushes to and fro so that even when you find it, you must seize it, cast it down, tie its four legs together, put his hind legs together, put it over your shoulder and carry it home struggling.  The sheep never feels loved when it's being loved.  They never feel safe when it's being made safe.

 

In John 10 Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd.  The hired hand when he sees the wolf coming; he abandons the sheep and runs away, but I lay down my life for the sheep."  Jesus is the only shepherd who became a sacrificial lamb.  Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.  Here's what Jesus is saying to you.  "I am the good shepherd.  I lost my glory, my Father, and my life, so that I wouldn't lose you."  There's no better way to intimacy with God than to have something horrible happen in your life that makes you really doubt God's love and go to Him anyway and say, "By God's grace, Thy will be done."  When it's hard, pray anyway.  When it is hard, obey anyway.  When you feel like you are being ceased and thrown unto the ground, just say, "Thy will be done," and it'll push you into an intimacy that you never had because you'll have to get to know Him as a shepherd.  If you've been wounded and you say, "Lord, I want you to heal me," but it doesn't look like you are getting healed, then there is only one way through it.  You must say, "Evidently God you want a wounded me in this world to do certain things and to be a certain person and to get certain things done that I couldn't get done unless I was wounded.  To say, "Thy will be done by the grace of God," is a way to intimacy.  

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

We Need a Wedding Garment

We Need a Wedding Garment

Dear Champions,

The first 3 paragraphs of the short excerpt are by Tim Keller, and the excerpt is Matthew 22:10-12  So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.  But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless.  (the entire parable is Matthew 22:1-14)

There are many people who say, "I don't believe in a God who punishes people. I believe in a God who accepts everyone just as they are."  If you believe that, you're coming in without a wedding garment. 

 

Look at the evil and injustice in the world!  If we have a God who just says, "I love you all just the way that you are," what hope is there for the world?  The Biblical God says, "I will square everything!  There will not be one unjust deed that will not be paid.   It could be paid either one of two ways.  Either you will pay, or my son can pay."   

 

God does not just love people unconditionally.  He loves people counter conditionally, at an infinite cost to Himself.  You do not earn your place in the kingdom of God.  If you go right into God just as you are you will be thrown into the outer darkness, and there will be no joy in your life. 

 

Those people going in to the wedding without a garment thought that they were good enough on their own good deeds and works!  None of us are good enough on our own record!  Accept the wedding garment and follow Jesus! 

 

Champions, have a great summer!-David Vining

Being Honest in the Little Things

Being Honest in the Little Things

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is from Dave Ramsey's book Financial Peace, and the Scripture is Luke 16:10 "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much."

 

Doug Parsons tells an interesting story about character.  One of the richest and most powerful men in America owned a huge company that employed thousands of people.  This gentleman pointed out an up-and-coming low-level manager to his upper-level staff.  This young man worked very hard and was very good at his management position.  The owner noticed the young man because of his work ethic and talent and commented that someday this young man would be a regional manager long before his time.  Sure enough, the young man continued to work hard and was promoted up through the ranks to the point that the next promotion was to be regional manager.  When the owner became aware that this promotion was to be made, he decided to fly down and personally give that young man the promotion over lunch.

 

The big day arrived and the owner flew in to take the young man to lunch.  But as the young man and the owner were going through the cafeteria-style line for lunch, the owner noticed the young man very deliberately hide a one-cent pat of butter under his roll so as not to be charged for it.  The lunch went fine-except that no promotion was given-and when the owner returned to his offices he had the young man fired.  Not only did the young man miss a several-hundred-thousand-dollar-a-year position, he even lost his job.

 

A close friend of mine suggested that such an extreme action was a bit severe.  Maybe he wanted the warmth of the roll to warm the butter, making it easy to spread.  Whatever the other circumstances surrounding the story, the point is that the owner understood that the young man's character flaw of dishonesty would be magnified under pressure.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

The Shepherd

The Shepherd

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is John 10:11.  "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

God works through people that the world thinks are failures.  The ultimate example of God's working in the world is from the only founder of a major religion who died in disgrace.  He was not surrounded by His loving disciples but abandoned by everybody including His Father.  Jesus Christ's salvation is a salvation that came through defeat, poverty, and rejection.

 

God is a shepherd.  If He was just a king, His salvation would be, "Here's the law!  Do it and you will live!"  Because He was a shepherd, He's got to come and fulfill everything for us.  He does it by sending Jesus Christ to live the life that we should have lived and die the death that we should have died and take the penalty for our sins.  The salvation of the world had to come into the world in weakness and defeat.  In every other religion it says, "Pull yourself together and be strong!"  Then say, "God, accept me because of what I've done."  But the gospel is to admit that you are not together and that you are weak.  You have to say, "God, you're going to have to relate to me because of what Jesus has done."  

 

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

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Perfect Love!

Perfect Love!

 

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is John 11:33-35 When Jesus saw Mary weeping (because of the death of Lazarus), he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied.  Jesus wept.

 

Mary asks Jesus, "Lord, why weren't you here because you could have stopped this?"  Jesus can't even speak, but He just weeps.  Now this has startled me about this passage for years.  When Jesus moves into a situation like this He knows why it happened, the purpose of it, and He knows how He is going to turn it into a glorious manifestation of the glory of God.  He knows that in just 10 minutes or so that everyone there will be rejoicing when He raises Lazarus from the dead.  

 

If we went in this knowing that we were about to turn everybody's weeping into joy in about 10 minutes, then why would we weep?  Does it make psychological sense that if you knew that you were about to turn everything around in 10 minutes that you would be weeping and that you would enter into the grief and the pain and the trauma of their hearts?  Why would He do that?  Because that's perfect love.  Jesus will not close His heart even for 10 minutes, and He will not refuse to enter in the pain.  

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other gods (Idols)

Other gods (Idols)

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Exodus 20:3-5  "You shall have no other gods before me. " . . .

 

The thoughts that a battered woman shared with Tim Keller.

 

I'm going to my counselor and much of what she has said is right.  My counselor said that I have built my very significance and acceptability and identity on men, and that's why I have been defensive with them.  I simply have needed them too much.  All of that is right and helpful.  However, my counselor says that what I should do instead is to get myself a great career.  While my counselor means well-I absolutely do need to get some training and get myself a job and career, but what she is saying is that I should do that so that I will also feel better about myself.  But that would mean that I would be switching from one kind of idol to another.  For many years my heart has been looking at men and saying unless I'm successful at love, then I'm nothing.  But the counselor wants me to look at my career and say that unless I am a successful independent businesswoman who is in control of my own life, then I am nothing.  I don't want to be enslaved to my work as I was to men.  I'm actually being asked to exchange a typical female idol for a typical male idol, and I don't want either. 

 

When I asked the woman how was she doing, she actually quoted Colossians 3.  When Christ, who is your life appears, you will be glorified.  She says that it is very practical.  "When I go to church, when I am in worship, when what Jesus did for me is so real and so wonderful, in my heart I think of the men in my life and I say, I'm glad to know you, and I certainly wouldn't mind being married, but you are not my life.  Christ is my life.  You're a good thing, but you are not an ultimate thing.  I would love to have a husband, but if I don't, then I've got Jesus.  I set my mind on things above, and you can't give me any of the things that Jesus has given me.  I don't want to look to men or to a career.  A career can't die for me.  If I life for a career and fail, it will beat me up for having been a failure.  But if I live for Jesus, He died for me to forgive me.  Jesus is the only Savior that if you get Him will satisfy you.  If you fail Him, and we do fail Him, He can die for you."

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Taking Responsibility

Taking Responsibility

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the scripture is Genesis 3:8-12  Just after Adam and Eve sinned, the man and the woman heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.   But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?".  He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid."  And God said, "Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"  Adam said, "Yes I did, and I take full responsibility for my actions.  Do with me as you will, but leave Eve out of this.  She is innocent."

 

Verse 12 is not in the Bible.  The world would be a different place if that is what Adam had said.  If only he had thrown himself down and said, "I'm here to protect and defend the reputation of my wife.  I take full responsibility for everything." 

 

Verse 12 actually says this.  The man said, "The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."  I didn't ask for a woman, I didn't even know what a woman was.  There was just you and me and the animals.  It was a little lonely, but I was fine.  And then you took this rib out of me and you made this woman.  Look at the mess and the chaos that she has created.  God, this isn't my fault.  This is your fault and her fault.  So you guys work it out, and leave me out of it.  She gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.  Ultimately, I'm not responsible for all of this.  

 

Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?"  And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate it.  It's not my fault either." 

 

Irresponsibility that leads to blame always creates conflict.  Where there is blame there is usually irresponsibility, shame and guilt.  Isn't it amazing and so rare when somebody steps up and says, "I'm to blame for what happened?  It may not all be my fault, but I'm responsible. 

 

Are we taking responsibility for our life, or are we blaming God or others?

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining