Monthly Archives: March 2016

We’ve all heard the old adage “whoever dies with the most toys wins”. While we know it isn’t true, we still like the idea of accumulating things that will build our reputation. We want to be remembered when we die. I don’t think anyone ever looks at their life and says “I would like to die obscure and alone”. We want to be remembered for something.

As I get a little older, this becomes more and more true for me. As I’ve mentioned before, this isn’t where I would have pictured myself at this stage of my life. I had plans. I had dreams. Some of them I’ve been able to realize, others, not so much. One of the things that social media has brought to light is the great life I’ve had. I’ve been able to keep in touch with some great friends over the years who remind me of that. When I look back on the things that I’ve been able to experience in life, I’m amazed sometimes that I’ve survived this long. I started driving when I was 13, getting behind the wheel of an older friends Gremlin. I have survived the pain of my father passing away. I’ve had a great marriage, but have also experienced some bumps along the way. We have 2 great children. And another child as well. Just kidding. All three of my daughters are great girls who have grown into wonderful women. I have 5 grandchildren, with number 6 on the way as I write this. I have a nice home, get to drive a Jeep and make a comfortable living.

I think that all of us can look back at our lives and see some great experiences. Even some not so great ones that we have learned valuable lessons from. So what happens to this valuable knowledge when we die? Who benefits from it? What will we be remembered for, and who will be the ones who remember us? I remember sitting down with my grandmother just months before she died. She recounted all of my fathers antics as he was growing up. It was great just to hear stories of my father when he was younger. To learn a little more about his life. Things that he would have never shared with me because they didn’t set the proper example for his son!

And then there are those who are younger than we are. Or maybe just not as experienced in certain areas of life as we are. I heard Andy Stanley say recently that you have no idea how much you know about finances until you sit down with a 22-year-old and go over their checking account. How true. Could your experiences, even the bad ones – especially the bad ones – be helpful to someone else?

If I look for examples of this, I could look to Paul and Timothy in the Bible. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:2, “You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.”  In other words, both mentor and be mentored.  Learn from those who have more experience than you. It doesn’t mean that you make the same mistakes, or copy their behavior. It means listen to how they handled their life and learn from their experience. Then pass how you used that experience on to others.

In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he addresses him as “my true son in the faith.” (1 Timothy 1:2) We first hear of Timothy in Acts 16 when Paul is leaving for his second missionary journey. He stops in Lystra to pick up Timothy who accompanies him on the journey. While with Paul, Timothy watches Paul to see how he handles life. Paul becomes a spiritual father to Timothy. Timothy becomes sort of an apprentice to Paul. Paul wasn’t just Timothy’s “leader”. He nurtured him into spiritual adulthood. We need to adopt a sense of parenting when we mentor, not superiority.

In 2 Timothy 3:10, Paul again addresses Timothy –  “you know what I teach, and how I live, and what my purpose in life is. You know my faith, my patience, my love, and my endurance…”  Paul challenges Timothy to learn by emulating his lifestyle. Paul wasn’t a slacker. He worked hard, and faced challenges and difficulties often. Here, he tells Timothy to learn how to live life by watching him. Paul had found his purpose in life, and was instructing young Timothy to not only learn how to approach life, but how to live life. Paul’s first sentence addresses not only what he teaches, but how he lives. We should also not just pass along information when mentoring, but pass along pieces of our lives.  We should be the examples of not only mature Christianity, but an example of how to live life.

Finally, in the book of Romans, Paul makes mention of Timothy again. Only this time, he is not addressed as his son. Romans 16:21 ~ “Timothy, my fellow worker, sends you his greetings.” Timothy has progressed from being a son, to a student and apprentice to being a fellow worker. We don’t just invest time in others to make them more knowledgeable. We want them to be productive and, ultimately, to invest themselves in others the same way we have in them. Timothy is now addressed as Pauls equal. And that’s the goal. We can pray for more laborers as the Bible instructs, but we can also help create more laborers.

I am where I am today because of others who have poured a little of themselves into me. They weren’t content to just be my friend or my “boss”. Their goal was to make me a better person, not just to make themselves look good. I am now passing my life onto others. I challenge you to do the same. Use both your victories and defeats in life to make a difference in someone else’s life. Don’t just die with the most toys. The real winners are those who live on through the lives of others.

Love is a funny thing isn’t it? We can love our dog, love our children, love our spouse love our car or our job and even love pizza! There are so many aspects of love that it’s difficult to understand sometimes. Love can be convoluted by the broad meaning of the word and it becomes easy to fake love because of it’s very nature. I remember being in love once in high school. The police called it stalking, but I know it was love!

OK – That’s not true, but the sentiment behind it is. How many times have you been “in love”? As teenagers, we seem to fall in and out of love weekly. It is during this time of our lives that we first begin to equate the concept of love as a feeling. We get this feeling when we’re around a certain person. We like how they make us feel, so it must be love. Maybe it’s because of the way they look. Certain sounds or smells can remind you of them. A song on the radio will bring them to mind. It’s love. Or is it? We all know people who used to be in love and now they aren’t. Couples split up every day. How do we know if it’s really love?

Love is just a word, Actions prove its worth

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There is one things that’s common with every aspect of love. Your actions will always show your true feelings when it comes to love. If you love pizza, when faced with the choice to eat pizza or a burger, the pizza will win every time. Unless you love burgers. A mother will show her love for her children by protecting them. Even when she’s not feeling “love” for them she will show love for them. If you don’t believe me, find a child in the grocery store who is misbehaving. Pick them up and try to walk off with them. OK – doing that will probably get you more than just proof that I’m right. You’ll probably find the love that the law has for that child as well. But you get my point.

Paul talks a little about love in his second letter to Timothy. You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. ~ 2 Timothy 3:1-2. 

People will love only themselves….   How true is this? I was just talking to someone about this the other day. I experience it many times a day. Can you relate to slow drivers in the left hand lane? They aren’t concerned about holding up traffic. They are thinking about themselves. Or nothing at all. It’s difficult to tell sometimes. I’ve been shopping at a well-known department store while the stocker was stocking the shelf I wanted to purchase something from. Did they move so I could get my item? Not a chance. They are thinking about doing their job, not about me trying to purchase something. I’ve been driving in the parking lot looking for a place to park while someone pushes a cart down the middle of the parking lot. Are they thinking about holding up another person? No. They’re thinking about finding their car and unloading their cart. People think about themselves – not others. I’m sure you can think of a situation I may not have mentioned. In all of these cases, people are showing by their actions that they love themselves more than they love me.

Contrast this with the words of Jesus in John 13:34-35 ~ So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

Love each other. And Jesus said that if we did this, it would show the world that we are his disciples. What would the world look like if we really loved each other? I imagine a world where slow drivers always drove in the right hand lane. At the same speed. But beyond my own personal aversions, I imagine a world where Christians are easily contrasted with the rest of society. Even those of us who attend church regularly have witnessed the lack of love we have for each other. In fact, I am unable to distinguish Christians in the church from non Christians outside of the church by their love for each other. We don’t act any different. In fact, I have often witnessed more love from outsiders than I have from Christians. We may tell others that we love them a little more than non-Christians, but our actions toward each other are usually no different.

I’ve been told how much I am loved by Christians, but they have not often demonstrated that love toward me. More often than not, we demonstrate our love for ourselves. We have our own agenda. We come to church and complain that we haven’t been fed, but we don’t do anything to help feed others. We don’t participate in worship because we don’t like the style of music. We ignore those we don’t know because we’re uncomfortable or because we simply don’t really care. We stay in our own group. We allow guests at our churches to wander around and find things on their own. We don’t give. We don’t do anything to help our communities. Statistically, 80% of us sit in our seats / pews every week and aren’t actively involved in the ministry at all. If we even attend every week any longer. We think mainly of ourselves and not others. Of course, I’m painting all of us with the same brush, but I think as a generality, that’s how we’re known. That’s not how Jesus said we would be known.

What if we really loved each other? What if we gave up our favorite seat to a guest at the church and helped them feel welcome? What if, instead of thinking about what we like, we started asking what others like? What if we helped those in our community ~ raked leaves or mowed the lawns of our neighbors? What if we got involved in the church ~ even if it meant just walking around greeting others, or walking a new family to their child’s classroom? What if we became known as the best employee by our employers and co-workers because we were looking out for them? What if we really loved each other? Wouldn’t that make the rest of our culture take notice?

It may even attract others to the gospel. We may even make other disciples. And who knows what that would do? I think that Jesus knows.

I was reminded again recently of our humanity. Another church leader had a “moral failure”.  Of course, this type of thing creates a feeding frenzy among the anti-religious faction, and embarrasses quite a few Christians in the process.  I think the thing that surprises me the most, is that we are surprised at all. I mean, let’s face it – we all have moral failures. As much as we don’t want to admit it as Christians, none of us live a sinless life. Even after salvation we continue to struggle with sin. It is that struggle that puts us in need of a Savior and right smack in the sights of God’s grace. And yet, we treat someone who has messed up as the enemy when their “moral failure” is discovered. It’s not that we’re any better. We just haven’t been caught. Yet. So my question is, how good is good enough?  Actually, the question should be, how deep do you have to hide your sinful nature to be used by God?

Before I go any further, I am not suggesting that what this leader did was good or right. Sin is sin. Sin is wrong. The Bible is clear that just because we experience God’s grace we are not to continue in a lifestyle of sinful behavior. What I am saying is that we all struggle with sin. Our particular sin may not be the same as someone else’s sin, but it is sin nonetheless. We tend to view those who are pastors especially, as being above sin somehow. As if once they become a pastor they are no longer prone to the same temptations as the rest of us, or that they somehow gain a greater ability to resist temptation because of their title. Really? I’ve got news for you. Pastors are human. Just like you. So let me ask you – do you sin?

I would say that if you are a Christian, you try not to. You resist temptation. You fight against the urge to do the wrong thing. And yet we still have “moral failures” on a fairly regular basis. We steal from our employers by wasting time at work. We don’t always show the love of Christ to those around us. We eat too much. We don’t treat our bodies like the temple of the Holy Spirit. We don’t obey the law when we are in a hurry to get somewhere. Especially if we encounter more delays and we are already late. When is the last time you drove the speed limit? These types of moral failures are obviously not on the same level as adultery or murder, and yet, they are moral failures. Jesus said that if you are angry with your brother, you are in danger of judgement, and if you lust for a woman you are guilty of adultery. Sin, great or small, is still sin.

I guess what I’m getting at is that we are so quick to condemn but not to forgive. It is this very kind of judgement that Jesus addressed in Matthew 6 when he admonished us not to judge. Don’t look at other people’s faults when you yourself have similar faults. One reader of an article on a pastor who had sinned pointed out that, statistically, most of the men condemning him for having a problem with pornography have the same problem. Yet we hold such men in high regard and are surprised when they don’t live up to our standards. Paul addresses this issue directly in Romans 7 where he says “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.  I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing…  Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.”  Paul admitted that even though he wanted to do what was right, he didn’t always do the right thing.

Some Christians will take the teachings of men who have been caught in sin and declare that they have no value because the men who taught them were spiritually flawed. I will tell you right now that we are all spiritually flawed. Do we discount the teachings of Paul because he struggled with sin? Granted, some of us struggle with sin and others just give in to it. However, I would submit that men like Moses, David, Abraham, Noah, Peter and Paul all had spiritual flaws and yet God used them in spite of their flaws. I think we need to come to terms with our sinful nature – not embrace it, but come to terms with it – and realize that each person on the planet struggles at times with whether to do the right thing or not. And sometimes they (we) choose to not do the right thing.

So – how good is good enough? The answer to that question often depends on whether we’re talking about someone else, or ourselves. Let’s stop worrying about everyone else’s sin and take care of our own faults.  Let God deal with the others. When it comes right down to it, none of us are good enough. That’s kind of the point of Christianity isn’t it?