Connecting Points

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Today’s Topic:  Our Rescuer

Today’s Text: 2 Peter 2:9 (NLT)  So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials.

In 1956, during the Mau Mau uprisings in East Africa, God demonstrated His power to rescue His people from their trials. The story is told by veteran missionary Morris Plotts.

A band of roving Mau Maus came to the village of Lauri, surrounded it, and killed every inhabitant, including women and children—three hundred people in all. Not more than three miles away was the Rift Valley Academy, a private boarding school where children were being educated while their missionary parents worked elsewhere. Immediately upon leaving the carnage at Lauri the Mau Maus came with spears, clubs, torches, and bows and arrows to the school, bent on destruction.

You can imagine the fear of those children at the school. Word had already reached them about the destruction of Lauri. There was no place to flee. The only resource was prayer.

Out in the night, lighted torches were seen coming toward the school. Soon there was a complete ring of these terrorists about the school, cutting off all avenues of escape. Shouting and curses could be heard coming from the Mau Maus. Then they began to advance on the school, tightening the circle, shouting louder, coming closer. Suddenly, when they were close enough to throw a spear, they stopped. They began to retreat, and soon they were running into the jungle. A call had gone out to the authorities, and an army had been sent in the direction of the school to rescue the inhabitants. But by the time the army arrived, the would-be assassins had dispersed. The army spread out in search of them and captured the entire band of raiding Mau Maus.

Later, before the judge at their trial, the Mau Mau leader was called to the witness stand. The judge asked him, “On this night did you kill the inhabitants of Lauri?”

The leader replied, “Yes.”

“Was it your intent to do the same at the Rift Valley Academy?”

“Yes.”

“Well then,” asked the judge, “why did you not complete the mission? Why didn’t you attack the school?”

The leader, who had never read the Bible and never heard the gospel, replied, “We were on our way to attack and destroy all the people at the school. But as we came closer, all of a sudden between us and the school there were many huge men, dressed in white with flaming swords. We became afraid and we ran to hide!”

You may not be in danger of an army, but you are in a spiritual war, and your enemy the devil is stalking you like a roaring lion, seeking to devour and destroy you. But every attack can be, in fat for our spiritual health it must be, viewed as an opportunity for our faith and trust in the keeping and protecting power of God to be displayed in our lives. If only we would get out of the way and let God do His work in us.

Charles Chu, writing in Leadership Journal, tells this story:

A few years ago I had a chance to become a hero, but it turned out to be an embarrassing moment. I was in China on a tour group. Our tour bus was on the way to a scenic spot with another tour bus in front of us. It was snowing, and the road was muddy.

Suddenly the bus ahead of us skidded off the road and tipped over on its side in a rice field. I quickly jumped off my tour bus, ran to the overturned bus, and jumped on top. Windows were shattered, and people inside were obviously hurt. The emergency door was facing upward, so I grabbed the handle of the emergency door and pulled. The door did not open. I kept pulling hard, but it wouldn’t budge.

By this time, others had come and were pulling people out through the windows, so I gave up on the door and joined them. After I moved away from the door, another man went over to the door. He turned the door handle, and the door opened easily.

I suddenly realized why the door did not open for me: I had been standing on the door as I tried to open it. With good intentions to save lives, I had become the biggest obstacle blocking the door of rescue.

The temptations and trials in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the test to be more than you can stand. When you are tested, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Monday, March 08, 2010

Today’s Topic:  Their Doom

Today’s Text: 2 Peter 2:10 (NIV)  This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.

I hear the Holy Spirit saying it is time to move on to something more encouraging. Not because what we have been teaching is not important, but that there has been a significant foundation already laid about false teachers and from there each of you can build on it as the Holy Spirit leads you. I will simply provide you today with the building material.

The rest of Second Peter chapter 2 gives a further description of the lifestyle and attitudes of false teachers. Read it carefully and let the Holy Spirit bring increased discernment to your mind and application to your own life where He needs to.

• False teachers claim authority not given to them by God. These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling. But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings. 
• False teachers appeal to human instinct not spiritual discernment. These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed. Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done.
• False teachers show no shame for their choices. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you.
• False teachers prey on those who are weak in their faith by appealing to their unconquered flesh. They delight in deception even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse. 
• False teachers are covetous and will exchange the truth for personal gain, like Balaam. They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong. But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice. 
• False teachers draw attention to themselves. These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness. They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting.
• False teachers approve of anything just to please their followers. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. 
• False teachers have never been saved, nor have their followers if they return to their sin. And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.” 

Tomorrow we will go back and look at a few verses we skipped, but this has been an important study. It may not be what you normally expect in these daily devotionals, but feel good stuff isn’t what I’m about. I want us to grow into the depths of knowledge that bring us spiritual maturity, and I hope this study is doing that for you. Please don’t gloss over these things. Ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten your understanding and sharpen your discernment so you can stand against all of the attacks of the enemy coming at you through false teaching and stand strong for Jesus.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Today’s Topic:  Respect

Today’s Text: 2 Peter 2:10 (NIV)  This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.

The next characteristic of a false teacher is the display of disrespect for authority. They even go so far as to despise it. Their message is filled with animosity towards government leaders, bosses, and even parents. They use anger as a rallying point. They encourage revolution, not repentance. They focus on rebellion not reconciliation. They are known more for what they are against than what they favor.

These are some good practical points for us to watch in our lives as well.

• How often are we caught belittling and disrespecting our government leaders? Romans 13:1-2  Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished. 
• How much time do we spend in the break room at work or elsewhere talking down about our bosses? Ephesians 6:5-7  Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 
• Even as adults, how often are we involved in discussions that disrespect our parents or memory of them because we blame them for the choices we are currently making? Ephesians 6:2-3  Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise: If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.”

Respect is an attribute of character that is not taught very well by our modern society. I found this quote this morning:

Our youths love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority—they show disrespect for their elders and love to chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up food, and tyrannize teachers.

What may surprise you is that this statement of the condition of the culture was made in the year 400 B.C. by Socrates.

But the disrespect of youth for authority is not our only problem. As adults we are in denial about how much disrespect we show towards the youth. Here’s a marvelous story that illustrates the point.

A waitress was taking orders from a couple and their young son; she was one of the class of veteran waitresses who never show outright disrespect to their customers, but who frequently make it quietly evident by their unhurried pace and their level stare that they fear no mortal, not even parents. She jotted on her order pad deliberately and silently as the father and mother gave their luncheon selection and gratuitous instructions as to what was to be substituted for what, and which dressing changed to what sauce. When she finally turned to the boy, he began his order with a kind of fearful desperation.

“I want a hot dog—,” he started. And both parents barked at once, “No hot dog!” The mother went on. “Bring him the lyonnaise potatoes and the beef, both vegetables, and a hard roll and etc. etc.”

The waitress wasn’t even listening. She look right at the child and said calmly, “What do you want on your hot dog?” He flashed an amazed smile. “Ketchup, lots of ketchup, and—and bring a glass of milk.”

“Coming up,” she said as she turned from the table, leaving behind her the stunned silence of utter parental dismay. The boy watched her go before he turned to his father and mother with astonished elation to say, “You know what? She thinks I’m real! She thinks I’m real!” 

Maybe…just maybe the real cause of disrespectful youth is parental modeling. Just a thought for you…and me.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Today’s Topic:  Conquer the Flesh

Today’s Text: 2 Peter 2:10 (NIV)  This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.

If you are following along in Second Peter verse by verse, don’t be alarmed: you haven’t been in a coma. I skipped a few verses since Monday to continue the study of false teachers. We’ll come back to the ones we jumped over.

The next two attributes that we need to recognize in those “religious” leaders who speak the language and gather large followings but are doing it for the wrong reasons are these –

• they are motivated by the gratification of the flesh and…
• they attempt to enhance their own status and authority by disrespecting true authority.

As always, we need to personally check our own hearts on these issues before we even begin to point the finger at others.

The news is consistently reporting the activity of religious people who have been caught in the corruption of sexual sin. They seem to get their own warped sense of fulfillment from tearing down the lives of those who are already being beaten up by the real enemy of our souls. But that does not diminish the fact that each one of us is responsible before God for our moral purity. Those who claim to proclaim the Gospel are even more accountable.

From my perspective, and I humbly say from my experience, it all starts with an unresolved need for emotional attachment and approval. I have talked to many men and women over the years who have been trapped in the bondage of sexual perversions of all kinds. As we whittle away the layers of excuses and justifications, it usually comes down to an admission of the need to be accepted and approved by someone. This HUGE need we all have is the result of the sin nature within us which destroyed our ability to see the image of God in which we were created. We don’t know who we are apart from Christ.

However, even after we come to Christ, this sin nature still exists, and for many of us it still holds us captive to its desires. The emotional bondage of being rejected or constantly criticized as a child is powerful. The bondage of being convinced that one’s worth and value is only earned through performance is debilitating. We all experience it to one degree or another.

The words of Peter are important to look at carefully if we are ever going to experience the victory of Jesus Christ over the desires of the flesh. Most importantly he calls such desires corrupt. We have convinced ourselves they are not. In fact, we even call them necessary for fulfillment. That is the great deception of Satan. Remember how he deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden? He said that God was holding out on her, and that she could have more if she opened her mind to the knowledge of good and evil both. Same lie. Different era.

The desire to satisfy the flesh – through sex, prestige, or power – is corrupt. We must face that fact, admit that it is true, and confess that we are guilty of it. We must come into agreement with God about our flesh if we are going to experience His victory over it. For most of us we do that in the “big” things. But it’s those small nagging desires for approval and acceptance that continue to motivate our choices and behaviors. It’s time to resolve them. We must stand in the authority of our relationship with Jesus and not succumb to the abuse of reasoning with the enemy 

The way I remind myself of my standing with Jesus is to quote Colossians 1:10-14 over and over in my mind. They are the verses God led me to as I started the still ongoing journey of victory. They may help you…

Life worthy of the Lord and…please him in every way: bear fruit in every good work, grow in the knowledge of God, be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully give thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Monday, March 01, 2010

Today’s Topic:  What Motivates You?

Today’s Text: 2 Peter 2:3 (NLT)  In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money.

In case you missed some of last week, we have started a careful study of the characteristics of false teachers and churches based on Peter’s warnings to us in Second Peter chapter 2. It would benefit you to go to the blog and read last week’s entries to be up to speed with where we are and the important foundations we have laid.

Today Peter addresses the issue of motivation. It’s a topic we don’t always enjoy looking at in our own lives. We prefer to be graded on our performance not our motives. We insist on hiding the depths of our heart in order to impress others and earn their approval with external appearances. We even intentionally choose wrong motives thinking that other people will be shallow enough to only see the action and reward us. Many times – more than we probably choose to admit – we are motivated by greed – that deep desire for personal benefit.

For example, many years ago, some vandals cut down six royal palms along Miami’s Flagler Street. Since the palms were very expensive, Dade County authorities weren’t sure if they could replace them very soon. But then someone donated six more and even had them planted. The old ones had been about fifteen feet tall and provided a nice foreground for a “Fly Delta” billboard. The new palms were thirty-five feet tall—completely hiding the sign. The new donor: Eastern Airlines.

Or what about the motivation of making oneself look good to others? We tend to do that the most by talking down about others. Sometimes we go on and on talking about the flaws of others and the only real reason is because we think it will improve our own status or image in someone’s eyes. But nothing makes a long story short like the arrival of the person you happen to be talking about. At that moment we have proven that our motivation was not for their benefit but for ours.

M. Scott Peck writes in People of the Lie, Utterly dedicated to preserving their self-image of perfection, they are unceasingly engaged in the effort to maintain the appearance of moral purity. They worry about this a great deal. They are acutely sensitive to social norms and what others might think of them…. They dress well, go to work on time, pay their taxes, and outwardly seem to live lives that are above reproach.

The words “image,” “appearance,” and “outwardly” are crucial to understanding the morality of the evil. While they seem to lack any motivation to be good, they intensely desire to appear good. Their “goodness” is all on a level of pretense. It is, in effect, a lie. That is why they are the “people of the lie.”

Actually, the lie is designed not so much to deceive others as to deceive themselves. They cannot or will not tolerate the pain of self-reproach.

Before we even begin to talk about the motivation of money, which we will do tomorrow, we would all benefit from some personal introspection today on this issue of “image consciousness” and the power of its motivation in our lives. We must not be apathetic about this. It has become one of the strongholds of Satan in our lives, and He uses it daily to keep us from becoming truly surrendered to Jesus and effective as His servants. We must crucify daily the desire to please self and build self-worth, and take up our cross and follow Jesus as people of integrity – people who are real and true to the core.

We would all benefit from following the advice of Albert Einstein, who said, Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.

Pastor John