Connecting Points

Friday, February 18, 2011

Today’s Topic: Silence

Today’s Text: Isaiah 36:21 But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

Silence is scary – especially for someone as impulsively vocal as I am. But according to an old saying Silence is Golden. The whole saying goes like this – Speech is silvern, but silence is golden. In the Bible, the wisdom of King Solomon said that there is a time to speak and a time to be silent. I have the speaking part down real well. It doesn’t turn out well many times, but I certainly speak a lot. It’s the silence part that needs a lot of work.

King Hezekiah’s representatives were being verbally bashed by the commander of the Assyrian army. They were being told that they had no hope of surviving unless they surrendered. But after the audible assault was over, they remained silent. They were under orders to do so. They obeyed. Hezekiah wanted information. He didn’t want debate. This was a battle that would be won by the Lord’s power not by man’s reason. That’s the lesson I need to learn and apply more frequently in my own life.

There are numerous passages about silence in the Bible. I have narrowed them down to the three areas that I believe, at least for me, are the ones that need the most work.

• When verbally attacked, follow the example of Jesus
  • Matthew 26:59-63 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death.   But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward   and declared, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”   Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?”   But Jesus remained silent.
  • Isaiah 53:7 He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
• When angry at someone, think a long time before you speak
• Psalm 4:4 In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.
• Proverbs 17:28 Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.
• When questioning authority, remember who is really in control and trust Him

1 Peter 3:13-15 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority,   or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.   For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.

The Bible also has much direction concerning speaking. As I read through the passages on praising God and giving thanks and using our words to build others up instead of tearing them down, I discovered one thing that is the foundation to all good speech. It is the time when we must speak. It just so happens it is the one time we prefer to be silent. It is when we know we have sinned.

We like to cover our sin. We don’t want to open up and be honest about what we have done. We may speak when we have sinned, but it is usually if not always to defend ourselves or to pass the blame for it onto someone else. Whether we know it or not, this is what is causing the bitterness that permeates every area of our lives and makes us unpleasant to be around. Look at what the Bible says about this important speech impediment from which most of us suffer.

• Psalm 51:1-5 Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.   Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.   When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.   For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”— and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
• Psalm 30:10-12 Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help.    You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,   that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.

The church of Jesus Christ would be a whole lot better place if we would learn to speak when we should and be silent at all other times. I know I’m going to work on that, and by God’s grace, the Holy Spirit will teach me to control my tongue.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Today’s Topic: Wedding Invitations

Today’s Text: Isaiah 36:13-15 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

Yesterday I received a wedding invitation in the mail. It was from a relative – the son of one of my cousins. He has found the woman of his dreams. I am so happy for them. The invitation was very unique. It wasn’t the traditional formal two-envelop with RSVP card and return envelop folded inside. It was more like a postcard, and it was covered of pictures of the couple in various life experiences, including one of them kissing. On it was all the necessary information about the wedding. It was a new method of inviting people to a wedding, and I liked it.

Invitations come in all shapes and sizes for all kinds of events, and they are designed by the sender to do three things: first, to appeal to your emotions with the design of the invitation; second, to give you the information of the event and the blessings you will receive by attending; and third, by the design of the invitation, to reveal the personality and/or character of the sender

In the same way, our enemy, who is called Satan, or the Devil, or the Roaring Lion seeking to devour us, also sends invitations to us. They come in all shapes and sizes, and like junk emails they clog the inbox of our mind all day long. They are very attractive. They are designed to appeal to us and give us exactly the information the sender knows we need to make a spontaneous and emotional decision. But what is different about his invitations when compared to the ones we receive for a wedding is this – Satan’s do not reveal his personality or his character.

Satan is a deceiver, and will use any lie he can to convince you to come to his party. What will appear on the outside to be an opportunity to find pleasure and fulfillment is really an invitation to death and destruction. Ultimately, Satan cannot offer anything else.

One of his most devious invitations is the one that leads us to doubt the character and promises of God. Satan knows that he cannot appeal to Christians with a display of his own character, so his only hope is to diminish our view of the nature and character of God so Satan himself looks better. It’s the same tactic we use when we belittle others to make ourselves look better.

This is demonstrated in today’s portion of the story found in Isaiah 36. The commander of the Assyrian army is sending an invitation to the nation of Israel to make peace with them and join their powerful and prosperous kingdom. He does three things: he paints a word picture of the blessing they would receive by joining – Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. (verses 16-17)

He also warns them what will happen if they don’t attend – Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine?” (verse 12)

But then came  the main emphasis of his invitation – he destroys the people’s hope in the Lord. He starts by saying that he is actually doing this by the command of the Lord – “Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.” (verse 11). He proceeds to tell them that they can no longer trust the Lord – “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? (verse 18)

That’s the same invitation Satan sends us every day when he invites us to be married to the world. He appeals to the pleasures of the world. He convinces us that anything less than that is actually ugly and will hurt us. He disguises himself as the Lord so we think we are really obeying, Then he plants seeds of distrust in us so that we begin to think that God isn’t really meeting all of our needs and isn’t even capable of doing so.

Be careful in everything. We are receiving numerous invitations to be married to the world every day. They are lies. Let’s not be people who just say that we love and trust God. Let’s live like we do and really trust Him.

Pastor John

I need to clarify a point in today’s article. I have edited it so that it is more accurate. I am truly sorry for stating that everyone who is protesting the Governor’s proposals is living personal lives of luxury. I retract that statement as untrue and ask for your forgiveness.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Today’s Topic: Married to the World

Today’s Text: Isaiah 36:7 And if you say to me, “We are depending on the LORD our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”?

To fully understand the context and the application of today’s connecting point, you should read the entire thirty-sixth chapter of Isaiah. Here’s a link: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2036&version=NIV

Here’s a quick summary. King Hezekiah is reigning in Judah. The king of Assyria, Sennacherib, has invaded the land and is attacking all the fortified cities. Sennacherib sends his commander with a large army over to Jerusalem. Hezekiah sends a delegation to meet them. The Assyrian commander makes these statements:

• Why are you so confident?
• You claim to have strength but we see no evidence of it.
• You say you have allies but they are weak and powerless against us.
• You claim to trust in your God, but you have stopped worshiping Him and have adopted other gods.

It’s this last statement that hits me really hard. Here was the enemy of God, with no faith in the One True God at all, who is attacking God’s chosen people. These are His covenant people, yet they have ignored the covenant and rejected their faith in God alone. For the sake of pleasing the people they live with – wives, children, and friends – they have removed what they thought was an obstacle to survival in the world – their faith in Jehovah God. They believed that they would fit into their culture better if they eliminated the one thing that made all other peoples angry.

On Monday I received a Facebook post from a young man who has been called into ministry. He asked me to watch a video that has challenged him. It was from the later years of David Wilkerson’s life as he preached on the subject of anguish. Not a popular word, is it? The video touched my heart, especially at one point when this statement was made – What anguish it must bring to the heart of God when He sees that the Bride He was preparing for marriage to His Son has instead been married to the world.

Please don’t stop reading. The conviction you are feeling is good. It is the Holy Spirit. God is working to purify the Bride of Christ.

We are in a huge turmoil in our state because our Governor is taking steps to reduce our massive fiscal crisis. The people that are being affected by the proposals are staging protests. Yet many of those same people continue to live with a belief that they are owed a life of prosperity. They continue to spend thousands of dollars on luxuries for their families while they complain about having to provide for their own health care and retirement. Something is terribly wrong. Our faith has been displaced with entitlement theology. We have become married to the world.

Our church has an incredible opportunity right now from God to purchase another church in town that would increase or space and ministry potential by 700%. In a few weeks we will be asking our people for financial contributions to make the purchase possible. What will be the response? For those who are married to the world it will be minimal because it will be selfish. For those who are married to Christ and His mission to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ the response will be sacrificial and make possible the realization of the will of God.

My friends, as followers of Christ, why are we so easily persuaded to make friends with the world and adopt its standards? Why do we continue to see our faith in Jesus Christ as an obstacle to acceptance with the world rather than a means of bringing true life to the world? Why have we chosen to become adulterous in our spiritual lives and have a fling with the world? It is time for us to be recognized by our faith and not our possessions. It is time for us to find pleasure in doing the Lord’s work rather than finding more ways to find pleasure from the world.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Monday, February 14, 2011

Today’s Topic: True Love

Today’s Text: Song of Songs 8:6-7 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

Happy Valentine’s Day. I say that to you to acknowledge the fact of the holiday and to wish you well, but there is only one person in the world to whom I say Happy Valentine’s Day with all the love this heart can muster, and that’s my precious wife. She is God’s gift to me. She has my heart for the rest of my life.

Of all the passages in Scripture about love, there is none more descriptive of the love between a man and a woman than the one above. I have used it as the basis for more wedding ceremonies than any other passage next to the famous love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13. It speaks to my heart about the permanence and public nature of one’s love for their husband or wife.

• The one you love is to seal your heart for a lifetime from any and all other options
• Your love is to be displayed publicly as an armband, but also as a seal keeping you from ever touching another person in an attempt to woo then or satisfy some lust of your heart.
• Your love is to be as permanent as death is
• You are to never stop fighting to keep your love (jealousy is a Godly attribute – it is the fight to keep what is rightfully yours)
• Your love should ignite ever other emotion of your life, and burn visibly to all others.
• Nothing in this world can ever quench true love, not matter how fast and furiously they flow into your life
• Love cannot be bought or sold. You must never exchanged the pure gold of true love for any other option or temporary passion.

True love between a man and a woman in marriage (and might I add that that is the only kind of marriage God honors), is designed by God to last a lifetime if both individual’s hearts are in love with Jesus Christ as their Savior.

If only we could love like God intends us to love. If only we could move from the emotional side of love to the commitment side of love, then maybe more people would stay married. Love is not an emotion. Emotions are the product of love. Love is a decision to sacrifice self for the sake of another, like Jesus did when He loved us even though we were in rebellion against Him because of our sin. Love ceases – it absolutely ceases – in the moment that we consider ourselves better than or more important than anyone else. You cannot love self and seek to serve self at the same time you claim to love someone else.

That’s convicting, but it’s true. Just look at the reminders of that in 1 Corinthians 13 –

• Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
• It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
• Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
• It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
• Love never fails.

So nail it down – there is only one other person in this world that you can truly love with all your heart while you are loving God with all your heart and that’s your spouse. Be proud of that. It’s not a punishment. It’s to be made public and displayed as a testimony to the world of the love God has for us.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Today’s Topic: Sing Your Way In

Today’s Text: Isaiah 35:10 They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

What a weekend this is going to be. Yesterday a young couple arrived in Eau Claire for a four day stay to check out God’s leading in their life to move here. We are spending time with them to give them guidance and to support the steps of faith they are taking.

Tonight my daughter and family arrive for the weekend, because there are three birthdays and one anniversary in the family. I don’t know how she does it, but my wife is baking several birthday cakes, because each person wants their own, and then we will host a huge party for nineteen people at our house on Sunday after church.

I have one prayer – that they all enter the house with singing, and that gladness overtakes them.

Times like this can easily get us down. We can become overwhelmed with the details of life to the point of sighing. Imagine how much worse it could get as the Day of the Lord approaches.

But we have this hope based on the promise of God – the ransomed of the Lord will return with singing.

We sing because of the everlasting joy of our salvation.

We are glad because the sufferings of this day are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us when Jesus returns.

We rejoice in the midst of our present sufferings because we know that this too shall pass and there is a day coming when all – not just some, but all suffering and sorrow and sadness and sighing will be gone.

So today I make the choice to let my attitudes be dominated by the promises of God, not the circumstances of the present. Today I will rejoice, and enter the day with singing.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Today’s Topic: Chin Up

Today’s Text: Isaiah 35:3-4 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.”

Have you ever heard the expression, “Keep your chin up”? Sure you have. My need to know things sent me to the internet to find out where that expression originated. According to one site, the first use of was in the Pennsylvania newspaper The Evening Democrat, October 1900, under the heading Epigrams Upon the Health-giving Qualities of Mirth:

“Keep your chin up. Don’t take your troubles to bed with you – hang them on a chair with your trousers or drop them in a glass of water with your teeth.”

The unfortunate thing is that I couldn’t find one reference to this idiom that gave any reason why we should be able to keep our chin up, other than the reference to the possible health-giving benefits of mirth. That’s sad. People know the value of a positive attitude, but fail to find the real motivation for one.

As I mentioned yesterday, we are in a section of Isaiah that looks ahead to the promised return of the King and the establishment of His kingdom on the earth. Here is our motivation for releasing worry and fear. Here is the encouragement we need to be strong. God is coming to redeem us and to set the world straight. Peace will reign because the Prince of Peace will be on His throne. That’s sufficient for me to keep my chin up.

Read carefully the rest of this thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah. You will find great encouragement to press on. You will find the hope you need to be determined to finish the race of life strong. You will discover the joy of knowing that Jesus is coming to save you.

Isaiah 35:1-10(NIV)
¹ The desert and the parched land will be glad;  the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.  Like the crocus,  ²it will burst into bloom;  it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.  The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,  the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;  they will see the glory of the LORD,  the splendor of our God.  ³Strengthen the feeble hands,  steady the knees that give way; ⁴say to those with fearful hearts,  “Be strong, do not fear;  your God will come,  he will come with vengeance;  with divine retribution  he will come to save you.” ⁵Then will the eyes of the blind be opened  and the ears of the deaf unstopped.  ⁶Then will the lame leap like a deer,  and the mute tongue shout for joy.  Water will gush forth in the wilderness  and streams in the desert.  ⁷The burning sand will become a pool,  the thirsty ground bubbling springs.  In the haunts where jackals once lay,  grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. ⁸And a highway will be there;  it will be called the Way of Holiness.  The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. ⁹No lion will be there,  nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there.  But only the redeemed will walk there, ¹⁰and the ransomed of the LORD will return.  They will enter Zion with singing;  everlasting joy will crown their heads.  Gladness and joy will overtake them,  and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Today’s Topic: All Is Well

Today’s Text: Isaiah 34:1 Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it!.

My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness. The words of this grand old hymn are ringing in my head. Oh how I long for them to be absolutely true of my life. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. No matter how sweet and inviting the world looks, it will not last, nor will it satisfy. On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.

As I contemplated the real life application of that truth to my life, I was reminded by the Holy Spirit of the additional verses of that song.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

No matter how dark the world begins to look around me, and how severe the storms of my life become, I know I stand secure in Christ. Why, because His Word NEVER fails. His promises are ALWAYS fulfilled. In Christ our hope is secure!

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

Then the final verse came to my mind. It fixed my eyes where they are supposed to be all of the time – on the coming of Jesus to reclaim what is rightfully His. Since I am His, I will be a part of the Lord’s worldwide reclamation project.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

It was then that I discovered the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah. It is the beginning of the conclusion of the story for this particular section which describes God’s judgment on man’s sin and rebellion. Isaiah gets our attention in verse one, and then he begins to describe the incredible day of the Lord’s vengeance (verse 8) which culminates in the enemies of God being destroyed and the people of God being restored in a transformed physical world.

As I was reading, a line from verse four jumped off the page at me and reminded me of another song – one that hitchhiked on the previous song still be sung in my spirit. The line is and the sky rolled up like a scroll. As a part of God’s judgment of sin and redemption of the physical world, Isaiah describes the transformations of nature that will take place. As the stars of heaven dissolve, and the sky rolls up like a scroll, I am reminded that there’s nothing in this world that I can stand on, but because I stand on the Rock of Jesus Christ it is well with my soul.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Monday, February 07, 2011

Today’s Topic: Celebrate the Victory

Today’s Text: Isaiah 33:20 Look upon Zion, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken.

There sure are a lot of happy people in Wisconsin today. It has something to do with a football game. Congratulations to all my Packer friends. This is a time for you to enjoy this great victory. I am truly happy for you.

However, I wonder how many people will wake up in a week and discover that the heaviness of life will have returned to their hearts? No matter how great this moment, it is a temporary one, and does nothing – absolutely nothing – to satisfy the longing of our hearts for meaning and purpose. How sad it is for those who put their hope in man and man’s accomplishments.

But there is a victory coming someday that will satisfy every longing of our human hearts. For many of us the victory is already being experienced in our spirit. Others will discover the truth soon, maybe even today. Greg Jennings of the Green Bay Packers testified to it last night, when in the midst of the awe of the victory, he looked up and around at all that was happening and declared in front of a worldwide audience, “Glory to God.” As great as that moment was after such a thrilling victory, it was not to be compared with the awe we have for Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Look up and around, for the day of the Lord is coming with greater majesty and splendor than any football game could produce. Jesus is coming, and when He does He will fill the world with the spectacle of His presence. The blessings of His victory will satisfy us for all eternity.

In our study of Isaiah, in chapter 33, here’s what the Lord says the world will be like after His return. This is what we truly long for with all our hearts:

• Peace and Permanence – verse 20 – a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken.
• Powerful leadership – verse 21 – There the LORD will be our Mighty One.
• Protection – verse 21 – It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams. No galley with oars will ride them, no mighty ship will sail them. Broad rivers refers to the borders of the land being uncrossable by any enemy.
• Justice and Righteousness – verse 22 – For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us.
• Complete trust in God alone – verse 23 – Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread.
• Plenty of provisions for every person’s needs – verse 23 – Then an abundance of spoils will be divided and even the lame will carry off plunder.
• Perfect health and well-being – verse 24 – No one living in Zion will say, “I am ill”;
• The forgiveness of all sin – verse 24 – and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven.

Go ahead – celebrate this victory. But don’t let it become more important than the victory that is to come when Jesus Returns – a victory you can celebrate every day of your life and one that is eternally more significant.\

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Friday, February 04, 2011

Today’s Topic: Out of Nothing Comes Everything

Today’s Text: Isaiah 33:10 “Now will I arise,” says the LORD. “Now will I be exalted; now will I be lifted up.”

Humility.

It is the exact opposite of what the world teaches. Since we were born we have been bombarded with the message that we must excel. We must do everything in our power to become the best that we can be. We must win at all cost. We must get our own way in everything. We must strive with all our might to exceed the popularity, power, and position of everyone close to us. We believe that the true measure of our worth is in the value of our possessions.

Pastor Leith Anderson, in a sermon he preached in 1999 called The Height of Humility, told this story:

It was a strange bicycle race. According to the story I read, the object of this race in India was to go the shortest distance possible within a specified time. At the start of the race, everyone cued up at the line. When the gun sounded all the bicycles, as best they could, stayed put. Racers were disqualified if they tipped over or one of their feet touched the ground. And so they would inch forward just enough to keep the bike balanced. When the time was up and another gun sounded, the person who had gone the farthest was the loser and the person closest to the starting line was the winner.

Imagine getting into that race and not understanding how the race works. When the race starts, you pedal as hard and fast as you possibly can. You’re out of breath. You’re sweating. You’re delighted because the other racers are back there at the starting line. You’re going to break the record. You think, This is fantastic. Don’t let up. Push harder and faster and longer and stronger.

At last you hear the gun that ends the race, and you are delighted because you are unquestionably the winner. Except you are unquestionably the loser because you misunderstood how the race is run.

Jesus gives us the rules to the eternal race of life. The finish line is painted on the other side of our deaths, right in front of the throne of God himself. There you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. The winning strategy for this life and for all eternity is caring about others and not about ourselves. It is letting others go first and not pushing to the front. It is giving without the expectation of getting in return. It is to be humble, like Jesus.

Twice yesterday I had this illustrated to me in the lives of two men from our church. Both examples involved their work and their responsibilities as managers. Both have to do with upcoming Super Bowl game on Sunday. Both men are in management in their respective places of business. Both told similar stories of personal greed that will require them to show Godly humility.

In both stories, an employee was scheduled to work the closing shift on Sunday night, meaning that they would have to miss the big game. In the first instance, after unsuccessfully trying to find someone to take her place on her shift, the employee sent a text message to her boss simply stating that she quit. She made a decision that the game and being with her friends was more important than her job and financial decision. She will regret that. If not now, then most certainly later when this kind of selfish behavior brings her to rock bottom. Her decision is most likely going to result in her boss, also a huge Packer fan, to have to work and miss the game.

The second story is similar. The employee didn’t quit, but made life so miserable for everyone around her by her whining and complaining that she deserved to be fired. Instead, her boss and huge Packer fan, and a Christian, stepped up to the plate and volunteered to work for her. He said he wanted to be the bigger person. I told him he was being the Godly person.

Scripture is clear that God will arise and be exalted, and bring us with Him, when we renounce self and trust Him to be our Provider and Protector. It’s not what we learn from the world, but it is what results in ultimate glory – for Jesus and for us. Remember His words? The first will be last, and the last will be first. Anyone who loses his life for My sake will find it, but whoever strives to keep his life will lose it.

Pastor John