The Effects of Folly

Ecclesiastes 10: 1 "...So a little folly outweighs wisdom"
Our failures often make a bigger “splash” than our successes. People will often forget all the good a man has done and judge him based on the one mistake or failure in his life. Many contemporary men of God who have done great works and accomplished very significant things for God will be remembered primarily for the sin that was discovered in their lives. A man's folly is more entertaining to the public than his wisdom. His sins will be trumpeted much louder than his accomplishments, especially if they follow his accomplishments.

The enemy would take advantage of our sins and failures in order to produce shame and despair, and ultimately to make us quit. But we should humble ourselves before God, surrender to His discipline, and continue in faith and obedience. Our reputations, as well as our lives, are in His hands.

DEALING WITH REGRET

I look back over my life and see many regrets, things I would change or do better if I could go back and start over. I see areas where I was not a wise and faithful steward of resources, time, responsibilities, opportunities, and potential.
How do I resolve what in the natural seems to be un-resolvable? What do I do when I’ve lost or forfeited something I can never get back? How do I find comfort when something dear to me is gone? The answer: I give it to God.
The prodigal son left home and wasted his inheritance in the world of disobedience and sin. Sometimes I feel like the prodigal who stayed home. I did not waste my life in sin and dissipation, but rather was the “good son” who stayed in the fold but still squandered opportunities, resources, time, and potential.
So what do I do as I look back seeing these areas of lost and so many things I would change? I give it to God. My hope is in the redemptive power of Christ, and in the grace, wisdom, and goodness of God that helps me overcome myself.
“I am not ashamed, for I know Him whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” 2 Timothy 1: 12.
I give it to God, after I have given myself to Him.

LEADERS NEED LISTENING SKILLS

The failure to listen when someone comes with a problem or complaint.

Discipline yourself to listen.  Prov. 18:13

Do not interrupt the person before he has finished.  Let him share all that is in his heart.  People, need to "drain" themselves of what's on their mind and in their heart.  If you interrupt him before he finishes communicating his ideas, his mind will still be on his own issues and he will not hear or be able to listen to you.

It is easy to formulate answers before you listen to the question or the complaint. But even if you have revelation, even if you already understand, it is still important not to interrupt before the person has spoken all he needs to say.

             

To speak before a person has finished is to risk being guilty of presumption, error, misjudgment and condemnation.

Usually people do not go directly or immediately to the heart of the matter. They start at the periphery and work their way the root issue. Therefore, if you answer too quickly, you are only dealing with peripheral aspects of the issue.

           

People become very frustrated if they feel you have not heard them or if you have not given them opportunity to share their heart.

When a leader speaks too quickly and forms a judgment without listening adequately, the person approaching him may become intimidated and close up.  He will become frustrated and withdraw feeling that he cannot talk.  The person may "drop the charges" but leave confused, questioning his own discernment, questioning what is reality--but still with an inner sense that things are not really resolved.

Pastors should listen because the person may have a valid criticism.

 A Pastor should develop the ability to make people feel comfortable and free to communicate.  Learn to help people open up and share their heart.

Be quick to hear, slow to speak.  Do not let your first response be to defend yourself or to attack the other.

After the person has said everything he has to say, then a leader should evaluate and make a response.

THE APPLE OF HIS EYE

THE APPLE OF HIS EYE
I could write a book listing the miracles I have witnessed and the ones I have been a part of. Reading it you would be pressed to believe in God and His desire to work intimately in the lives of people. But then I could also write another book about the times I was in “the deep” about to be swallowed up and close to losing everything. Reading this list of my failures and struggles, you might then say, “Where is your God?”

I could tell you of friends being healed through prayer and also of others dying in spite of it. I have friends who have experienced miraculous healings and friends who have been raised from the dead. Some have received immediate response to prayer, and others have suffered what seems an interminable wait as they call on the Lord daily for healing, help, or an “open door.”

I have experienced the church in its glory as the people of God abounded in their love for one another with the presence of God among them so real it was like heaven itself. Then on the other hand, I have seen church people bite and devour one another and leave the brothers and sisters bleeding in their wake. All of us have seen people of God who truly represent godliness and right living, but we also know of those who have stumbled through sin and hypocrisy. We have seen the church demonstrating the wisdom of God, and then watched as she behaved in an embarrassingly foolish manner.

Christians gasp in shock at these anomalies, and the world uses these inconsistencies as an excuse to deny God and to mock the church. We should not be too surprised. The New Testament writers address these very issues. None of this was foreign to the early Christians. They knew both the reality of a Sovereign God and the reality of human weakness. The high priest in Zechariah chapter 3 stood before the Lord clothed in filthy garments (representing the sin and failure of God’s people whom he represented). The enemy was there to accuse them. But God shut the mouth of the accuser by saying, “I have chosen them, and that settles it.” God is Sovereign and He has chosen us. This should give each of us hope. Remember the words of the old hymn: “I hear my Savior say, ‘Thy strength indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and pray. Find in me thine all in all.’ ”

It is easy to be critical, but we need to guard our attitude towards the church. She is the apple of God’s eye. And even with her faults, God loves her and will one day present her to Himself as a bride without spot or wrinkle, a people upon whom His glory rests. We should not use her faults as an excuse for our own disobedience, but rather as an inspiration to “labor fervently in our prayers that she may stand fast, perfect and complete in all the will of God." (Colossians 4:12).

We should recognize the realities and problems, but intercede and pray with a heart for God’s plan for the church rather than “pointing the finger” with a judgmental and condemning spirit. The apostle Paul said, “Who are you to judge another man’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Yes, he shall be held up: for God is able to make him stand.”

The purpose of God will be accomplished not because we are worthy, but because HE is worthy. Instead of falling back because of our failures, we should rejoice that Almighty God will complete His plan for His people, and will bring forth His kingdom on earth. Not one jot or tittle shall fail of what He has said regarding the church. If Jesus, while hanging on the cross and facing the agony of death could in that hour say, “It is finished.” (i.e., all things are accomplished and the scripture is fulfilled here today. John 19:25-30), how much more, in the face of our weaknesses and failures, from His position at the right hand of the Father in heaven will He not be able to accomplish His plan and purpose. The eternal purpose of God was accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. Its outworking and realization will be fulfilled because He is God.

What's Happening?

“What’s happening?” 
I remember my two-year old grandson in his mother’s lap sick with a high fever and in pain. With eyes red and face wet with tears he cried out to his mom and me, “What’s happening, what’s happening?” The anguish in his little face and voice was heart-wrenching.  Overwhelmed with compassion for the child I laid my hand on his head and prayed for him. The Lord healed him almost instantly as he lay in his mother’s arms. 
His cry made such an impression on me that I have at times imitated him as I have approached God in moments of grief, pain, or perplexity. If my grandson’s cry so deeply touched my heart, I knew that my cry would also in the same way touch the mercy and compassion of our Lord.  And so, I have on occasion looked up into the face of Jesus and cried like that child, “What’s happening? What’s happening?”  
He does not always let me know what’s happening. But I know He is always there. I take comfort in God’s incomprehensible love for us His children. 

“But Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands.”  Isaiah 49: 15-16.

“His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeks Him.”  Lamentations 3:23-26

An Unusual Miracle

An Unusual Miracle

“And God worked special miracles by the hands of Paul.”  Acts 19:11

We live in a 2-story house. There is an air-conditioning unit for upstairs and one for downstairs. Last year our upstairs unit went out and had to be replaced. This was an expensive undertaking and beyond our means at the time, and we were grateful for the Lord’s merciful provision that came when we needed it.

Then this past June the downstairs unit quit working. I was at my desk upstairs when Laurel and our daughter Mary called up to me saying it was getting hot downstairs. We discovered there was no cold air coming through the vents.

We had two different Heating and Air technicians look at it. The diagnosis was that the Freon had leaked out, and that the unit needed to be replaced. That would be a huge expense. We did not have the funds to replace it. The service tech, therefore, informed us that we could get a temporary repair that would cost about $1900, but which would not have any guarantee beyond another year. We did not have the money even for the temporary fix.

So we began the summer with family and friends downstairs having to suffer and endure the heat. We were advised to run the air-conditioning upstairs, but only the fan downstairs. The fan would help circulate the air. But of course, it was circulating hot air, especially on these 90 degree summer days.

It became a regular part of our daily prayer life to ask the Lord for provision so we could get that air-conditioner fixed. Then this past weekend we experienced a miracle, an unusual miracle. Laurel went downstairs to the kitchen Monday morning and noticed that the air-conditioner was running on “fan” as usual, and the downstairs was hot, as usual.  She went back upstairs for a while and later returned downstairs to find that the air-conditioner was turned to “on” and that the house was cooling.  She made inquiry into who had turned the air-conditioner on and found that no one had touched it.  Laurel, our daughters Mary and Claire, and I were in the house, and not one of us had touched it. Now it was turned on and cooling the house better than it had before.

It was a miracle. “Someone” had fixed the air-conditioner. We had gone to bed the night before with it hot and running on “fan.” Now it was filled with Freon, turned “on,” and working better than ever and cooling the whole downstairs. We have been enjoying the cool house this week and thanking the Lord for his mercy and kindness to us in this matter. We acknowledge Him and give Him the glory. May this be to the praise of the glory of His grace.

The early Christians were accustomed to God’s intimate and miraculous presence among them. It was normal for them to witness lives changed by the power of God, healings, supernatural prophetic words, casting out demons, etc… But they also experienced what the Bible calls unusual, extraordinary, or special miracles. At Jesus’ instructions the disciples found a coin the mouth of a fish. He multiplied food. Paul shook a viper off of his hand and was unhurt. Prison doors opened for the apostles and chains fell off their hands and feet. Philip was caught away by the Holy Spirit and moved instantly from one location to another.

I heard a missionary share how he had been protected by angels sent from God to watch over him one night when he was travelling alone and followed by thieves who had planned to rob and kill him. One of them later asked him, “Who were those large, armed men who stood around your camp that night?”

There are other unusual and extraordinary miracles throughout the Bible: miracles of food, provision, protection, supernatural guidance, and healings. We also are entering unusual and difficult times in our nation. I believe we will once again need God’s active presence and help as we navigate the troubled waters in our society. As the darkness grows, so will the glory of God upon His people. These are days in which to reach out to God and expect Him to fulfill Jesus’ promises to manifest Himself, be with us, work with us, and confirm His word with signs following.

LOOK AT YOUR NOSE

LOOK AT YOUR NOSE

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” -Genesis 1:1.

Life is infinitely too complex to have come into being randomly and by itself. There are so many interdependent systems that are necessary for the existence of life on earth; and the degree of refinement, accuracy, and perfection in the coordinated performance of all these operations necessary for life are too complex to exist apart from design. They are independent yet dependent and interdependent, and their functions must be exactly precise and with perfect timing. These dynamics testify to the existence and reality of God.

I see the reality of God in many simple, subtle, and yet so obvious aspects of life that we often take for granted. For example, look at your nose. It is located in a most beneficial and practical place on your body. The nostrils point down so you don’t have to cover them to keep rain from falling into your sinuses. It is just above your mouth so that the sense of smell can work together with your sense of taste to help you enjoy your food. I can think of other more unpleasant places your nose could have been located. Your ears have their own little “satellite dishes” on the sides of your head to help capture sound. Your eyes are in recessed sockets to help protect them. They are located in the front of your head so you can see where you are going. Your feet point in the same direction as your eyes. The size of our moon, its distance from the earth, the tilt of the earth’s axis, the distance of the earth from the sun: If you change any of these in the smallest degree you will end life on earth. This is also true of the numerous systems that operate in the human body: Skeletal, circulatory, reproductive, pulmonary, muscular, neurological, etc.
Life is just too orderly to have come into being without design. Everywhere you look you see evidence of design. The necessary interacting, interdependent, and coordinated operations of the systems required for life, from biological to geological to astronomical are so exact and precise that it is impossible for life to have developed on its own by chance.

And what about sex? I could rest my case on that point, but will continue my thoughts. Male and female. In terms of species development the world could not have seen reproduction without the complete and fully developed male and female. If you could have reproduction without these, then there would have been no need for male and female. So how could this have possibly evolved---two separate systems made to be completely separate and absolutely compatible, and yet totally interdependent with neither being able to carry out the reproductive function without the other? There would have been no births, no reproduction without fully developed reproductive systems. “SOMEBODY” had to design this, and it had to begin fully functional.

This law of “irreduceable minimums” eliminates the possibility of evolution. Scientists have discovered that there is no such thing as a “simple cell” to start with. [Just get a scientist to explain the complexity of the DNA in any single cell]. I recently saw a documentary on TV in which a scientist described the complexity even in the single-celled amoeba. Too many complex, separate, yet interdependent systems have to be in operation at the same time for life to exist. If you eliminate any one of them, life would cease to exist. In other words, for life to exist, all of these systems would have to be created simultaneously.

Evolution is a very awkward and yet convenient way for people to try to avoid God. Evolution itself is foolish, but if you do away with God, evolution is about the only thing you are left with to explain how we got here. So the very concept of “evolution” is a product of intellectual “devolution,” i.e., what you arrive at by default when you reject the reality of God. A few years ago I was reading a book in which the author had recorded his conversation with a prominent evolutionist. The evolutionist told him, “We did not evolve from anything. Life is too complex to have evolved, but I prefer to believe in evolution than to believe in God.”

I prefer to believe in God. It is more comforting to believe in God, that there is a power beyond and greater than our comprehension who created us as finite beings with limited capacity to understand the created universe, and who created us with no capacity within ourselves to comprehend or grasp the infinite realities beyond our created universe, but Who also desires to introduce us to Himself and take us beyond what we see and know. As the Bible says, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him."

If there is no God, then we face the most depressing prospects, a meaningless procession of people heading into an eternal oblivion. But there is a God and this gives us hope for eternal life. The very issues raised in the paragraphs above echo the words of the psalmist who tells us that the heavens, the earth, and all creation testify to the glory and existence of God. This means that there is more to life than this life. This is only the beginning, not the end. To see and understand this, one must look up to the One who is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega, our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ our Lord who brings us to the Father.

"For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him." -Colossians 1: 16.

"For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. -Romans 11: 36.

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead..." -Romans 1: 20.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the expanse of heaven His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their sound has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." -Psalm 19: 1-4.

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