Sevier Heights Baptist Church

4 January 2008

Mint Condition

According to government statistics, in 2006 alone, counterfeit US bills totaling $56,200,000 were discovered after entering into circulation. With home-production of illegal funds posing such a growing problem and the arrival of advanced copiers and better computer printers, the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing in recent years has upgrading the security features of some of the most commonly-counterfeited bills, thus making it much harder for would-be crooks to produce “funny money.” Color-shifting inks, watermarks, and security strips, increase the uniqueness of American currency. According to the US Secret Service website, even the paper that bills are printed on can not be legally produced by an individual. It is of a specific composition, pressed to a particular thickness and contains tiny red and blue fibers (you can see them if you look closely enough).

However, one of the best ways to determine a real bill from a fake one is the simplest: human touch. Because of the characteristics of this closely-guarded paper, a difference can be discerned by the fingertips. Interestingly enough, the best way for one to become skilled at determining counterfeit bills is not by intensive study of the fake money, but by taking every opportunity to handle real currency. When a person knows exactly what the genuine article feels like and looks like, spotting an attempt at deception becomes easier.

The same proves true in matters of spirituality.

There are many voices speaking many things conveniently labeled as “truth,” but not all of these hold up to scrutiny. You can’t believe every person on television who claims to preach the truth, no matter what kind of ratings they might enjoy. Nor should you recommend a particular book simply upon the basis that you found it in a Christian bookstore. And just because a movie mentions God doesn’t make it a religious film. We need discernment.

Hebrews 5:13-14 reads, “For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” We must train and exercise our spiritual sense of “touch” by disciplined application of Scriptural truth so that we can recognize the counterfeits when they arise.

If you want to spot the frauds, spend time with the truth.

DCG

14 January 2008

Fixing Fence

As a child, growing up on a farm, there were plenty of opportunities to fix fence, split wood and find lost cattle. At times the cattle proved too adept at escaping the confines of the fences, so the posts were lengthened and more levels of plank were installed. One day as my father and I worked on the fence, he came alongside me and showed me what he needed me to do. He measured a section of fencepost, then scored it with the point of a 40 penny nail and lifted the heavy end of a plank, pushing it up to the mark on the post. "All I'm asking you to do is hold it to this mark," he said. "After I level out the other end and nail it, I'll come back down here and nail this end."

So I stood there, with my back to his work, staring out into the pasture, holding this plank. The first few moments weren't bad…then time seemed to wear on…and on. I became tired and distracted. Before long, my father was standing beside me looking down at the post.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Wha-?"

"You've let the plank slip." He was right. He lifted it back up and said, "Hold whatcha' got. That's all you have to do for now. I'm going to work on the other end, and then, then I will come back down to this end and we'll nail it up. I haven't forgotten about you. Just hold whatcha' got."

I think about this at times when I'm shouldering a load, a responsibility, a task that God has given me. He places it into my stewardship, and then he seems to take His time working elsewhere. I grow tired, and impatient while I wait on Him…and I slip away from His mark on my post. It's at those times that He draws alongside and says, "I haven't forgotten about you. Hold whatcha' got." I can trust Him in these moments, after all, He did make some promises: "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!" (Ps.27:14), "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." (Gal. 6:9), "For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."( Heb. 13:5b).If the burden is great, "hold whatcha' got" until He lifts it.

Concern yourself with the "mark", the standard, that He has laid out for you. He hasn't forgotten you; He may be working on the other end. He knows what He is doing…and He knows right where you are.

DCG

15 January 2008

Still Standing

When the Spanish conquistadores marched into Peru in the 1500’s, the land was ruled by the Incas. Upon invading, the Spaniards found Incan walls and foundations built of stones fitted together without the benefit of any mortar. Many of these walls still stand today. Some of the stones used in the construction weigh in at over 100 tons and took hours upon hours of painstaking labor to shape using other, smaller “hammer” stones to chip away the excess rock on the faces and to smooth the rough edges of the block so that it would match exactly with the contours of the adjoining block. The stones were fitted so carefully that even now it is impossible to insert a razor blade between many of them.

In 1950, an earthquake shook the mountains of Peru and destroyed or damaged 90 percent of the capital city’s modern buildings. Upon inspection, only a few of the joints in the Incan walls had shifted a small amount, but the walls, undamaged, still stood firm.

I thought about this today when I read Titus 1:1 where Paul writes of the “acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness.” The word Paul uses that is translated as “acknowledgement” doesn’t mean that God’s truth is given a courtesy nod, but it speaks of a precise knowledge and correct understanding of the truth. This understanding in turn accompanies (or “accords with”) godliness or reverence for God.

Our personal beliefs sometimes may fail to match God’s truth precisely. We might adopt and adapt truth to “fit” our scheme of thought, but in reality, when we try that approach, we weaken the entire structure. If we desire our beliefs to stand the shaking and the uncertainty that rises daily against them, we must have a correct and precise knowledge of the truth. Beliefs must be established upon, shaped by, and conformed to an unchanging standard, fitted so carefully that nothing can wedge itself between the belief in the truth and truth itself.

DCG

16 January 2008

Foot In Mouth

“I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.” - Publius, a Greek sage

Have you ever been talking to someone, and you reach that point where an internal monologue begins? Your brain says something like this: “Stop talking already. You’ve said too much. Hello, mouth, are you listening to me?” Yet your tongue keeps galloping along no matter how hard you might tug on the reins. We have all been at that place. Those words spoken without thought (or any words for that matter) can never be called back. And we watch helplessly as they stampede along. If only we could discipline ourselves in the area of speech.

I taught high school for a number of years, and one thing I often asked of students was to think before speaking. Often they did not, but on occasion, they did. One particular student comes to mind. After numerous interruptions, I told him that our first step was to give him the opportunity to remedy the situation. I asked, “What do you think would help?”

“Maybe if I thought before I spoke.”

“How long would you need?”

“How about 5 seconds?”

“Alright, here’s what we’ll do. You have a thought, or a question, and you raise your hand. I will keep teaching until at least 5 seconds have passed. If your hand is still up then, and you have thought about your question or comment for that time, then I’ll call on you. But if I call on you, and your response is one that can be taken as an attempt to be silly or disruptive, we will have to find another way to deal with this.”

That was our guideline. The next day, I reminded him of the agreement. I remember the first time that he “self-governed” himself. His hand shot up, and his mouth opened; I just held up my hand, and then spread my 5 fingers. I kept teaching, and saw his expression change to a brow knitted in thought. He nodded to himself and lowered his hand. I asked him later what he had been on the verge of saying. “Nothing I should have said,” was his response. It’s so simple, think before you speak. I remember reading once that Winston Churchill said of someone, “[He] has the gift of compressing the largest amount of words into the smallest amount of thought.” That’s how many of us can be characterized at times: too many words, not enough thought. Yet the warning in the Bible is clear: “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who is restrains his lips is wise” (Prov. 10:19).

“But,” one might say, “I have so much to say; I couldn’t wait 5 seconds.” If I waited 5 seconds before I spoke, and used those seconds to think. I would have much less to say, and much less to ask forgiveness for.

Would a 5 second-rule be a good idea for your speech?

DCG

17 January 2008

What's In It For Me?

World War II ended many, many years of geographic isolation for some of the inhabitants of certain South Pacific islands. Many of these islands were used by the allied forces as supply depots as planes would drop cargo from the air via parachute or unload the supplies after landing on temporary airstrips. Natives who lived on the islands beheld such wonders as Zippo lighters that produced flames from one’s hand, Jeeps roving over the landscape, power tools and machinery that leveled trees and moved earth, and food eaten from cans. The tribes came up with an interesting, but erroneous, line of thought. The “rituals” performed by the troops (talking into a radio, marching around with guns, having hangers with small planes inside them) would usher in the arrival of larger planes from the gods, laden with “magical” wonders from the modern world. So, when the war ended, “shrines” began to be erected on the islands: bamboo and vine cargo planes inside mock hangers near crudely-constructed landing strips lined with native-built (non-functioning, of course) control towers. Some natives went through “drills” that entailed marching around in ranks with sticks resembling guns and talking on coconut headsets. Objects such as lighters, cameras, pens and any other modern trappings became venerated icons. All the while, they watched the skies, waiting for the gods to smile upon their efforts in replicating the details of the “rituals” and reward them with a low-flying cargo plane heavy with treasures.

Sadly, some missionaries found great difficulty in evangelizing these groups because they weren’t looking for the God, but for what a god could bring to them. Even showing up on the islands with modern items would give the natives great joy because they believed that finally, the second coming of the cargo gods had occurred.

It’s easy to dismiss the “cargo cults” with a chuckle and a shake of the head, but stop and consider the questions and statements that are posed to God today: “What does Jesus have that I need?” “What is in church for me, because I deserve a lot?” “I did my part, now this is what I want to see happen from you God!” Essentially what is being said is this: “God, where’s my cargo?”

Colossians reminds us that “All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (1:16b-17). He created all things for Himself…that includes me. God doesn’t exist for me, I exist for Him. My acts of worship are to be offered to Christ because He alone is worthy of the praise, not because I’m trying to get something out of Him. As one great preacher of old said, “[It’s] not what you can get from Him, but what He will get from you.”

You don’t have to be living in America in the 21st century to be materialistic, and you don’t have to be a native in the South Pacific to have the wrong view of God.

DCG