The Mike Vick Article

Everyone has weighed in on it and given their opinion. Now it’s my turn. What am I talking about? The Michael Vick case, of course. I am extremely conflicted.

First, what he did is horribly cruel and depicts a heart that is hardened beyond what I am able to fathom. Some have rationalized it by comparing it to hunting and fishing or even to compare it to slaying animals for food. But to me either is comparing apples and oranges . . . or should I say hot dogs and filet mignon. (Sorry, had to do it). Some have tried to minimalize it by pointing to worse things going on in the world like abject poverty, AIDS, and abortion. They say well, at least he wasn’t involved in any of that . . . he didn’t kill a person.

But a heart that would be so cruel as to find enjoyment and entertainment in bloodsport is a dangerous heart. Michael Vick is a millionaire many times over. He did not get involved in dog fighting to make money; to him it was entertainment. But what happens when the thrill is gone from dog fighting? What would he have done for kicks when he got bored with this “enterprise”? I shudder to think to what depths he would have to plunge to find his thrills.

Now, faced with the prospect of prison time and the monumental task of rebuilding a career and life, Michael tells us “I have found Jesus, and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God." Herein is why I am conflicted. I used to be the eternal optimist, but years of being a pastor and hearing sob stories and unfulfilled promises of “turning over a new leaf” have changed me into the master skeptic. I used to be more like Pollyanna, now I am Eeyore.

I love a good redemption story. The Christian in me loves to see lives turned around by Jesus, and I am excited about the prospect of a new Michael Vick. I want to believe him, I really, really do. I hope and pray he is sincere and I intend to fully give him the benefit of the doubt until he shows me otherwise.

But Eeyore keeps rearing his pessimistic head and I realize this could be a ploy to get a reduction in prison time or public sympathy and popularity. If so, he has taken the Lord’s name in vain in the worst way and he faces a much more egregious charge before a much more holy Judge than with his current legal battle.

But this story has reminded me of a somber truth: Michael Vick is no more evil than me . . . or you for that matter. You see, we are all evil. Maybe my evil has manifested itself in a much more socially acceptable way than did his, but as God’s Word says “there is none righteous, no, not one.” Not even me. My heart is wicked.

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? Jeremiah 17:9

I need to remember that I stand daily in need of God’s grace. I am, on my own, rotten to the core, and but for the grace of God and the blood of Jesus Christ, totally worthless. So with that in mind I am doing two things. First I am clinging ever closer to the grace of God. I am thankful for it. I cannot boast of anything good in me. All the credit goes to Him.

But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

– Galatians 6:14

Secondly, I am making a conscious effort to be more gracious. I want to be careful to extend grace to others because I am aware now more than ever how important God’s grace is. I am making a choice to give MV7 – and others – the benefit of the doubt. He and I are more alike than he knows and than I care to admit. I wish our similarities were in athletic ability but unfortunately for me they are not. Our similarities are in depravity. I hope and pray he is right when he said he has trusted Jesus.

He is redeemable. He has to be. Because if he is not, I am not. And neither are you.

Sweaty and Petty

“Don’t sweat the petty stuff and don’t pet the sweaty stuff.”

I like that saying . . . I try to make it one of the guiding ideals of my life, but I am not always successful. But what a liberating thought. The rub comes in learning what things are petty and sweaty!

This is a Biblical concept by the way.

“…that you may be able to discern what is best…” – Philippians 1:10

We can get really busy doing stuff that seems urgent but is not really important. As a matter of fact the most important things in life never scream for our attention, but instead quietly and patiently wait for our attention. How can we discern those things that matter most? Here is a short list of qualifications I try to use to help me stay on track.

1. Earthly vs. eternal. Take a look at your calendar. What/who occupies most of your time? Is it really important? Fifteen, twenty years from now, will it really make any difference? The most important things in our life are those things that have eternal consequences – things that will matter far beyond our tenure on earth.

2. Ritual vs. relationship. Some of the things we do, we do just because we do them. Make sense? We can easily get distracted doing things that have no real value; they produce no real fruit in our lives. Yet we continue to do them for fear that they will not be done if we don’t. No one else will. Or maybe we continue to do them because we are “supposed to” do them – according to someone else. But what really matters are those things we do that nurture the important relationships in our lives: God, family, friends. We were created human BEINGS not human DOINGS and we are hard wired to relate to others.

3. Comfort vs. growth. Sometimes we busy ourselves with things merely because they are familiar and we fear getting out of our comfort zone. We are creatures of habit and we find comfort in routine. But any routine can easily become a rut. Our faith grows only when it is challenged. Only when we venture out of our comfort zone do we experience God fresh and new. Real growth occurs only in freshly plowed ground.

So what are you fretting, sweating, and petting? As you take an inventory of your life, ask God to help you honestly assess the things you do and to have His wisdom to bring the truly important and best things to the fore-front. It will take courage to jettison some of the familiar things of life, but to exchange the life-draining petty things of life with things that matter for all of eternity frees us up to grow more than we could ever imagine.

Some Assembly Required

“When all else fails . . . read the instructions.”

Good advice. Not often heeded, but good advice nonetheless.

Have you ever noticed how difficult those instructions are to figure out? “Place tab A in slot 3 then turn six times clockwise with special tightening tool included in parts kit. (See figure 2)” Of course you have to have Superman X-Ray vision to be able to see and make sense of figure 2.

It usually takes a man about 6 hours to assemble something. The first two hours are spent using testosterone laced male ingenuity and know-how to attempt to assemble the product. The next 3 hours are spent unassembling the mess made by testosterone laced male ingenuity and know-how. Then about 45 minutes are necessary to find, unfold, and decode the assembly instructions. The next 5 minutes are spent easily assembling the project, and the final 10 minutes are spent gloating about how good men are at putting things together and how lost our wives would be without us.

Things seem to go better when we follow the instructions. As does life! Consider what David said about his life:

“… All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” – Psalm 139:16

From this we learn that God has mapped out the ideal day for every day of our lives. Of course we do not always choose to live our days as God would have us to live them, nevertheless, He has ordained a path that will lead us to know His blessing. Yet, we try to “assemble” a day – and a life – for ourselves based on our own ingenuity and know-how. The results are similar to the typical assembly effort described above.

I guess we get too confident in our own abilities, resources, and wisdom and we set out to create the best life we possibly can for ourselves. Some do quite well for themselves, others are not as resourceful, but ALL come up miserably short of what God will do for us if we follow His plan. His directions for life lead us down a straight path toward experiencing the “life to the full” that Jesus told us He came to bring us (John 10:10).

His instructions are found in God’s Word. In the Bible we have “everything that pertains to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3-4). A daily diet of Bible reading and regular exercise of practicing what we learn in that reading will assemble a successful and blessed and life. Just as short cuts do not work when assembling the things we buy from the store, so also our own understanding is insufficient to put together the pieces of our lives in the beautiful and blessed way that God has designed.

Take some time to get God’s perspective on your life. He has a book on you and your life. When you consult Him you gain the benefit of having the one who prepared your blessings lead you into a life that enjoys those blessings.

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. – Joshua 1:8

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6

Worse than cussin'?

The third commandment says, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.” (Exodus 20:7)

When I was growing up that commandment was always presented to us as a warning that we weren’t supposed to “cuss.” Any foul language that included God or Jesus was considered the foulest of foul. While I still abhor “cussin’,” I think we miss out completely on the meaning and seriousness of this commandment when it becomes only a prohibition against using God’s name in the same phrase as a curse.

You see, a person’s name is a label that represents the person – their character, reputation, value. To misuse someone’s name is to misrepresent who they are. As kids we understood certain words were “fighting words.” We always made sure we defended the honor of our family members – especially the females in the family. You could talk all the trash you wanted to about a guy, but when you insulted his sister or momma you better be prepared to fight.

To take God’s name in vain – or as the NIV translates it to misuse the name of the Lord – is to misrepresent who God is. That is why it is so much more than just adding God’s name to the front of an expletive. It is highly possible that you or I could take God’s name in vain yet never utter a word, much less a word that we would be ashamed of if our mothers heard us speak it.

We misuse God’s name when we have such flippant attitudes about our relationship with God. To call ourselves Christian but let other things come before Him in our lives is to take His name in vain. To carry the name of Christ but give Him less than preeminence in our lives is to treat Him as only one of many common things in our lives. It is to ignore His rightful place of holiness.

To treat His church as an optional facet of life is to take His name in vain. The church is the Bride of Christ. He views the church as special . . . can we have any lower view of the church than that without casting dispersion on the character of the Groom?

To live our lives by our own rules and not allow Him to order our steps is to misuse His name. Jesus asked, “Why do you call me Lord and not do the things I tell you?” Good question. We throw the name around these days with little regard to how special is the One whom the name represents. To be born again by the blood of Christ yet continue to live like those who have not is to show a total disrespect for the price His paid for our salvation.

So you see, there is something worse than cussin’; it is a casual attitude toward ANYTHING that belongs to God – His church, His role in our lives, His Word, and even His salvation.

I challenge you to recapture the notion of God’s holiness. Recognize that anyone or anything that has been stamped with His name carries high value and should not be taken lightly or for granted. Bow before Him today and worship Him in the splendor of His holiness. Oh, and while you are at it . . . watch the potty mouth too.

FOR DISCUSSION: What are some other “non-verbal” ways that people misuse the name of the Lord? I look forward to your comments.

What's In Your Wallet?

Capital One has become famous for the phrase “what’s in your wallet” as they advertise for their credit card service. Looking in my wallet one would see various insurance cards, fishing license, driver’s license, various retail and grocery “membership” cards, but very little money. As a matter of fact with the advent of the ATM card, I have quit carrying much cash at all. Plastic has become the new “currency” in today’s financial world.

But there is a currency more valuable and precious than U.S. legal tender. This currency is in limited supply, in fact when it comes to this currency, everyone is on a fixed income. The currency I am talking about is TIME. A popular phrase in the business world is “time is money.” But the older I get the more I realize that time is much more precious than money.

There are two options all of us have when it comes to money – we can spend it or invest it. When we spend it, we trade the money for something that is used, enjoyed, or experienced then it is gone – with nothing but memories left to show for it. When money is invested, it grows. Invested money makes more money. A good example of investing money is a house. When you buy a house, live in it, then decide to sell it, you hope to be able to sell it for more than you paid for it. (And hopefully for more than the mortgage.)

We have the same two options with our time – it can be spent (wasted) on things that are of fleeting importance, value, or impact OR it can be invested in relationships and activities whose results carry over into eternity. Consider the words of Paul:

Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk — not as unwise people but as wise — making the most of the time, because the days are evil. – Ephesians 5:15-16

Think about the outcome of the things on which you spend your time. Will those things really matter a year from now, five years, ten years, or more importantly in eternity? Do we trade in the hours and minutes of our day on self-serving pursuits or do we invest our time in others, enhancing their lives?

There are two different ways the word “time” is used in the New Testament. One way is to refer to the sequence of time or the measurement of time. The Greek word for this is chronos from which is derived the Engish word chronology. That is not the word used for time here in Ephesians; that word is kairos which refers to a particular point in time – an opportunity.

The wise investor of time is the man or woman who keeps their eyes open for promising TIME investment opportunities. Those little “interruptions” in our daily schedules just may be God providing us with an eternal time investment possibility. We make the best investment of time when we invest in the lives of others and build God’s Kingdom. The question is not “what’s in your wallet” but rather “what’s in your schedule.”

What Am I Dispensing?

I hate it when that happens! I went to a convenience store to get a Diet Coke® fountain drink. I filled my cup with ice, put it under the Diet Coke® nozzle and filled my drink. After paying, getting back in the car and heading down the road, I took my first sip and discovered it. Apparently the nozzle on the Diet Coke® dispenser had been used for something else and my Diet Coke® had the faint taste of another drink – I think it was strawberry.

OK, I know I am being bit petty with all this fuzz over a soft drink, and you can call me picky if you want, but I want my Diet Coke® to taste like Diet Coke®. Diet Coke® is supposed to come from the Diet Coke® dispenser, not Strawberry Soda.

A similar problem plagues many Christians too. The same mouth that dispenses “Oh, how I love Jesus” during the Sunday morning song service also at other times during the week criticizes others who have been created in the same image of Christ. The same tongue that gushes forth the sweet elixir of eloquent prayer or praise can also spew out the bitter venom of negativity and criticism. How can the same mouth produce such contradictory results?

“…but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” James 3:8-10

Can I encourage you to please take inventory of WHAT you say and HOW you say the things you say? Without even thinking about it we can tear down rather than build up. Let me challenge you to make an intentional effort to always effuse grace and edification rather than judgmentalism and criticism. We must be careful that even our most casual comments build up others and not tear them down. Find nice things to say about others and refuse to find pleasure in spreading negativity.

Additionally, make sure you notice those who spew negativity and avoid them. Don’t get caught up with their bitterness, it could end up biting you. Encourage the naysayers to change their ways . . . or at least change their audience. REFUSE to listen to their negativity. I can guarantee it will have a negative effect on you.

I drink diet sodas because I have too, but if I had my druthers I would imbibe the sugary sweet nectar of an ice cold Coca-Cola®. Let’s do all we can to make sure the words that come out of our mouths are sweet and positive contributing to the encouragement of others rather than piling on discouragement. I am sure we can ALL use a generous dose of AFFIRMATION.

Does the Preacher Make You Yawn?

I read an interesting article the other day that said the average person’s breathing is so shallow and rapid that most of us only use about 60% of our lung capacity. That means that we are 40% deficient on our potential oxygen intake. No wonder so many are tired, run down, and irritable all the time! I also heard a long time ago that a yawn is actually the brain’s response to low oxygen. So, see, it is not the preacher’s fault when you yawn. Blame it on your own suffocating cerebrum.

I have often equated prayer with breathing – prayer is our spiritual respiration. And just as most people go through their day oxygen depleted, so also way too many exist from day to day extremely prayer depleted. The estimated 60% lung capacity is probably higher than the actual prayer capacity of most people.

Why don’t we pray more? Too busy? Too tired? Too blessed? While we would never admit it, the real reason we don’t pray as we should is because we don’t think it is important. “Now, Jim,” you say, “that is just not true. Of course we believe prayer is important.” You do? Then I ask again why aren’t you doing it? We consider eating important . . . and we do it – abundantly. We deem work important . . . so we go – everyday. We find a way to do EVERYTHING that we consider important, so apparently we don’t think prayer is all that important.

Consider this commentary on Jesus’ prayer life:

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed. – Mark 1:35

This observation of Jesus’ prayer habit comes smack dab in the middle of a very, very busy set of days and events. Yet, Jesus took a time-out to make sure to “BREATH.” From His example let’s learn a few things.

First, prayer is most effective at an APPOINTED TIME. Jesus got up before dawn for His prayer time. Reading through the Gospels one can see that was a habit for Jesus – He did it quite often. For most of us if we don’t schedule time to pray then we won’t get around to it. Early in the morning gave Jesus time to focus on His Father and His mission before people and circumstances began demanding His attention. Prayer was a priority on His schedule. So whether it is early, late, or mid-day, carve out time to pray. Make it a matter of priority on your schedule, even if it means getting out of bed a little earlier or staying up a little longer.

Second, prayer is most effective in a PARTICULAR PLACE. Jesus got out of the house to pray. He needed to get away from distractions and trappings that would have hindered His ability to pray. Likewise, we have so many things around our houses and offices that make prayer even more difficult than it is – computers, newspapers, people, TVs, phones. The list goes on. Find a place where you can escape as many distractions as possible and make that your “prayer closet.” It could be your car, a park, maybe even an actual closet.

Finally, prayer is most effective with a SPECIFIC PLAN. Let me just recommend a few “tricks of the trade” that I have used to help me.

Begin by reading (not singing) aloud the words to a hymn. Singing it makes you concentrate on the sound, reading it forces your attention to the words and the message. Reading it aloud causes you to engage the eyes AND ears which gives you a better chance at getting the message.

After a hymn, try reading aloud from Psalms or some other passage of praise in the Bible. Allow your mind to turn away from you, your needs, and yes, even your LIST, and allow it to turn toward God, His character, His ways, and His purposes.

As you prepare to talk to God, have a list of what you want to pray. This will help keep you from rambling and keep you focused. While you want to be open to the Holy Spirit to lead you to pray in other ways than you have listed, your list will at least serve to get you started and keep you focused.

Again, let me suggest that you pray out loud. This serves 2 purposes. First of all, if you are uncomfortable praying in public, then this practice will get you used to hearing your voice and may help you overcome any anxiety about publicly talking to God.

Pray scripture. Find some Bible passages that you want God to bring about in your life or in someone else’s life and make them personal in prayer. Since God’s Word is His revealed will, you know that when you are praying His Word you are praying in His will – a necessary condition to answered prayer.

Oh, and one other thing . . . shut up and listen. I wonder how many times I have spent time praying, talking to God about things, asking Him for stuff, and then said “Amen,” got up, and went on my merry way before giving Him a chance to answer me. Silence before God is more than golden . . . it is priceless. In keeping with the breathing analogy, talking to God is exhaling, but silently listening for His voice is inhaling.

So, how is your breathing? Are you ready for some breathing exercises? Breath deeply in prayer and watch how energized your spiritual life becomes. You may even stop yawning at my sermons. NAH!

Spiritually Eating

Nutritionists tell us that there are three building blocks in every healthy diet – proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. In fact, everything we eat falls into one of those categories. Each of those components have more or less healthy choices within them, but a healthy diet is well balanced among the three.

Likewise, I believe there are three building blocks to a healthy spiritual life as well. Availing ourselves to healthy doses of these building blocks allows God to build us up and strengthen us for life’s journey.

The “protein” of our spiritual life is the Word of God. Romans 10:17 teaches us that our faith grows stronger through exposure to God’s Word. As we read, learn, and apply God’s Word to our lives, we are encouraged, equipped, and enabled to handle all that life may throw at us. How muscular is your spiritual life? Are you making sure you are getting adequate “spiritual protein” from God’s Word? I want to encourage you both to read and study your Bible every day and to get involved with a Bible study group. You can bulk up your faith by feeding on the Word. No steroids needed!

The “carbohydrates” of our spiritual life is worship. Nutritionally carbohydrates are the foods that give us energy. Some carbs are bad for us, like sugars, because they provide an immediate energy rush, but then leave us feeling drained and sapped for energy a short time later. Good carbs are slowly digested and release energy to our bodies over a longer more sustained period of time. Worship does for our spirit what carbs do for our bodies. Worship lifts us, energizes us, gives us motivation to continue serving God. I encourage you to spend some time each day, maybe even several times a day, focusing on God, taking the time to praise Him for Who He is and thank Him for all He does. Scriptural praise song, hymns, poems all help focus our attention on God and give us that sustained energy boost to get through the day.

The “fat” of our spiritual life is fellowship. Fats have been unfairly given a bad reputation. There are some bad fats, like saturated fat and trans-fats, but good fats are necessary to help our digestion, to lubricate our body, and to give our appetites a feeling of satisfaction. Good fats also help rid our bodies of toxins that could actually hinder healthy heart function. Fellowship does the same for us spiritually. True Christian fellowship is more than getting together for a pot-luck, playing some games, and having fun. True fellowship involves mutual accountability and encouragement, sharing of joys and difficulties of life, and a common sacrifice of each other’s own needs to help meet the needs of others. We were created to need this type of bond in our lives, and without it, our spiritual lives remain hungry, often looking to unhealthy means to try and satisfy that longing.

So how is your spiritual diet? Are you “heart healthy”?

Keeping Score

I used to love to “keep score” at baseball games. Scoring is a lost art anymore. I loved keeping track of how many pitches the pitcher had thrown, how many were strikes, how many balls. I loved creating box scores from my score sheet. Every now and then when I watch a game on TV, I will print out a sheet and keep score just for old times’ sake.

Keeping up with statistics is a staple of sports mania. And there are a wealth of new statistics that have come to prominence over the last several years. It used to be all one wanted to know about his or her favorite hitter was batting average and RBI. Now we want to know batting average with runners in scoring position, on base percentage, slugging percentage, and my personal favorite – OPS which is the combination of on base percentage and slugging percentage.

Stats are the way we track the game in all sports. A quarterback’s rating is a snapshot of his passing efficiency and ability to move the offense. A point guard’s assist total indicate how unselfish he is and how he moved the offense along for his team. In hockey the +/- gives the fan an idea of what happens on the ice when a particular player is out there.

And in church we keep stats. We keep up with attendance, donations, salvations and baptisms, membership numbers. Church stats are much like team stats in sports. They are an indication of how well we are working together to accomplish our goals. But what if the church kept individual stats? For instance, a strikeouts could be the number of people who doze off during a sermon. A Sunday School Teacher’s Batting Average could be the number of students present in class on a given Sunday divided by the number of students on roll for that class. A Deacon’s Slugging Percentage could be the number of families present on a given Sunday divided by the number of families assigned to his ministry.

Thankfully there is a statistic that God doesn’t keep – He doesn’t keep track of sins once He has forgiven them. Read what David had to say in Psalm 130:2-3:

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.

Powerful words. When God forgives, He forgets. I am so thankful for that. I am also thankful for Psalm 103:12:

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Thank God today for His available forgiveness and take a stab at forgiving yourself. Under the blood of Jesus Christ any and every sin confessed is forgiven. I cannot sin so much or so big that God cannot and will not forgive me.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9