In 1974 our family moved to Los Angeles where I went to work for a very innovative Christian ministry called World Literature Crusade. WLC is now called Every Home for Christ (www.ehc.org) and is headed by my long-time friend Dick Eastman. In 1974, WLC was a leader in utilizing secular television to spread the vision of world missions and to raise prayer and financial support on secular TV stations using multi-hour specials run in primetime. These were not just simple one-hour TV programs but four- and five-hour mini-telethons. Nobody was doing this in those days except us and we presented the multi-hour specials in every single TV market in the U.S and Canada.
It was exhilarating to go to a city like New York and go on WOR Channel 9 on a Tuesday evening and be “live in New York” from 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM. It was thrilling to take 8,000 pledges and raise nearly seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars for missions in one evening. What a rush— it was unbelievable!
In 1975, I was part of a three-man team that was preparing for the New York TV special and the three of us would also be the “on air” hosts of the program. About a week before the special, we were at the Channel 9 offices meeting with station staff about the production of the program. I was fascinated with the conversation of the station personnel as they talked about the block of religious programming that was on the station on Sunday mornings in what they referred to as the “Sunday morning ghetto.”
I had never before heard that kind of terminology used when referring to the Sunday morning church programs. In those days there were programs like Rex Humbard, Robert Schuller and a very few others. In my world, the ghetto was “the slums” where alcoholics or drug addicts or people down on their luck lived. But in the world of television, the ghetto meant that it was a select time for “an isolated group.” I came to realize that the word ghetto is not a bad word but, rather, a defining word. The definition of the word means an isolated group; it refers to a section of society or of a city where the members of a minority group live because of social, legal or economic pressure. Television professionals were referring to the fact that most of religious television does not appeal to the masses but only to the pro-Christian crowd.
Thirty years later Christian television has found its home on cable and satellite; it is still “in the ghetto” and speaks primarily to ghetto dwellers. If Christian TV had the impact that they talk about on their telethons, then America might not be sliding unchecked into secularism, and church attendance might not be declining. The impact of Christian TV is an illusion and many of the wealth and prosperity messengers who make it their home are simply playing with the bling of the ghetto.
But lest you think that all I want to do is beat up on Christian TV, I don’t, because the fact is, I don’t watch Christian TV, well almost never. The ghetto mindset of Christian TV is simply a symptom of a larger problem within the evangelical world. This problem is that the majority of evangelical churches are stuck within the confines of their safe haven world. They have no plans and no vision to reach the lost of their cities, let alone the world. Most evangelical churches are not growing and if they are, it is from “transfer” growth (which is not real growth at all).
I recently did an outreach program for a Southern Baptist church in Oklahoma. The senior pastor there told me there were 180 SBC churches in their area and through a denominational survey they had found that of those 180 churches, only a handful were actually growing. Most were stagnant or declining in attendance and of the few that were growing, only one church (out of 180) was growing by using outreach methods. The other few that were growing were doing so through transfers from other churches.
When the church stays locked in its little world, fooling itself into thinking that it’s growing by taking people from other churches and when the church has no evangelism programs and is developing no plans for them, then we can safely assume that the church is locked into a “ghetto mindset.” Another definition of the “ghetto mindset” is “an impoverished mindset defined by conspicuous consumption and irresponsibility.” That definitely fits most of Christian TV and large segments of the church, as well.
God gave the church its marching orders in Acts 1:8 (ye shall be witnesses to me). The early church in Jerusalem, however, was locked into a “ghetto mindset” and the early believers were content to sit in Jerusalem and get blessed. God would not allow that and sent them a thorn in their sitting down side; that thorn was named Saul and his weapon of choice was persecution. The hammer of persecution fell on the church and the scattering began (see Acts 8:1).
We still live under the same marching orders and if we don’t take steps to break the ghetto dweller mindset that exists in today’s church, then God Himself will take up the issue with us. God may very well allow the hammer of persecution to fall on the church again.
Acts 1:8 says it begins first in our city and county, and then in our country before we make the leap to other nations. All the short-term missions trips in the world do not release us from our orders, “And you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Today’s church is hardly being a witness in Jerusalem or in Judea. It is content to send a pittance to support missions that go the end of the earth and then they want to argue about being “locked in a ghetto mindset.” It’s time to break free!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
PROTECTION WHEN YOU NEED IT MOST
I was on my way home from the Dallas Fort Worth Airport on Highway 121 when I happened to glance in the rear view mirror and was stunned at what I saw. No, it was not the flashing lights of a police car—I was not speeding. What I saw in my mirror was a cut-down golf cart about to pass me going at least 70 miles per hour! I was driving a sedate 60 miles per hour.
The golf cart sped by me and the driver was laughing and seemed to really be enjoying himself. This is the first time I have been passed on the freeway by a golf cart so let me try and describe what I saw. The cart had been modified so that it was basically a cut-down metal box, with two front seats and an engine in the back. There was no top on the box, no roll bar, no seat belts, a very small windshield, and the driver was not wearing a helmet. The ugly green box had the small wheels that you normally associate with a golf cart, not the larger size that are on off-road vehicles.
I watched the cart go by me and then take the exit ramp onto Interstate 35 and that was the last I saw of it. The “thing” that went by me was unlicensed. Why is that no surprise?
I drove on home and my mind was full of questions. Some of the questions have obvious answers and some will go unanswered because I doubt that I will ever meet the driver of the cart. Why do people consciously put themselves in situations where the chance of survival is minimal if an accident happens? Why do so many of us feel that we are immune to the really big problems of life? Why do we, when we know better, chafe at doing what we know is the right thing?
Jesus addresses this problem in His followers, in the parable of the wise and foolish builders.
“I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete" (Luke 6:47-49).
Here’s the picture. There are two men in identical situations. They both are listening to the words of the Lord and they get the same set of instructions. They both strike out attempting to get to the same place of completion/fulfillment in life. They both build buildings, face the same stresses and strains of life, and yet have very dissimilar results. One of the men had his life collapse around him; everything was a loss, complete destruction! The other man went through exactly the same adversity and life struck at him just as hard, but he survived it all; his life did not collapse, and he finished just fine. This man had a level of protection that the first man did not. How could this be and how can we lay hold of this?
Let’s see what Jesus said about this. Jesus said that the survivor, before he built his building, first “dug down deep and laid the foundation on a rock.” The survivor dug through the sand and the debris and got to the bedrock. The second man decided to build without all that effort; most likely he got his shovel out, pushed the sand around, leveled the ground and removed any obvious imperfections like rocks, stumps and ugly things sticking out of the ground. He knew this was not the way to build but he did it anyway.
The survivor did not try to build his future on the sands of his past but on the Rock. The second man attempted to build his future on the sand and debris of his past life. When the storm struck, the cosmetic Christian did not survive; his quick-fix, look-good-now approach did not provide him any lasting protection; he was anchored to nothing but sand. The man who “dug down deep” and put in a foundation was buffeted and beat on by the same storm and came through it all because he was anchored to what really held him securely.
I am not talking about doctrine here. I really don’t think it matters all that much what you believe about the end times, about the gifts of the Spirit, about Calvinism or twenty-one other debatable “hot button” issues. I am talking about the foundational issue of having a solid relationship with God through His Son. I am talking about having a relationship with God that is not cosmetic but is real and vibrant because you have talked with Him today and He has talked with you. Now that’s a firm foundation and the rest is just interesting trivia. I’m saying that a solid relationship has to come first and then you can add in the trivia.
If we “dig down” and lay that foundation of a relationship with Jesus, when the heat is on and the going gets tough we will have the protection we need. Jesus guarantees it!
The golf cart sped by me and the driver was laughing and seemed to really be enjoying himself. This is the first time I have been passed on the freeway by a golf cart so let me try and describe what I saw. The cart had been modified so that it was basically a cut-down metal box, with two front seats and an engine in the back. There was no top on the box, no roll bar, no seat belts, a very small windshield, and the driver was not wearing a helmet. The ugly green box had the small wheels that you normally associate with a golf cart, not the larger size that are on off-road vehicles.
I watched the cart go by me and then take the exit ramp onto Interstate 35 and that was the last I saw of it. The “thing” that went by me was unlicensed. Why is that no surprise?
I drove on home and my mind was full of questions. Some of the questions have obvious answers and some will go unanswered because I doubt that I will ever meet the driver of the cart. Why do people consciously put themselves in situations where the chance of survival is minimal if an accident happens? Why do so many of us feel that we are immune to the really big problems of life? Why do we, when we know better, chafe at doing what we know is the right thing?
Jesus addresses this problem in His followers, in the parable of the wise and foolish builders.
“I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete" (Luke 6:47-49).
Here’s the picture. There are two men in identical situations. They both are listening to the words of the Lord and they get the same set of instructions. They both strike out attempting to get to the same place of completion/fulfillment in life. They both build buildings, face the same stresses and strains of life, and yet have very dissimilar results. One of the men had his life collapse around him; everything was a loss, complete destruction! The other man went through exactly the same adversity and life struck at him just as hard, but he survived it all; his life did not collapse, and he finished just fine. This man had a level of protection that the first man did not. How could this be and how can we lay hold of this?
Let’s see what Jesus said about this. Jesus said that the survivor, before he built his building, first “dug down deep and laid the foundation on a rock.” The survivor dug through the sand and the debris and got to the bedrock. The second man decided to build without all that effort; most likely he got his shovel out, pushed the sand around, leveled the ground and removed any obvious imperfections like rocks, stumps and ugly things sticking out of the ground. He knew this was not the way to build but he did it anyway.
The survivor did not try to build his future on the sands of his past but on the Rock. The second man attempted to build his future on the sand and debris of his past life. When the storm struck, the cosmetic Christian did not survive; his quick-fix, look-good-now approach did not provide him any lasting protection; he was anchored to nothing but sand. The man who “dug down deep” and put in a foundation was buffeted and beat on by the same storm and came through it all because he was anchored to what really held him securely.
I am not talking about doctrine here. I really don’t think it matters all that much what you believe about the end times, about the gifts of the Spirit, about Calvinism or twenty-one other debatable “hot button” issues. I am talking about the foundational issue of having a solid relationship with God through His Son. I am talking about having a relationship with God that is not cosmetic but is real and vibrant because you have talked with Him today and He has talked with you. Now that’s a firm foundation and the rest is just interesting trivia. I’m saying that a solid relationship has to come first and then you can add in the trivia.
If we “dig down” and lay that foundation of a relationship with Jesus, when the heat is on and the going gets tough we will have the protection we need. Jesus guarantees it!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
THE LORD RIDES ON A SWIFT CLOUD
“Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, and will come into Egypt” (Isaiah 19:1, NKJV).
There is something incredibly majestic in this imagery and at the same time it is somewhat foreboding. It is captivating, to me, to think of the Lord riding a cloud for transportation. Yes, I know it is symbolic but it is powerful imagery. First we are given the artistic beauty of Jehovah riding a swift cloud and then immediately comes the ominous, categorical phrase, “and will come into Egypt.”
I believe the picture of the Jehovah riding a swift cloud is symbolic of His sovereignty. He is the Lord of all the heavens and all the earth (Joshua 2:11). The word “swift” represents the decisiveness with which God works when the “fullness of time” has come.
Many scholars consider Isaiah 19 the most important prophesy in all of Scripture regarding God’s dealing with Egypt; if it is not at the top of the list, it is certainly very close. God dealt harshly with Egypt, as they had held the Jewish nation in bondage and oppression for 400 years. In the Old Testament, Egypt represents oppression and bondage. In the New Testament era, Egypt is often used to represent our life before we came to know Christ; i.e., we were being held captive by sin.
So then, how do we view a verse like this? Is it just a beautiful literary statement, simply a prophetic statement that scholars tell us has been historically fulfilled, or does it have practical implications for us today? I think all three are accurate but what presses me the most is to understand what it means to me, how it impacts my life today.
This verse gives us another distinctive picture of the heart and character of God. If you read my material at all, you know that frequently I come back to the theme of “getting to know God.” This is a lifelong pursuit and cannot be captured in a paragraph, a book or, for that matter, the whole of the New York Public Library (50,828,473 volumes at last count). It is a subject as big and as diverse as God Himself and certainly will not be exhausted in our lifetime.
In this brief article we will consider just two aspects of this verse and how they apply to us; first, we will look at timing and second, what the phrase “will come to Egypt” has to do with us.
The verse says that God rides on a swift cloud and we have begun to understand that this shows us that when God acts, He does so with quickness. In the natural, it becomes an easy jump for us to think that when we pray within the will of God, for things that we know God has promised us (because Scripture says so), God has to act immediately. When we pray with that expectation and God does not act according to the time table we have created, our human tendency is to react with anxiety, fear or frustration—or we think somehow we have blown it. Hold steady, because this is not necessarily the case. God will answer and He will act but He is not bound by our sense of timing, not now, not ever! Timing is always a struggle for us and never a struggle for Him. The Bible speaks of the “fullness of time.” In essence, what this is speaking of is this: When the timing is right according to God’s agenda and calendar, He will act, He will answer, and do so quickly! To try and pull God into acting on our time schedule is to attempt to reduce God to being, thinking, and acting like us and that is simply wrong! When we pray according to His will and there is no immediate answer, the issue for us is trust. Do we trust that in the fullness of time the answer will arrive? Do we trust Him…period?
What possible relevance could the phrase “will come to Egypt” have to do with us? It is, I believe, God’s statement that He wants to get all the residue of Egypt out of our lives. It is hilarious to watch a video clip of the old Steve Martin routine, “Walk Like an Egyptian.” It is a great comedy routine but it is not funny when we are in bondage and under oppression to the old way of life, to the Egypt of our past. “Will come to Egypt” sounds ominous but really, it is not. God will send the Holy Spirit to convict us of living that is “Egyptian” and below where a child of God should be. He will use His Word to illuminate areas of Egyptian life that are wrong for one of His children to be involved in. These are the actions of a shepherd who cares for his sheep and only wants the best for them, the actions of a father who loves his children even when they act like prodigals. When God came to Egypt, during the time of Moses, He provided a "way of deliverance" for His people. He will do no less for us to get rid of the residue of Egypt!
There is something incredibly majestic in this imagery and at the same time it is somewhat foreboding. It is captivating, to me, to think of the Lord riding a cloud for transportation. Yes, I know it is symbolic but it is powerful imagery. First we are given the artistic beauty of Jehovah riding a swift cloud and then immediately comes the ominous, categorical phrase, “and will come into Egypt.”
I believe the picture of the Jehovah riding a swift cloud is symbolic of His sovereignty. He is the Lord of all the heavens and all the earth (Joshua 2:11). The word “swift” represents the decisiveness with which God works when the “fullness of time” has come.
Many scholars consider Isaiah 19 the most important prophesy in all of Scripture regarding God’s dealing with Egypt; if it is not at the top of the list, it is certainly very close. God dealt harshly with Egypt, as they had held the Jewish nation in bondage and oppression for 400 years. In the Old Testament, Egypt represents oppression and bondage. In the New Testament era, Egypt is often used to represent our life before we came to know Christ; i.e., we were being held captive by sin.
So then, how do we view a verse like this? Is it just a beautiful literary statement, simply a prophetic statement that scholars tell us has been historically fulfilled, or does it have practical implications for us today? I think all three are accurate but what presses me the most is to understand what it means to me, how it impacts my life today.
This verse gives us another distinctive picture of the heart and character of God. If you read my material at all, you know that frequently I come back to the theme of “getting to know God.” This is a lifelong pursuit and cannot be captured in a paragraph, a book or, for that matter, the whole of the New York Public Library (50,828,473 volumes at last count). It is a subject as big and as diverse as God Himself and certainly will not be exhausted in our lifetime.
In this brief article we will consider just two aspects of this verse and how they apply to us; first, we will look at timing and second, what the phrase “will come to Egypt” has to do with us.
The verse says that God rides on a swift cloud and we have begun to understand that this shows us that when God acts, He does so with quickness. In the natural, it becomes an easy jump for us to think that when we pray within the will of God, for things that we know God has promised us (because Scripture says so), God has to act immediately. When we pray with that expectation and God does not act according to the time table we have created, our human tendency is to react with anxiety, fear or frustration—or we think somehow we have blown it. Hold steady, because this is not necessarily the case. God will answer and He will act but He is not bound by our sense of timing, not now, not ever! Timing is always a struggle for us and never a struggle for Him. The Bible speaks of the “fullness of time.” In essence, what this is speaking of is this: When the timing is right according to God’s agenda and calendar, He will act, He will answer, and do so quickly! To try and pull God into acting on our time schedule is to attempt to reduce God to being, thinking, and acting like us and that is simply wrong! When we pray according to His will and there is no immediate answer, the issue for us is trust. Do we trust that in the fullness of time the answer will arrive? Do we trust Him…period?
What possible relevance could the phrase “will come to Egypt” have to do with us? It is, I believe, God’s statement that He wants to get all the residue of Egypt out of our lives. It is hilarious to watch a video clip of the old Steve Martin routine, “Walk Like an Egyptian.” It is a great comedy routine but it is not funny when we are in bondage and under oppression to the old way of life, to the Egypt of our past. “Will come to Egypt” sounds ominous but really, it is not. God will send the Holy Spirit to convict us of living that is “Egyptian” and below where a child of God should be. He will use His Word to illuminate areas of Egyptian life that are wrong for one of His children to be involved in. These are the actions of a shepherd who cares for his sheep and only wants the best for them, the actions of a father who loves his children even when they act like prodigals. When God came to Egypt, during the time of Moses, He provided a "way of deliverance" for His people. He will do no less for us to get rid of the residue of Egypt!
Saturday, February 9, 2008
A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY!
Since 1966 I have been a man without a country!
I came to the United States to attend college in 1963 and I met Carol, my future wife on campus. We married in 1965 and in 1966 I received my permanent resident visa to live and work in the U.S. I have actually not lived in Canada since I left home to attend college.
I kept my Canadian citizenship because during the 70’s and 80’s it was easier to travel internationally on a Canadian passport than it was on an American passport. This was the era of “the ugly American.”
During the 90’s and up until last year I simply did what comes so easily to me, I procrastinated. In my heart I knew I was not going to return to Canada to live but when it came to going through the process of becoming an American citizen, well, I just put it off. “I’ll do that tomorrow,” I told myself, and as a song so appropriately says, “Tomorrow never comes!”
For the last couple of years I have watched the rise and fall of the tide of concern about the porous borders of the United States. Sentiment toward immigrants, both legal and illegal, has taken some strange turns. When I was granted permanent entrance into the U.S. in 1966, there was no such thing as a quota from Canada. If you could qualify, you were granted a visa. Today that’s not true; there is a much narrower window through which people can apply. I predict that as the border and illegal immigration issue continues to heat up, and it will, so will the matter of legal immigration and who qualifies and who doesn’t. I believe that along with the heated rhetoric about illegal immigrants will come attempts to have some legal immigrants removed. Legal immigrants who have resident alien visas do not have the same protection or rights as citizens. I predict that some right-wing nut cases will try to find ways to remove whole segments of legal immigrants from the U.S. Just a thought…and worth watching!
I applied for my citizenship in July of 2007 and the process sailed through like the proverbial hot knife through butter. It was not a painful process at all, at least for me! I was notified that I would have my final interview on Tuesday morning, January 22, 2008. As I sat with the INS agent and provided the final documents and answered basic civics questions, he looked at me, smiled, and said, “We have a swearing-in ceremony at 2:15 this afternoon; would you like to become a citizen at that time?” It took me about one millionth of a second to answer, “Absolutely!”
And so on January 22, 2008, at roughly 2:45 PM, with my wife and daughters at my side, I proudly took the Oath of Allegiance and became a citizen of the United States of America.
I am no longer a man without a country!
I came to the United States to attend college in 1963 and I met Carol, my future wife on campus. We married in 1965 and in 1966 I received my permanent resident visa to live and work in the U.S. I have actually not lived in Canada since I left home to attend college.
I kept my Canadian citizenship because during the 70’s and 80’s it was easier to travel internationally on a Canadian passport than it was on an American passport. This was the era of “the ugly American.”
During the 90’s and up until last year I simply did what comes so easily to me, I procrastinated. In my heart I knew I was not going to return to Canada to live but when it came to going through the process of becoming an American citizen, well, I just put it off. “I’ll do that tomorrow,” I told myself, and as a song so appropriately says, “Tomorrow never comes!”
For the last couple of years I have watched the rise and fall of the tide of concern about the porous borders of the United States. Sentiment toward immigrants, both legal and illegal, has taken some strange turns. When I was granted permanent entrance into the U.S. in 1966, there was no such thing as a quota from Canada. If you could qualify, you were granted a visa. Today that’s not true; there is a much narrower window through which people can apply. I predict that as the border and illegal immigration issue continues to heat up, and it will, so will the matter of legal immigration and who qualifies and who doesn’t. I believe that along with the heated rhetoric about illegal immigrants will come attempts to have some legal immigrants removed. Legal immigrants who have resident alien visas do not have the same protection or rights as citizens. I predict that some right-wing nut cases will try to find ways to remove whole segments of legal immigrants from the U.S. Just a thought…and worth watching!
I applied for my citizenship in July of 2007 and the process sailed through like the proverbial hot knife through butter. It was not a painful process at all, at least for me! I was notified that I would have my final interview on Tuesday morning, January 22, 2008. As I sat with the INS agent and provided the final documents and answered basic civics questions, he looked at me, smiled, and said, “We have a swearing-in ceremony at 2:15 this afternoon; would you like to become a citizen at that time?” It took me about one millionth of a second to answer, “Absolutely!”
And so on January 22, 2008, at roughly 2:45 PM, with my wife and daughters at my side, I proudly took the Oath of Allegiance and became a citizen of the United States of America.
I am no longer a man without a country!
For all these years I looked like an American, I spoke like an American (I dropped the very Canadian verbal punctuation of “Eh” a long time ago), and my family is as American as apple pie. But I was not an American. I became a citizen when I met the requirements and went through the Oath of Allegiance ceremony.
It is sad to realize how many people attend church today but are not citizens of the Kingdom; they have not gone through the Oath of Allegiance ceremony. They look like Christians, they talk like Christians, and they largely live like Christians, but they have never asked for citizenship. “I’ll deal with that tomorrow,” they think. Sadly, they are people without a country.
I know that the story of my journey to citizenship is not a perfect analogy of the spiritual condition of many in the church today. There are many people, however, who plan to give their lives to God—someday—and become citizens of the Kingdom. Many procrastinate by saying that this is just not the most convenient time. Let me say it plainly for any of you who might think like that: A more convenient time very likely will never come. You have no guarantee of being alive tomorrow!
When Nicodemus came to Jesus in John 3, he was a leading ruler of the Pharisees. He approached Jesus secretly at night and acknowledged that he knew that Jesus was a teacher sent by God. He further recognized that the miracles Jesus performed were a clear sign that God was with him” (see John 3:1-2).
I think Jesus knew that Nicodemus was putting off making a commitment. Nicodemus had made a move toward Jesus but like so many, he was pulling up short of taking the “Oath of Allegiance.” So Jesus cut right to the chase and nailed Nicodemus with, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
Our citizenship in God’s Kingdom is established when we receive Jesus Christ, by faith, into our hearts as our Lord and Savior. It is like taking an Oath of Allegiance.
This is no time to be a man or woman without a country! Now is the hour; now is the time; there will never be a better time than right now to become a citizen of the Kingdom.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
THE FLOOR ATTACKED ME!
When we lived in Los Angeles, our family attended The Church on the Way in Van Nuys. In those days there were four services on Sunday mornings and we attended the second one, which began at 8:30. After the service we would often go for breakfast/brunch with our longtime friends Dick and Dee Eastman and their girls.
One Sunday, as we were waiting for a table at the restaurant, the children were playing outside. Our daughter Leslie didn’t see the splinter on the redwood handrail until it was too late. The splinter went through the outer portion of her palm and came out the other side of her hand. We rushed her down the street a few blocks to the emergency room where the doctor assured us that everything would be fine and Mom and Dad could stop worrying.
As the doctor was numbing my daughter’s hand with novocaine, one of the nurses sagely suggested that perhaps it would be best for me to wait in the hallway. They were going to perform minor surgery on Leslie’s hand to make sure they got all the redwood splinters out. Tough guy that I am (in my dreams) I told the nurse that I was fine and I wanted to stay with my daughter.
The moment I saw the doctor begin to cut on my daughter’s hand, I had second thoughts and realized that the nurse had given me a word of wisdom. I walked out into the hallway where Carol and our daughter Barb were and suddenly I was attacked by the floor. The next thing I knew, I was flat on my back on a gurney and a very pretty blond nurse was looking down at me. She grinned and said, “How come it’s always the big guys who faint?”
Thirty years later, I’m still trying to figure that one out and Dr. Phil hasn’t helped at all. Now that I’ve told you about one of my recurring nightmares (pretty nurses making fun of me, not the splinter in my daughter’s hand), let me share a verse of Scripture that has challenged and strengthened me for years. Proverbs 24:10: “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.”
Let’s dissect this Scripture.
The word “faint” means to become so disheartened over something—some act, some event—so discouraged that you just give up and walk away.
We think we understand the word “day.” Yes, it does refer to the 24-hour time period that we know as a day. However, as it is used here, the word is referring to that portion of the day when the temperature, the heat of the day, reaches its hottest point. The most likely point of failure is when the heat of adversity is at its peak.
The word “strength” is referring to the ability to get things done, to stay in the fight until the battle is over.
The word “small” as it is used here means that you have overestimated your strength and it is not what you think it is. There is just the hint here of a prideful, haughty, pretentious attitude. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).
So the New International Revised Patterson Amplification of this verse would go like this: “If you fade when the going gets hot, you never did have the strength you thought you had. Let it be a lesson to you so that you can grow in God and not make that mistake again.”
Adversity is the testing ground of faith. It is in times of stress and challenge that we find out just how mature we are in our faith. This verse is meant to help us have a clear view about ourselves.
We don’t have faith by simply saying we have faith. We have faith by embracing our life in Christ, declaring that we are His and then relying on Him as we live out our lives in the real world. For some of us it will be the faith to believe that our family will not be dysfunctional the way our parents were. For others it will be the faith to be a success in business and a good witness for Christ at the same time. For some it will be the faith to hang in there when your marriage hits a rough patch. For others it will involve “faith ventures” of taking Christ’s message of love and salvation to people that have not yet heard His name.
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:14-17 NIV).
One Sunday, as we were waiting for a table at the restaurant, the children were playing outside. Our daughter Leslie didn’t see the splinter on the redwood handrail until it was too late. The splinter went through the outer portion of her palm and came out the other side of her hand. We rushed her down the street a few blocks to the emergency room where the doctor assured us that everything would be fine and Mom and Dad could stop worrying.
As the doctor was numbing my daughter’s hand with novocaine, one of the nurses sagely suggested that perhaps it would be best for me to wait in the hallway. They were going to perform minor surgery on Leslie’s hand to make sure they got all the redwood splinters out. Tough guy that I am (in my dreams) I told the nurse that I was fine and I wanted to stay with my daughter.
The moment I saw the doctor begin to cut on my daughter’s hand, I had second thoughts and realized that the nurse had given me a word of wisdom. I walked out into the hallway where Carol and our daughter Barb were and suddenly I was attacked by the floor. The next thing I knew, I was flat on my back on a gurney and a very pretty blond nurse was looking down at me. She grinned and said, “How come it’s always the big guys who faint?”
Thirty years later, I’m still trying to figure that one out and Dr. Phil hasn’t helped at all. Now that I’ve told you about one of my recurring nightmares (pretty nurses making fun of me, not the splinter in my daughter’s hand), let me share a verse of Scripture that has challenged and strengthened me for years. Proverbs 24:10: “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.”
Let’s dissect this Scripture.
The word “faint” means to become so disheartened over something—some act, some event—so discouraged that you just give up and walk away.
We think we understand the word “day.” Yes, it does refer to the 24-hour time period that we know as a day. However, as it is used here, the word is referring to that portion of the day when the temperature, the heat of the day, reaches its hottest point. The most likely point of failure is when the heat of adversity is at its peak.
The word “strength” is referring to the ability to get things done, to stay in the fight until the battle is over.
The word “small” as it is used here means that you have overestimated your strength and it is not what you think it is. There is just the hint here of a prideful, haughty, pretentious attitude. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).
So the New International Revised Patterson Amplification of this verse would go like this: “If you fade when the going gets hot, you never did have the strength you thought you had. Let it be a lesson to you so that you can grow in God and not make that mistake again.”
Adversity is the testing ground of faith. It is in times of stress and challenge that we find out just how mature we are in our faith. This verse is meant to help us have a clear view about ourselves.
We don’t have faith by simply saying we have faith. We have faith by embracing our life in Christ, declaring that we are His and then relying on Him as we live out our lives in the real world. For some of us it will be the faith to believe that our family will not be dysfunctional the way our parents were. For others it will be the faith to be a success in business and a good witness for Christ at the same time. For some it will be the faith to hang in there when your marriage hits a rough patch. For others it will involve “faith ventures” of taking Christ’s message of love and salvation to people that have not yet heard His name.
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:14-17 NIV).
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