Time to Grow Up

My wife and I watched a nest of robins on our front porch hatch out and grow up this spring. The baby birds have grown to the size of their parents. The best way to tell them apart is by their behavior. Even though they are the same size, the mature birds set themselves apart from the babies by the way they act.

Just the other day, my wife watched an older bird try to teach one of the young ones to feed itself. The parent had brought a worm, laid it on the ground near the young bird and started pecking at the ground. She obviously wanted her baby to learn how to feed on its own. The young bird, however, just kept yelling for more food, the same way it had done all its life. Finally, the mama bird gave in and put the worm directly in the baby’s mouth, perhaps just to shut it up!

The mama bird can’t take care of her baby’s needs indefinitely. She will have another nest of youngsters to come along, and this one will have to start fending for itself. It’s time for it to grow up.

Some Christians are like the full-sized baby bird. They have been spiritually fed by someone else, and they have not yet learned to feed themselves, even though it is past time for them to do so. Instead of feasting on God’s word on their own, they squawk about how they are not being fed. It’s time for them to grow up.

“Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”—Hebrews 5:13-14.

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Diligent Leadership

Jim Tressel

Jim Tressel has just resigned as head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes football team. The embattled coach has stepped down in the midst of a continuing wave of accusations of NCAA violations and Tressel’s own failure to handle the situation properly.

The author of two books about faith and integrity, Tressel is seen as a hypocrite by some. Supporters still view him as a deeply religious man who has made some serious mistakes.

Tressel has been aware of some of the problems in the football program for quite a while. However, instead of dealing with the trouble head-on, he looked the other way. It seems that he was hoping that the situation would straighten itself out, without his having to intervene. Things rarely work out that way.

I must confess that, as a church leader, I have occasionally tried the same approach as Jim Tressel used—ignore the problem, hoping it will go away. No one enjoys confronting: a divisive elder, a Sunday school teacher who is undermining the authority of the church leaders or a deacon who is teaching false doctrine. The easy way out is to look the other way and hope for the best, but this is a sure prescription for failure.

The wisest action a leader can take is to meet conflict head-on. This is the healthiest way to deal with problems in a sports program, a business, a family or a church.

Romans 12:6-8 says, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is…leadership, let him govern diligently…”

I’m sure that Jim Tressel knows that verse. However, at a critical juncture in his career, he failed to live by its principle. Church leaders would do well to learn from his mistake.  

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Memorial Day Encouragement

The purpose of Memorial Day is to remember those who have passed on. We are especially mindful of those who gave their lives so that we can live in freedom. We also honor family and friends who have died, often by visiting their graves. Some people may be facing a tearful trip to the cemetery. The apostle Paul writes these words of encouragement to those who need hope for the next life.

“Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

These are encouraging words indeed! This Memorial Day, maybe there is someone in your life who needs to be reminded that we know Someone who specializes in empty graves.

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The Real Thing?

A few years ago I had an early morning routine of walking to the nearby convenience store to get a cup of coffee and a newspaper to start my day. One morning, while it was still dark, I saw an unusual sight in the fellowship hall of our church.

Normally, a Coke machine sat in the lobby, next to the outside glass doors. Through another set of glass doors you could enter the fellowship area.

I was surprised to see the Coke machine sitting in the middle of the fellowship hall. However, I quickly concluded that the deacons had moved it for some reason and that they would put it back in due time. Later in the day, I saw that the machine was indeed back in its usual place in the lobby.

A couple of days later, I started off on my early morning walk. Once again it was dark, and once again, I saw the Coke machine sitting out in the fellowship hall! This time I was too curious to pass on by, so I peeked through the glass doors to get a better look. It was only then that I realized that what I had seen was not the Coke machine, but a very vivid reflection. It was so realistic that it had fooled me, not once, but twice!

It occurred to me that this is how we are to reflect the image of Jesus for everyone to see. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

 I suppose our goal is to get someone to mistake us for Jesus. No, really.

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Tragic Deaths

Margo Dydek

Former WNBA player Margo Dydek died at the age of 37 after having suffered a heart attack a week ago. Dydek was the number one pick of the Utah Starzz in 1998. She also played with San Antonio, Connecticut and Los Angeles. The 7-foot-2 Dydek was once considered to be the tallest active women’s basketball player. She held the career record for blocked shots in the WNBA, with 877 in 323 games.

Margo Dydek leaves behind her husband David, and two young sons, David, 3, and Alex, 7 months. She was also in an early stage of pregnancy, and her unborn baby died too.

She was in an early stage of pregnancy, and her unborn baby died. If we accept that as a true statement, you would think it would change some people’s view of abortion. You would think.

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The Rest of the Story

Many Christians know that somewhere in the Bible it says to “Be still, and know that I am God.” We understand from this Scripture the need to get away from the many distractions in life in order to have some quiet time with God. But did you know that this quotation is only part of a verse? The full verse says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10).

The reason for acknowledging God is so that he will be exalted by people all over the earth. Our purpose for turning to him is so that he will be worshiped everywhere. To stop reading in the middle of the verse is to miss the main point. We have to understand that our recognition of God must naturally lead to worship and missions.

So, go ahead and have your regular quiet time with God. Jesus did. Mark 1:35 says, “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.”

However, make sure that you are involved in the rest of the story. Your quiet time with God should only fuel your desire to worship him and to spread his name far and wide so that he will be exalted everywhere.

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Qualifying

Alex Lloyd

Alex Lloyd finished fourth in the Indianapolis 500 last year, but he almost didn’t qualify for this year’s race. With just nine minutes left to qualify last Sunday, Lloyd had still not posted a good enough time to be included in the 2011 Indy 500. He found himself on the outside looking in, and faced the prospect of not being included in the field of racers this year. But he finally qualified, and had this to say about his experience: “Every other race is important, but Indy is what gets me up in the morning. All of a sudden, when you have the realization that we might not make this race, when we crossed the line and I knew I was safe, the feeling was beyond anything I’ve ever felt in my career.”

We can’t possibly qualify for heaven on our own. That’s why Jesus came to earth—to qualify for us—to offer his life in order to redeem our lives. All we have to do to qualify for heaven is accept Jesus as our Savior.

However, God has given us a race to be run. He wants us to live for him for the rest of our lives. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

The feeling we will have when we cross life’s finish line and pass into eternity won’t be like the experience a qualifying Indy car driver has. It will be much better!

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Counting Apples

“Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.”—Mark 4:20.

It’s easy to count the seeds inside an apple. But how many apples do you suppose are in each seed? That’s a more difficult challenge. God only knows how many apples a seed is capable of producing.

The same holds true concerning our work for the Lord. Oh, we can count how many dollars we give to the church or to the poor. We can keep a journal of our prayers. But God only knows just how far-reaching our efforts will be. Only the Lord knows how much influence we will have on others as we continue to allow his word to work through our lives to bless others and to bring God glory.

Keep sowing the seeds, my friends. But we probably shouldn’t bother trying to count the apples.

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Something to Do

Two teenage boys were bored because they couldn’t find anything to do. The smaller one said to his larger friend, “If I were as big and strong as you, I wouldn’t be afraid of anything. I’d go out into those woods and find the biggest bear I could find and I would wrestle him!” His friend replied, “Well, there are a lot of little bears in those woods too!”

You may not be able to do everything, but don’t let that stop you from doing something. God has the right size job waiting just for you.

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”—Ephesians 2:10.

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False Teachers

Harold Camping, an 89-year-old man who is called a Christian evangelist, guarantees that today is Judgment Day. I don’t call him a “Christian” anything because he doesn’t follow Christ; rather, he contradicts the teaching of Christ.

Jesus plainly says about the last day, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:26).

If you still want to call Camping a Christian, go ahead. But I call him a false teacher.

1 Timothy 4:1-2 says, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.”

False teachers are always in the news. From Rob Bell, the preacher who disagrees with what Jesus taught about hell, to the scientist Stephen Hawking, who recently asserted that heaven is a “fairy story”, there are all kinds of people who teach falsehood.

Sometimes we tend to think that false teachers are limited to televangelists who twist the Scripture to acquire a following. When Paul warned Timothy to be on guard against false teachers, he no doubt meant anyone who denied the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Most of the false teachers I have encountered have been ordinary members of the community. Some have been respected members of a local church.  

Watch out for false teachers; the ones you read about in the newspaper and the ones who live down the street from you. They are all dangerous!

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