Day 67

 

Is There Someone Else Who Could Help?

 

The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, " Didn't I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?"

 

1 Kings 22:18

 

 

"There is a guy down here that wants to talk to the pastor," I was told. So, I hung up the phone, got in my car and went to the Tru-Value hardware store. A guy on a bicycle had showed up there with a flat tire that needed fixed and had requested a pastor. The guys at the hardware store were fixing his bicycle when I got there.

The man with the bike was insisting that they were putting his tire on backwards. He was wrong. I started talking to him and he told me that he had ridden his bike all the way from Montana to Arkansas and was headed for Florida. The guys at the hardware store were fine Christian folks and they were fixing his bicycle for free but the man looked like he could use some help of a different kind. He had a bad cold and I could see a prescription bottle and some medical papers in his jacket pocket. I also suspected that mentally he wasn't operating at full speed.

"You look like you are sick," I told him. "Do you need to see a doctor or need some medication?"

"I ain't crazy," he informed me.

I was thinking, "I know your crazy, I just want to know if you need some medicine for that cold."

He didn't want to see a doctor or get any medicine, what he wanted was for me to get him a motel room. "I can't get you a motel room but the church has a fully furnished mobile home I can put you up in."

"I want a motel room," he insisted.

"Like I told you, we have a nice mobile home. It has everything in it but a phone. We have missionaries that stay in it from time to time so we keep it nice. You are plenty welcome to stay there."

"I don't want a mobile home, I want a motel room!"

"I can't spend money on a motel room when I have a perfectly nice place for you to stay that will not cost the church anything."

While he was distracted talking to me they had finished fixing his bike. He grabbed his bike and pedaled off down the highway.

That was Saturday morning. On Sunday morning a deacon who owned a local restaurant came in laughing and told me, "This guy came in to the restaurant yesterday riding a bicycle and asked me if I would call a pastor in town for him. He wanted any preacher but the Baptist preacher."

The deacon though that was hilarious and so did I. I had to tell him why the guy with the bicycle was looking for any pastor but the Baptist one. I found out he had got in touch with the Presbyterian pastor and got his motel room.

Some people will look for any help they can get except the help that they need. They will try the most idiotic desperate things before they will come to God and admit they are sinners in need of help.

In 1 Kings 22 King Ahab of Israel was looking for some spiritual advice at the request of King Jehoshaphat of Judah. There were false prophets headed up by a guy named Zedekiah that would tell Ahab anything he wanted to hear. There was a real prophet, Micaiah, who would tell him the truth. Who does he listen to? Zedekiah, the false prophet. What happened when he followed the wrong advice? A random arrow hit Ahab right between the plates in his armor and Ahab died.

Sometimes it is painful to be confronted with the truth. Our pride can get in the way of our doing the smart thing and following the counsel of God. In the long run you will find taking the false help the world has to offer will prove disastrous.  

 

Upon Further Review 

 

Read 1 Kings 22:1-37

• Whose idea was it to seek the "counsel of the Lord?"
• What did the 400 prophets say?
• What kind of prophet was Jehoshaphat looking for? (As opposed to the 400 -see v.7)
• Why did Ahab hate Micaiah?
• What did Micaiah finally get around to prophesying?
• What happened to Micaiah when he told the truth?
• Despite his trying to avoid it what happened to Ahab?

Day 66



The Moped

 

The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.

 

Proverbs 27:12

 

 

Ethan was given a moped by his grandparents. It had been sitting in their garage unused for some time and they decided that Ethan was old enough to use it. I took it down to the local hardware store so that they could get it in running condition.

When it was fixed I rode it home. The only way to anywhere in the small town we lived in was on the highway. The speed limit in town was 35 mph, though typically people went faster. The moped would top out at 35 mph on a flat surface but we lived in the hills of Arkansas. I could go as fast as I needed to keep from getting run over if I was going down hill but going up hill it would only go about 5 mph. I quickly decided that it was not safe for Ethan to ride in town even if he was wearing a helmet and body armor.

The street we lived on wasn't long and had a dead end. He could ride the moped on that but it would have been pretty boring after a while. I thought maybe he could use it like a dirt bike and ride it on the trails around our street. (There were only 3 houses on the street the rest was just woods.)

Before I sent him off riding through the woods I though it best for me to test it to see if it was safe for Ethan. I got on the moped and took of on one of the trails.

The trail was kind of rocky and went steeply down hill. The moped, I discovered, had no shocks. It wasn't long before I was going way too fast and was airborne. It was then I made some crucial discoveries:

• Brakes don't work when you are in the air. Not even air brakes.
• Riding on that trail, with that moped, was not safe for me or  Ethan or probable Evil Knevil.
• Preachers may be full of hot air but we do not float and we are still subject to the law of gravity.
• The ground is hard. Very hard. I have the scar to prove it.

I wish I could say that the moped incident was the first time I have done something so goofy. Unfortunately I have years of experience in the goofy department.

Once in my younger years, when I was a recreation director for a camp, the youth minister took the teens to this swimming hole. The big attraction was about a 10 foot waterfall we were told you could jump off of into a pool of water below.

The youth minister told me, "Jess you're the rec guy, jump off that waterfall and see if it is safe."

In a moment of sanity I asked, "And if it isn't?"

"Then we will swim somewhere else," he said.

My moment of sanity had passed because that seemed like a reasonable response. So I jumped off of the waterfall into the water below. (Give me some credit - I didn't dive.) Fortunately it was safe to jump off, though I almost got hypothermia because the water was so cold.

Proverbs 27:12 tells us, "The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it."

I readily admit I have done some simple minded things and suffered a few bruises and cuts from them. How I have escaped without ever breaking a bone is the grace of God. Now that I am older and my athleticism and recuperative powers aren't what they used to be I am much more cautious. To go on putting myself in harm's way trusting God will miraculously bail me out would be more than simple minded. It would be presumptuous and wrong.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Matthew 4:5-7

• What is Jesus tempted by the devil to do?
• Did the devil make it seem like a reasonable thing to do?
• What about the situation did Jesus tell the devil was wrong? 

 

 



 

Day 65

 

A Hope That Does Not Disappoint

 

And hope does  not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

 

Romans 5:5

 

Thad called me one night when I had not heard from him in years. He had been in my youth group in years back and since that time I had moved to a different state to become a pastor. We chatted a while and caught up on each other's life. I though it odd that he would go to some trouble to locate me and call me unless something was up. I waited for him to bring something up but he never did, at least not then.

He called me again the next week and finally got around to the real reason he had called. He was planning to kill himself. I pleaded with him no to do it. I offered to fly him to Arkansas, where I was living, and told him he could stay with us until he could work things out. He refused my offer and wouldn't give me any contact information.

Desperately I called the city on the west coast where he was living and told them the situation but without an address or a phone number (he was using a disposable cell phone when he called me) or even a description of his car there was not much they could do. I called people I knew that might have some information about him but no one knew a thing. Thad's parents were dead and he had been on his own for years and no one could help me.

A week later he called again, this time late at night. Tonight is the night he told me. He asked for my address because he wanted to send me a letter and had some last wishes he wanted taken care of. I pleaded with him not to go through with it. I asked as I had before what was so bad that it would drive him to this but he refused to tell me. When he hung up I called the police in his town again but with no new information there wasn't a lot they could do.

I sat awake in bed that night praying for him. About 1:45 a. m. my phone rang. It was a friend of his in that city who said that Thad had left his place a few minutes before acting strange and had asked him to mail me a package. I told him, "Call the police, tell them what kind of car he is driving and where he lives, he intends to kill himself."

The next call I received came at about 4:00 a. m. and it was the police. They had found Thad and it was too late. I talked to investigators and told them of the package and letter he wanted sent to me and that I thought it might have some information about his remaining family.

A few days later his family was tracked down and the police forwarded the letter to me. I preached his funeral. I read his letter over and over again but never found any reason why he would take his life. It seems that there was something he just didn't want anybody to know about and he had just lost hope.

Unfortunately that is not the only suicide I have had to deal with. There are people who for some reason have lost hope and think that killing themselves solves the problem. It doesn't. It does not solve a thing; it just creates heartache and problems for others. Thinking it solves the problem is like Sherlock Holmes thinking that quitting the case will solve the mystery.

I confess that I don't really understand such a feeling of hopelessness. I understand people have them, it is just foreign to me. I have had some bad things happen in my life but I have never come close to being that hopeless.

How do people get there? I don't know. I do know that there is a way out of hopelessness. In Romans 5 Paul talks of a chain of events that lead to hope. He tells us to "rejoice in our sufferings" because that suffering will "produce perseverance" (Romans 5:3). The perseverance will in turn produce character and the character will produce hope. (Romans 5:4) I guess for some people a link of that chain is broken and their suffering never produces perseverance, at least not the kind that will lead on to hope.

Paul goes on to say that the hope from God will "not disappoint us." It doesn't disappoint us because it is the love of God washing over our hearts in the person of the Holy Spirit.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Habakkuk 3:16-19

• What was Habakkuk feeling and why?
• What is in Habakkuk's lists of things that could possibly go wrong? (v. 17)
• If all the things that could go wrong do go wrong what will Habakkuk do? (v. 19)
• How can Habakkuk do that?

Bonus Material

 

Several times after someone has committed suicide I have been asked if suicide is the unpardonable sin. The idea is that in committing suicide a person's last act is a sinful one so there is no opportunity to repent.

The answer to that is simply no; suicide is not the unpardonable sin. People die all the time, some suddenly and some lingering, where there last act is not confessing their sins. I am sure that heaven has plenty of people in it who were not "fessed up."

If confessing our sins in a timely fashion before we die was what got us into heaven it would be a salvation of works. And we know that salvation is not of works but of grace and faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). We do need to acknowledge or confess to God that we are sinners and this comes as his Spirit convicts us. But anything we do, confessing our sins or noble deeds, is pointless unless we receive the free gift of salvation that comes through Jesus Christ and his death on a cross and his resurrection from the dead. When we place our faith in his grace nothing, not the lack of confession of a particular sin, can prevent us from being saved and joining Christ in heaven.

 

Extra Special Bonus Material

 

So, what is the unpardonable sin? In Matthew 12:32 Jesus tells us, "that anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or the age to come." Speaking against the Holy Spirit or blaspheming the Holy Spirit is the unpardonable sin.

Okay, so what does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Spirit? The key to understanding what Jesus means is in the context. Jesus heals a demon possessed man who was blind and mute. Most people who witnessed this were saying, "Could this be the Son of David?" They witnessed a miracle and saw it as a sign that Jesus was the promised Messiah. The Pharisee's reaction is different. They attribute the healing to Jesus using demonic powers.

It was not the first time they had witnessed Jesus do an astounding miracle. There probably was not anyone who watched Jesus more closely than the Pharisees. They had all the information they needed to know that Jesus was the Son of God. The had seen proof of it over and over again and had to know what Jesus claimed was true. Knowing it was true, being convicted in their hearts it was true, they still rejected Jesus. They even suggested he was from Satan when they knew he was from God.

An important verse is Matthew 12:25 when Matthew tells us, "Jesus knew their thoughts." He knew exactly when they crossed that line of saying, "Yes, I believe what Jesus is saying is true but I choose to reject it." Jesus knew in their hearts they had said, "no" to the convicting power of the Spirit of God. And that is blaspheming or speaking against the Holy Spirit.

Don't miss out on something important here. When Jesus is telling us that there is one sin that cannot be forgiven he is also telling us that all others can be forgiven. Paul persecuted the church, held cloaks while Stephen was stoned to death. He was forgiven. David stole another man's wife and arranged for his death. He was forgiven. And so shall you be if you ask for forgiveness and say yes to his convicting Spirit.

 

* For a more detailed explanation of the unpardonable sin I suggest you read John Macarthur's book The Jesus You Can't Ignore. Chapter 7 of the book explains it well and you will see my explanation is essentially John Macarthur's explanation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 64

 

Counseling

 

All this also comes from the Lord Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom.

 

Isaiah 28:29

 

Several years ago a young man called me on the phone and told me he had a problem he needed help with. I asked him what his problem was. He explained to me that he had been making phone calls to his boss's daughter that were somewhat rude in nature. His boss found out about it and he was warned to quit making the calls. He didn't quit and was fired.

He was a determined, though somewhat deranged, young man so he kept calling. The police had finally shown up at his door and warned him that if he made one more call that he would be arrested and charges filed against him. The problem he wanted help with was, "What do I do now?"

Being a highly trained professional I was able to come up with an insightful and profound reply. "Don't call her," I told him.

He said, "But I want to call her!"

"Fine," I replied, "then go to jail."

"Is that your advice?" he asked.

"That's it," I assured him.

I guess he wanted me to explore his feelings and probe his past like Oprah or Dr. Phil would. I'm a little more direct than that. It is not that I don't care about people's problems it is just that at times I am unsure what to say.

One man confided to me that since his bypass surgery he had lost his sex drive. What do you say when someone tells you that? The best I could come up with was, "Maybe they bypassed the wrong thing."

Okay, perhaps that wasn't the too helpful. It was better than my alternative: "I'm pretty sure you didn't lose it in my office so maybe you should enquire about it somewhere else." It's not like the Southern Baptist Convention sends a case of Viagra to every pastor with instructions to "dispense as needed." I was a little out of my realm of expertise. (If I actually have a realm of expertise).

When people come to me for counseling I do take their problems seriously and try to help as best I can. My advise in most every situation is to turn to the Lord for help. The Bible tells us he is "wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom." That is better credentials than Oprah and Dr. Phil combined.

 

Upon Further Review

 

Read Isaiah 28:23-29

• Did the Israelites really need advice on planting herbs?
• What point is God trying to make when he gives the Israelites those everyday guidelines to planting?
• Is sometimes the best counsel and wisest thing to do the most obvious and simple thing to do?