Day 70

 

Indoor Hunting Season

 

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 

 

1 Peter 5:8

 

I got the phone call. An elderly man my son worked for, mowing his lawn, had a squirrel in his house and wanted someone with a BB gun to dispatch the squirrel. The man had plenty of guns in his home but didn't feel like blowing a hole in his floor with a shot gun so a BB gun was needed.

He wasn't interested in catch and release because multiple squirrels had been in his attic keeping him awake at night. As anyone who has ever had a squirrel problem knows, squirrels are just rats with a bushy tail and good PR. My son and I had been over at his house before, at his request, to try and chase squirrels out of his attic. He wanted to arm us both with shot guns and get the squirrels caught in a cross fire as they exited the attic. I may have been raised in the city and relatively inexperienced at country living but getting squirrels in a cross fire seemed more dangerous to humans than to squirrels. So the plan was altered to my son waiting outside at the squirrels exit point with a shot gun while I chased the squirrels out of the attic. I was smart enough to nix the cross fire idea but must have used up my quota of clear thinking when I willingly participated in the man's idea to chase the squirrels out of the attic. To get the squirrels out of the attic I was to crawl up in the attic and set off some firecrackers. The end result of that was that I had a ringing in my ears for 2 days and no squirrels left the attic.

But now there was a squirrel in the man's bedroom, so Ethan and I loaded up the BB gun to do a little indoor squirrel hunting. I was hoping indoor squirrel hunting season was year round. We arrived to find the squirrel cornered in a corner (where else?) behind a trash can.

My son placed the BB gun as close to the squirrel as possible, perhaps an inch away, and pulled the trigger. It was then we discovered this was no ordinary squirrel but a rare Transylvanian vampire squirrel. One shot at close range just enraged the squirrel. We needed a silver BB or holy water to combat this fiend.

The squirrel raced around the room like it's tail was on fire. It ran between my legs with Ethan shooting BB after BB at it and me dancing like I was in a cartoon western with BBs pinging around my feet. Finally the squirrel ran into the master closet, went up some coats and hid behind a suitcase on a shelf that was about eye level with me. I armed myself with a broom and instructed my son to shoot the squirrel as I moved the suitcase out of the way so he could get a clear shot.

I moved the suit case out of the way with the broom handle and suddenly the little vampire launched himself right at my face. His viscous little claws were outstretched ready to latch on to my face and his little razor sharp vampire teeth poised to sink into my flesh.

My heart stopped beating in fear. A quick move of my head and he flew right past my ear, right over my shoulder and chased my son out of that walk in closet. Once my heart started beating again it was at a highly accelerated rate.

I have never been attacked by a wild (or tame) lion before and I hope that I never will be. A crazed vampire squirrel was enough to scare the patoobies  out of me. Peter says the devil is roaming around like a lion waiting for someone to devour. I, for one, am going to follow Peter's advice and be alert. I'm not sure my heart could take a lion attack.

For the squeamish who may be reading this I will spare you the details of the squirrel's demise. No squirrel was going to make a monkey out of me. We killed him 3 times. With vampire squirrels you err on the side of caution.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 1 Peter 5:8-11

• Peter warns us to be self-controlled. Does losing self-control make you more susceptible to Stan's attacks?
• How are we to resist the devil?
• What happens to us before we are made stronger?

Day 69

 

Reliability

 

Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.

 

Acts 15:37-38

 

I read about a lady in London, England that had a cleaning business. She put an ad in the paper looking for workers and asked that only "hardworking" and reliable people apply. A government agency made her change the ad. The agency said the ad discriminated against those who were unreliable.

When Paul and Barnabas were getting ready for their second missionary journey they had a disagreement over the personnel to go on the trip. Barnabas wanted John Mark to go with them but Paul thought he was unreliable. He thought that because John Mark had quit and gone home during their first missionary trip. The missionary trips were hard and often times dangerous and Paul wanted someone he could count on. So Paul took Silas with him and then added Timothy early on in the trip. Then, right before entering Europe, Paul added another worker as Luke joined them. Silas, Timothy and Luke proved themselves to be very reliable and useful.

Barnabas did take John Mark with him and they went on their own missionary journey to the island of Cyprus. Twelve years after Paul had dismissed John Mark as being unreliable he was once again in Paul's good graces and helping Paul while he was imprisoned in Rome (Colossians 4:10). Five years after that Paul is in Rome, in prison again and writes Timothy, "Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry." (2 Timothy 4:11) Somewhere along the way Mark had figured out how to be reliable.

What about you? Have you figured out how to be reliable and useful for ministry? Can God depend on you?

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Acts 13:13

• Is any indication given of a good reason for John Mark to leave Paul and Barnabas?

Read Philemon 24

• What does Paul call John Mark?

 



 

 

Day 68

 

Prayer and Change

 

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

 

2 Corinthians 12:9

 

 

Ethan bought his first guitar with his own money. He was a freshman in High School and played the trumpet and piano and he wanted to try the guitar.

He had never had a lesson but it became apparent over a short period of time that he was going to be good at it. We had to encourage him to practice the piano or trumpet but we never had to encourage him to play the guitar. We did have to tell him to stop playing sometimes because it was time to go to bed. So, he quickly outgrew his beginner guitar.

He talked to some older, experienced guitar players who told him he needed to buy a Taylor guitar. He found one on e-bay, a pretty nice one that brand new would have cost about $2,000.00, but being used was about half that. He made a lot more money mowing lawns than the $2.50 per lawn that I had made when I was his age but it was still a lot of money for him to come up with. So I told him I would go halves with him. If he wanted a guitar so badly he would have to mow a lot of grass for some folks, save his money and not spend it on other things, and then I would help. And that is what happened.

I think prayer works that way some times. We pray and pray and ask God for things and he is waiting for us to do our part. He wants to do things for us but it might require some change on our part. We may be asking for some help in a relationship or with our kids and God is ready to work on the other person for us but is waiting for us to make the changes we need to make.

Paul had a "thorn in the flesh" that he wanted to be done with. We don't know what it was for certain but that detail is not really important. What is important is that God wanted to do something for Paul that wasn't exactly what Paul wanted. Paul had to come to understand what was required for him to receive what God had planned to give was for him to change his request and accept the limitation of having the thorn. When Paul made his adjustment he was then able to receive the grace and power God had planned to give.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

• Who was the author of Paul's thorn in the flesh?
• What was God using the thorn in the flesh for in Paul's life?
• How did Paul become comfortable with having this weakness?

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?