The Point of No Return

“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)

We are “on final approach” for getting our Day Care venture started here at Crest Bible Church. It has always been my goal to have a ministry to impact young families and children during the most critical time of their lives called the “formative years” of ages 2-5. It is a lot of work, but well worth the effort when you consider what can be accomplished in little lives.

Any business venture requires a start-up period where you are investing time and money but getting nothing in return. This is no different. We went into this with a budget and a plan that included a time period where we knew nothing would happen on the positive side of the ledger. Now that we are firmly into it, it is getting a little scary. As anyone who has done things like this knows, a construction project or a business plan always takes longer and costs more than you planned, even with the best projections and planning you can do. We are now sitting at the place we would call “the point of no return”. We are too far in to quit, but not yet in business. Pilots know what this point is like. As the airplane is taking off, there reaches a point on the runway where it is too late to hit the brakes. There is not enough runway to stop, but the plane is not yet off the ground. You just have to close your eyes, put the hammer down, and trust your equipment and the laws of aerodynamics to get you in the air.

The concept of “living by faith” includes hitting this point on a regular basis. God often wants us out on the end of the limb, while he is sitting back at the trunk with a saw in his hand and a grin on his face. In a life of faith, we are to trust our equipment (the Bible), and know that God’s laws will always work to get us off the ground. This is the life God designed man to live. Adam had it, but he blew it by eating of the forbidden fruit and plunging his children into a fallen state. But man can still walk with God even in his fallen state. Noah and Enoch both did. David was the man after God’s own heart. Abraham was called the friend of God. All of these men did this in their fallen state. What is even more significant is that they did it in the Old Testament, without a completed Bible, without the perfect sacrifice for their sins, and without an indwelling Holy Spirit to guide them. Surely, if these men could do that, why can’t we?

We have a number of new Christians in our midst at Crest Bible Church. When you first start out on your new journey in Christ, there is an ideal in mind of what the Christian life might offer. No matter what you thought, the process always takes longer and costs more than you think. I have been at this non-stop for nearly 33 years – as long as Jesus lived on this earth. I am scratching the surface. The costs incurred for walking with Christ have been far more severe than I could have ever imagined at the outset. If I had known half of what I would go through it would have scared me off. But I can assuredly affirm with a full resounding certainty that it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. It has been worth it in this life. Despite the costs, and regardless of how much time and effort I have had to put in, the journey of the last 33 years has been awesome. I wouldn’t mind another 33, and it would not ruin any plans I have if Jesus returned to take us all home 33 minutes from now.

Regardless of the costs, keep the hammer down. God said he would never leave us or forsake us in Hebrews 13:5. You can walk with God, even in the flesh, and even though you will still sin. The old gospel hymn says, “His word will not fail you, he promised. Believe him, and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying, his perfect salvation to tell.” That comes from the song, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus.” When you feel like you have reached the point of no return, just remember his promise of eternal life and rewards for service, and keep the hammer down.

Rock and Roll

“I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.” (Psalm 40:1-3)

I like almost any kind of music. We joke at church about my ineptitude in music, but that is just because I can’t carry a tune in a bucket; in fact, I’m not even sure I could carry the bucket even if it was empty. The last musical instrument I tried to play was in grade school. It was a required class. We had to learn to play the “flutophone” – how many of you remember that thing? It was a cheap plastic flute-like gizmo that you blew into and tried to make various musical notes by covering the holes with your fingers. I never could get the hang of that stupid thing, and I really never wanted to, so I never practiced. When it came time for the big class “recital” in front of our parents, I just stood there with the flutophone in the proper position and wiggled my fingers the best I could to try to fake it. I didn’t blow into the thing because I knew I would hit all the wrong notes. The teacher spotted me and could see that my hand movements had absolutely nothing to do with the actual music we were playing. I flunked that part of the course, but hey, at least I didn’t have to actually play a musical instrument.

But my total lack of any musical skill does not extend to the ear. I can enjoy listening to great music even when I can’t participate in it – at least not publicly. Alone in my car with all the windows rolled up tight flying down the freeway at 70 mph is another story. The best part of music is how it affects the heart of man. They call music the “universal language” because of how it moves us and speaks to our core spirit, whether the words are in our native tongue or not. Music is transcendent. It is about so much more than just harmony, melody, and rhythm. There is a spiritual component to music that comes from the original creation. Lucifer was the first music director in the Bible, and history culminates in a “new song” in the hearts of the redeemed as they worship the Lamb at the throne of God (Revelation 5:9).

We humans argue all the time about music styles, especially between generations. My parents thought our music was weird, and I think the same about some of today’s stuff. Music in the church has become one of the biggest battlegrounds of today’s Christianity. Drums and up-tempo contemporary music is the benchmark for whether your church is “legalistic” or “modernistic”, and both camps criticize each other for it. Several places in the Bible, God speaks of us singing a “new song”. That is never a reference to a style of music, but a response of the heart to God’s love and truth. David said in Psalm 40 above that God put a new song in his heart because he had set his feet upon the rock. Throughout the Bible, the rock is Jesus (not Peter). When our lives are anchored in the Lord Jesus Christ, it produces something on the inside. Knowing that Jesus redeemed me from a horrible pit makes my heart soar and burst forth into praise for his grace.

But there is another aspect of the verse I want to point out. The words of the Bible mean things. They are chosen specifically to reveal God’s truth to mankind. It says that the new song in our mouth has a testimony to others. “Many shall see it…” Wait a minute. I thought we heard music. What is this, the first music video in history? No, it is a reference to the transformed life that occurs when we give our lives to Jesus Christ and walk in his grace. Others should be able to see the difference. Paul said we are to reflect the life of Jesus, so that it “might be made manifest in our mortal flesh”. (II Corinthians 4:10-11) One time, some people came up to Philip and said, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” (John 12:21). That is a great request. Lost people don’t need to see us, they need to see Jesus in us. When his grace transforms our hearts, the new song is seen, and our purpose in life is fulfilled to draw others to the Saviour.

The Craziness Continues

“Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” (II Peter 3:13)

I got a notice in the mail the other day about a class action lawsuit that I guess I am a part of. One of the major insurance companies is the defendant. I won’t mention which company, but anyone who has not lived under a rock for the last century would know the name. This illustrates the absolute absurdity this world operates by. Without trying to go into a lot of detail, let me try my best to explain the verdict. Some guy got upset over some added fees the company charged. He thought they were “making too much profit” (an actual quote). So he got a team of buzzards and sued the company on all of our “behalf”. The company claimed it was a legitimate business practice, and it probably was, especially since millions of people paid it without a fuss. The company could have fought it, but rather than spend the money, they agreed to settle out of court. It would be much cheaper than fighting it for years and possibly losing anyway to a sympathetic judge or jury. So they set aside a fund of $455 million dollars. This fund will be distributed to everyone who had policies with this company over a ten year period, based on the premiums they paid. My rebate totals $7.60. Yes, that is right. I get a grand total of 7 bucks. I don’t know how much the idiot who sued gets. Maybe he had a lot more policies with this company, but he can’t be getting any more than $100 at the most. None of the other millions of policy holders will get more than $100 each either. The lawyers in the case get a lump sum settlement of $90 million dollars. You know for a fact that the company will not just lose that $455 million. They will just raise the rates of their millions of customers by a small amount to recover it – let’s say, oh, about $7.60 for me. So all of us will actually pay more for our insurance (and our gasoline and food as other companies pass on their rate hikes) while we get a tiny rebate check in the mail and beat our chests and pride ourselves in “sticking it to the man”. In the meantime, a bunch of lawyers ride off in the sunset with a cool $90 million. Makes us all proud to be an American, huh?

Corporate greed and abuse is very real, and we certainly need to be protected from it. But this is lunacy. If you feel a company is “making too much profit”, buy their stock. Don’t waste the time and energy of the rest of us just so you can make a bunch of lawyers rich at our expense.

The real solution for this insanity – and all other problems of mankind – is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to this earth. Jeremiah says, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.” (Jeremiah 23:5) The world thinks that Bible believers are crazy, then they pull stunts like this. But there is coming a time very soon when God will have had enough of man’s sin, and will pull the plug on society and man’s dominion of the earth. At that time, true justice and judgment will be served. As Peter said above, righteousness will reign in the earth. Greed and fraud will be unknown. Jesus will rule with a rod of iron (Rev 19:15), and show mankind how it is supposed to be done. Until that time comes, just count on abuse, ignorance, greed, oppression, and sin ruling the day.

People see injustice and they try to find answers in lawsuits, causes, and government actions. Real justice is found in Jesus Christ and him alone. Speaking of justice, we all deserve a bed in hell because of our sin. The greatest injustice ever perpetrated in the history of the world took place in a crooked trial in the city of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. A sinless man was arrested out of pure envy, and tried on trumped up charges. He was brutally murdered for no other reason than he loved people, did good, and preached the word of his Father in heaven. His sacrifice paid the debt for my sin, and yours also. Receive him today if you have never done so. If you have, tell others about his love for them. One day soon, he will return to administer true justice.

It Makes No Sense

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts that your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

We are getting closer to being able to open our Pre-School here at Crest Bible Church. As most anyone knows, when you take on a venture like this, there are all sorts of regulations and issues to concern yourself with imposed upon us by our government. Most of it is very understandable, especially when little children are involved. They are helpless and vulnerable, and we have seen far too many instances in the past where tragedies could have been easily prevented with a little common sense and foresight. In the grand scheme of things, it is better to be a little over cautious in safety and security issues than to live in an environment when anything can happen, and often does. The costs and hassles are well worth the effort when little lives are affected.

But some of this stuff is just plain stupid. For example, we are installing a playground area for the children, and we have to put down a 4-6 inch bed of mulch to cushion the blow if one of them happens to fall off of one of the climbing toys. I understand that. The ground is pretty hard, I can attest to that myself. We submitted a sample of the mulch we were going to use. The State of Kansas Health Department said the mulch was “too dirty”. I am not kidding. Mulch is ground up trees. It bio-degrades into dirt. It was ground up sufficiently so that there were not any huge chunks and sticks to give kids splinters, but the dirt was too dirty. And the air is too airy, and the water is too wet. So we have to contract with another supplier who uses only a special type of wood and runs it through a “cleaning” process that drives the price up significantly. When we got into this building at the first, we had to install “occupancy” number signs for each room, mainly for the benefit of the Fire Marshall so they would know about how many people could potentially be in a room in case of fire. We had to add braille to the signs per ADA code. First, if a blind person walks into a room and “reads” in braille that the maximum allowable occupancy is 50, how is he supposed to know if he is the 51st person? He is blind. It is like the sign I saw on a door once, “No pets allowed, except seeing eye dogs.” How is the blind person supposed to read that? Or is the dog supposed to read it? What if the dog reads only Spanish? The other problem with the braille occupancy signs is who they are primarily intended for. The Fire Department needs to have a “head count”. How many blind firemen are there?

All of that type of stuff and more can drive a sane person to drink. This is the world we live in, and they think those of us who believe the Bible are crazy!

But there is a sense in which the same principle holds for the word of God. The regulators think these rules make perfect sense, and since they live in that world all the time, they do – to them. They speak the language. They see things the rest of us don’t. Many of the things that those of us on the “outside” think are goofy probably are not, if we could see it in light of accidents and law suits that have happened in the past. I Corinthians 2:14 says, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.” The reason the world can’t see the truths of the Bible is because they don’t look at it in light of its author. They don’t see it from the vantage point of someone who lives in its pages 24-7. God sees things we don’t see. He communicates to us his word so we can live in his world. His gospel is simple: Jesus died for sinners. His commandments for his children are “not grievous” (I John 5:3). They make perfect sense to those of us who have seen the results of life lived in its pages. I don’t understand the city codes because I don’t make it my life. But life in God’s word is far more important. Codes protect us from accidents. God’s word saves us from hell and gives us an abundant life now. Get in on the “inside” of its pages. Your life will make sense when you do.